Today down in Tampa, the first full team workout was held and by all accounts, it was successful.
- Derek Jeter performed some infield drills, took some BP but did not run the bases. He also joked around with the fans gathered at Steinbrenner Field. The Yankees are being careful with his surgically repaired ankle so he’s taking it easy and not doing a lot of running.
- Travis Hafner was the first Yankee batter to hit a home run in BP.
- Kevin Youkilis debuted his new batting stance to the masses.
Courtesy of Bryan Hoch
Hmm that’s odd, it looks the same to me. Maybe he’s not bouncing as much? I guess we’ll see soon enough. For video of Youkilis and other Yankee batters in the cage, you can visit Mark Feinsand’s Tout page.
One final note, Jack Curry of the YES relayed a story via his Twitter account about Ichiro Suzuki and David Robertson this morning. It seems last season, Ichiro’s interpreter Allen Turner had a catcher’s mitt he used that Robertson liked. Well, Ichiro came into camp this week with one of those mitt’s for Robertson. Robertson was thankful for the gift and said that he hoped to use it someday when his son, 5-month-old Luke, is old enough.
Just my opinion, but I think IF Hafner can stay healthy the Yankees and we fans are going to very, very happy with his performance.
That would be nice.
Youk's probably had to rebalance himself after shaving off that heinous accumulation on his chin.
…and thank goodness for that!
Pronk, if healthy, is going to be a big piece of that offense. If he gets 300 AB, 20-25 homers isn't out of the realm of possibility. He certainly could be another one of those under the radar, bargain basement pick ups for which Brian Cashman is becoming notorious. It was a low risk, high reward signing to begin with. Just keep him strictly in the batters' box and away from first base.