Tagged: Cervelli,

Spring Opener Phillies 5 Yankees 4

Pretty excited about the “start” of baseball today. The ceremony prior to the game was a nice tribute to the boss. It was great to see the Steinbrenner family celebrate his passion and legacy. The flyover with his grand-daughter finishing the national anthem was awesome.

I was pretty impressed with Bartolo Colon today. With everything he has been through the past few years with bone chip removal from his elbow to the rotator cuff, he looked pretty good. I noticed he reached 94mph at one point on the dial. I know he has a long way to go here in spring training but it was a good start. He has a lot of experience and it showed when he had men on base. It seems his pitches get faster and more aggressive. Although when it appeared Ryan Howard  was taking Colon deep in the first inning I thought, great, here we go. Overall pretty good and anticipating his progress in the next couple of weeks.

I know the talk around camp has been the weight Joba Chamberlain has put on but he looks more muscular than fat to me. So when he came in today he was probably most impressive. His command was strong and it was a one two three inning. The past couple of years have been hard for me to trust Joba when he takes the ball but I am hoping he finds his way in the bullpen this year and has a great 2011. His interviews all this week have really shown he is ready to do this and mentally he seems he is approaching this year with a mission. Lets hope he can bring back that fire from the Joba rules era.

Did anyone see that breaking ball Robertson threw? Sick!

Was that shot Vasquez hit over centerfield rediculous or what? Never have seen a shot like that in Steinbrenner field.

Maybe Girardi’s decision to keep Teixeira in the game much longer than the usual two at bat for starters was to try and do something different so perhaps his infamous slow start in April wont occur this year, we’ll see. Nice shot off the wall in his triple.

Andruw Jones? Still too early to see what he is capable of contributing to our squad. It is a feel good story if he can make an impact.

And lastly I really feel Cervelli is a better catcher than Russel Martin. I have watched a lot of Russel Martin games the past couple of years and he has been a complete fluke the past couple of years. He goes through a lot of slumps and with his injury I dont see him winning this position over Cervelli. I like Cervelli and he is cluth. He gets out in front of the plate, He is aggressive and he has that fire. It will be interesting to see what happens this year behind the plate.