THE YANKEES SIGNED A CATCHER NOW...

So, reading YESNetwork.com's Lou DiPietro earlier today I noticed that the Yankees signed a cather. It's Jose Gil and it's to a minor league deal.  According to Lou (HERE):

"... Yankees have signed catcher Jose Gil to a Minor League deal and he will report to Double-A Trenton, according to Chris Cotillo of MLBTradeRumors.com.

Gil, 26, was in the Yankees organization from 2006-2012, playing 535 games – including 189 in Trenton from 2009-12 – and hitting .237 overall. He began 2013 in the Orioles organization, but was released in May and had last been playing with the Lincoln Saltdogs of the independent American Association."

So yeah, Gil's back.  Great. But look, that's not the interesting part to me, I mean minor league players come and go to bolster roster of to fill holes as we move forward.  No, the most interesting part is DiPietro went with the MLBTradeRumors source rather than the Yankees, even though YES is under the same umbrella. I mean, doe anyone else think that's incredibly odd?

Now, let me state here that I have nothing bad to say about DiPietro, he's top notch, but it just goes to show what the power of blogs, or in this case, MLBTradeRumors now has in the mainstream.  Good for us.

Oh, and welcome back to the Yankees Jose Gil.

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WHY THE YANKEES WON, BUT LOSE PINEDA TO DL

Today was an 8 inning game because of rain... that being said, the Yankees won beating the Astros and Raul Ibanez was apart of it. I kid you not! Both Robinson Cano and Ibanez hit 2 run homers today, but it didn't end there... One of my favorites, Dante Bichette Jr homered and I could not be happier for this kid. We interviewed Bichette in EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: DANTE BICHETTE JR and since then, we realized just how special this kid is. We here at Bleeding Yankee Blue are big fans and want the best for Dante, he's the future and I can't wait. But back to today, even Jose Gil homered today. Gotta love it.

Adam Warren pitched today and gave up 6 runs in 5 2/3 innings. Warren is one of the guys that has a good shot at getting a spot in the Yankees pen. I guess we'll have to see if that actually happens, but for the most part, I love what I see from Warren this spring and me personally...I'm pulling for him. Read more about the Yankees game HERE.
In other news, Michael Pineda was put on the DL because of tendinitis and will start the season there. Read HERE. I noticed that the Seattle Times today had a comments section, all of them talking about Michael Pineda. For the most part, this Pineda story is national, but mostly affecting Seattle and New York. One of the comments took a shot at Bleeding Yankee Blue (Read the forum HERE) because we wrote a piece titled THE LEMON? The comment read like this:

"Yankee nation will come down hard on him and Cashman. Here is a blog where they call him "The Lemon". OUCH!"

I found it weird because if they took the time to read the story, or follow Bleeding Yankee Blue, they'd know I still am a huge supporter of the trade for Michael Pineda because I know how important he will be to the Yankees organization over time. We asked the question THE LEMON? because many on Twitter last night were blasting Pineda. I was asking, is he, meaning, do you readers think he is? BYB doesn't for the record. And we also made it clear last night that no one should blame Brian Cashman, we wrote "All Michael Pineda wanted to do was pitch well and pitch hard to be chosen for the 5th spot of the rotation. Sure, if he felt pain before he went out there, he should have said something, but I don't see how that's Cashman's fault."

For Pineda, right now this is just a bump in the road, he'll learn from this and will grow to be a dominant pitcher for the New York Yankees, just as Jesus Montero will be great for the Mariners. I just wanted to point that out to you. I found it interesting.

Anyway... the Yankees win, I love it.

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WHY IT'S A MEANINGLESS SPRING LOSS FOR THE YANKEES

The Yankees played a rare spring night game last night against the Baltimore Orioles and fell 6-3, read HERE. Ivan Nova got the start for the Yanks, his fourth this spring, and he struggled pretty badly in his first two innings of work, but settled down during his final two innings of work.

In total, Nova went 4 innings, allowing five runs on seven hits and two homers. He also struck out four and didn’t walk a batter. Something Nova can hold onto, though, is that he allowed all five of his runs in the first two innings, and he settled down the final two. Hey, if you have a rough outing, it’s always nice to look at something positive.
One thing that could potentially be worse than a loss was Robinson Cano having to leave the game after getting hit by a pitch on the hand. X-Rays were negative and Joe Girardi said "He's fine". At least we can breathe a sigh of relief to that. Losing Cano for an extended period of time is the last thing the Yankees need, and it’s a good thing the injury isn’t serious. Cano went 0-for-3 last night and is now hitting .185 this spring.

Anyway, the Yanks didn’t come up with much offense tonight, as they scored just three runs. All three runs were driven by Justin Maxwell, Jose Gil, and DeWayne Wise. But at least we got to see a glimpse of the future. Top outfield prospect Mason Williams made an appearance last night as he subbed Brett Gardner in center field. He originally pinch-ran for Mark Teixeira and got caught stealing on a close play at second base. In his lone at bat Williams dunked a single to left field on the first pitch he saw. I don’t know if he saved the ball or not, but it was good to see the kid get a hit in his first game.

No big deal, it's a spring loss, it would have felt worse if Cano were really hurt, think about it.

Yankees have a rare night off tonight before hosting the Pittsburgh Pirates at GMS on Tuesday at 7 EST. The game can be seen on YES, MLB Network—which is on a delay—and MLB.tv.




--Jesse Schindler, BYB Lead Staff Writer
Follow me on Twitter @SchindlerJesse



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WHY THE BILL HALL TRAIN'S ROLLING & PINEDA LOOKS GOOD

The Yankees won today and it had everything to do with the Bill Hall audition. Hall signed a minor league deal with the Yankees and has played hard to be noticed among a group of superstars. It was my feeling just a few short days ago that the way Bill Hall is playing is significant in the decision making when cuts come for the Yankees. I want Bill Hall to make the pro team. I like his bat, I like his ability and I love his guts. He’s played hard everywhere he’s been throughout his career and he’s the perfect piece for the Yankees bench. Read WHY I LIKE WHAT I SEE FROM BILL HALL.

That being said, let's get to today’s Spring Training game, a game the Yankees won over the Nationals 8-5. Read the story HERE. Highlights included Michael Pineda pitching 3 and 2/3 innings and striking out 4. Pineda no doubt did not think about media reports that he’ll start in the minors… that speculation about him gets us nowhere right now… let’s give it a week or 2 before we start having that discussion, right? Read Marchand HERE.

Chien-Ming Wang pitched for the Nationals and it was good to see him but this poor guy cannot get a break. He was fielding a Russell Martin ground ball running toward first and fell down and apparently is now hurt. What a shame. Later on, John Lannan was in for the Nationals and the Yankees scored 4 runs off of him.

There were hits from Justin Maxwell, JR Murphy Jose Gil and Bill Hall who drove in 2. Look, I’m not saying Bill Hall’s a superstar, I’m just telling you he needs to be strongly considered…that’s it.

Fun game today…more to come. Look for it here. Also, if we haven’t reminded you enough, let’s remind you again, you can buy Bleeding Yankee Blue T-Shirts by going to the home page of our website and clicking on the Buy Now button right under the picture of Mikey’s Dad. It’s a fun shirt and I know you want one.

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