There is a bit of news out of Tampa, as we await tomorrow’s first spring training game. The Yankees have announced the 2010 Kevin Lawn “Player of the Year” and “Pitcher of the Year.” Eduardo Nunez took Player of the Year honors, while David Phelps was named Pitcher of the Year.  From the Yankees Press Release:

The annual awards are dedicated to Kevin O’Brien Lawn – the son of longtime Yankees Vice President and Chief of Operations Jack Lawn – who passed away in 1999.

Nunez, 23, batted .289 (134-for-464) with 55 runs, 25 doubles, three triples, four home runs, 50 RBI and 23 stolen bases in 118 games with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in 2010, earning a spot on the midseason and postseason International League All-Star rosters. He led all Scranton/WB batters in hits and stolen bases, ranked second in doubles and recorded the third-highest average among all Yankees farmhands. Nunez was promoted to the Major League level on August 19, where he hit .280 (14-for-50) with 12 runs, one home run and seven RBI in 30 games. Following the season, he was named by Baseball America as the eighth-best prospect, the “Best Defensive Infielder” and possessing the “Best Infield Arm” in the Yankees organization.

Phelps, 24, combined to go 10-2 with a 2.50 ERA and 141 strikeouts in 26 games (25 starts) with Double-A Trenton and Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in 2010. He began the season with Trenton and went 6-0 with a 2.04 ERA and 84 strikeouts in 14 starts before being promoted to Scranton/WB on July 2. At the time of his promotion, he led the Eastern League in strikeouts and ranked second in ERA, earning EL midseason All-Star honors. With Scranton/WB, Phelps went 4-2 with a 3.07 ERA in 12 games (11 starts). Following the season, the Missouri native was tabbed by Baseball America as having the “Best Slider” in the Yankees organization.

So congrats to both Nunez and Phelps!

In less than 30 hours, the New York Yankees will take the field in Tampa, Florida to play an actual baseball game with the Philadelphia Phillies. This long, cursed winter is just about over. Anyone else have this song stuck in their heads today?

I get accused of being a bit cold, for lack of a better word, in my fandom sometimes. That’s not a terribly unfair assessment, though I think a lot of it comes from my writing more so than actually rooting for my team but that’s neither here nor there. I confess to being much less attached to my favorite players than the average fan. At the end of the day, as much as I like certain players, my rooting interest is attached to a franchise, and I want that franchise to win as much as they can. If that means choosing between the team and a player to some extent, I’m always going to side with the team.

The most obvious manifestation of that which most of you will be familiar with is my relative lack of reverence for Derek Jeter. To put it mildly, I’m not afraid to criticize the Captain when I think it’s warranted, and I don’t fall into the small-but-vocal “give Jeter whatever he wants” crowd by any means. Sometimes this seems to get misconstrued as me not liking Jeter or thinking he’s not a good player, which couldn’t be further from the truth. So, in the interest of trying to make my point while detaching it from Jeter specifically, I’m going to make it by highlighting this, um, interesting column Mitch Williams wrote about the Michael Young situation.

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