ST Game 13: Blue Jays at Yankees

The Yankees are taking on the Blue Jays in Tampa at 1:15. Andy Pettitte gets the start for the first time this spring, and the game is not on television.

New York Yankees
Brett Gardner CF
Melky Cabrera LF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Jorge Posada DH
Nick Swisher RF
Jose Molina C
Angel Berroa 2B
Justin Leone 3B
Ramiro Pena SS

Andy Pettitte LHP, followed by Ian Kennedy, Dan Giese, David Robertson, Jose Veras and Jonathan Albaladejo

Peter Abraham is reporting the Yankees have made some roster moves. Andrew Brackman was optioned to Class-A Charleston, while J.B. Cox, George Kontos and Kanekoa Texeira were reassigned to the minor-league camp.

Yankees win 12-3

A.J. Burnett, Phil Hughes and Angel Berroa stole the show Sunday afternoon against the Tigers. The two pitchers combined for five scoreless innings, and Berroa drove in four runs in the Yankees' 12-3 victory.

Burnett needed just 18 pitches to get through his two innings, and Hughes followed with three no-hit innings, striking out four and walking two.

Berroa went 2-for-3 with a double, home run and four RBI. Cody Ransom, on the day it was announced that Alex Rodriguez would have surgery, went 2-for-2 with a double and two runs scored. The Yankees drew 10 walks as a team, with Nick Swisher drawing three of them. Xavier Nady added a solo home run in the fifth inning.

Brian Bruney and Andrew Brackman gave up the Tigers' three runs. Bruney allowed a two-run home run to Will Rhymes.

The Yankees return to Tampa tomorrow to face the Blue Jays at 1:15 p.m. Andy Pettitte will start.

Yankees lose 3-2

Time to panic! The Yankees are now 2-4-1 in spring training thus far.

Ian Kennedy went three innings, allowing two earned runs on three hits, one walk and no strikeouts. Dan Giese also pitched three innings, struck out three, walked one and gave up one earned run. Andrew Brackman and Mark Melancon pitched one scoreless inning apiece in relief.

Offensively, the Yankees were offensive. They only scattered five hits (one of them off the bat of Giese) and plated two runs. Johnny Damon had an RBI single and Juan Miranda's sixth-inning groundout also scored one.

The Yankees will play Team Canada tomorrow afternoon in Tampa at 1:15 p.m. Joba Chamberlain will start this untelevised game.

Yankees lose 5-4

The Yankees' bullpen gave up four runs over the final three innings, blowing a 3-1 lead, to fall to the Twins 5-4 in Fort Myers.

Ian Kennedy gave up one hit over two innings, striking out three and walking one. Brett Gardner (CF), Nick Swisher (1B) and Jorge Posada (DH) each had two hits - Gardner hit a double. Justin Leone also added a home run.

Andrew Brackman gave up a home run to Jason Kubel in the sixth inning.

The Yankees will face the Twins tomorrow in Tampa. The game is set to begin at 1:15 p.m. and it will be broadcast on YES and WCBS-AM 880.

Keith Law's top 100 prospects

Keith Law posted his top 100 prospects on ESPN today. Although we can only see Nos. 1-25 for free (I know I'm not subscribing to Insider), River Ave. Blues posted the Yankees who made the list, so thanks to them.

Austin Jackson (No. 46), Jesus Montero (No. 83) and Andrew Brackman (No. 95) were the Yankees named. Dellin Betances was one of the 10 prospects who narrowly missed the top 100.

Orioles' catcher Matt Wieters came in at No. 1.

Brackman punk'd

Last year's first round draft pick Andrew Brackman isn't getting any breaks because he's recovering from Tommy John surgery. Some Yankee veterans are hitting him hard when it comes to pranks.

He walked to his locker yesterday morning to find that all of his sliders, his baseball underwear, had been slit down the middle.

Brackman's Yankees cap suffered a similar fate. Brackman tossed it in the garbage and then saw the worst of the damage. Six pairs of workout shoes, including brand new spikes, had their shoelaces cut by a Pinstriped Jack the Ripper. The laces were sliced tongue to toe right down the middle, so Brackman, who signed a $4.5 million deal, spent a good part of the day re-lacing his shoes.

"Man, they got me good," he said.

Brackman, who is 6-foot-10 and a former North Carolina State basketball star, has been getting hit for a while. Seems his vehicle sometimes disappears in the players' parking lot. The prank war escalated because Brackman fired back on a veteran player.

"If you get hit by a veteran and fire back," one Yankee insider noted, "they come at you 10 times harder."

It could be worse - at least he isn't Kyle Kendrick.

Apparently Brian Bruney and LaTroy Hawkins are the big pranksters on the team. Bruney did a great job pranking the entire team last season by walking a batter every time he came into the game.

Keith Law's Top 100 of 2008

ESPN's Keith Law released his top 100 prospects of 2008 and five Yankees were on his list.

Joba Chamberlain came in third, behind my man Evan Longoria (third base prospect for Tampa Bay) and Jay Bruce (outfielder in the Cincinnati organization), but in front of Clay Buchholz of the Red Sox.

Jose Tabata ranked 21st, Austin Jackson 24th, Ian Kennedy 45th and last year's first round draft pick Andrew Brackman rounded out the list at No. 100.

The fact that the Yankees didn't trade for Johan Santana shows a dramatic shift in the organization's ideology. Brian Cashman isn't doing all of this work in the minor leagues to simply trade them away when they need a quick fix.

Yankees invite 26 to Spring Training

The complete list of the 26 non-roster invitees can be found here.

All of Baseball America's top prospects who are not on the 40-man roster were invited, sans injured Andrew Brackman.

With the, uh, 30th pick of the 2007 MLB draft...

...the Yankees select RHP Andrew Brackman (pictured) from North Carolina State. Being as I know nothing about college baseball, I will let the 2007 MLB draft report do the talking. Click on the link, read his scouting report and watch the video.

You can read this too.