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April 27, 2005


Is he a 'True' Yankee now?
by SG

When the Yankees got Alex Rodriguez, they got one of the best players in the game. However, for whatever reason, he's been criticized for not being a 'true' Yankee. Rodriguez had a somewhat down year by his lofty standards, struggled with RISP and was involved in a couple of incidents which tarnished his image. Last night, he may have arrived as a Yankee by blasting 3 HRs and driving in 10 runs in a 12-4 thrashing of the Angels. He even got a curtain call, which I don't remember him getting last year.

As the youngest regular in the Yankee lineup, Rodriguez is being counted on to have a monster year. With people like Bernie and Posada showing little power in the early going, it's going to be up to Alex to carry the team when the older bats are slow or slumping. Hopefully yesterday will be the spark that he needs to finally stop pressing and just play.

The whole 'true' Yankee stuff is stupid to me. A true Yankee wears a Yankee uniform and draws a paycheck from them.

Another good game from Carl Pavano. He won't blow people away, but he is quietly efficient and effective. I won't get too excited yet after watching Javier Vazquez impress in the first half last year, but I've been very happy with the Pavano signing.

Andy Phillips got another start, and singled doubled once in five AB. He also just missed a HR on a line drive down the left field line that just missed the foul pole. I don't know how much he will play going forward, but every hit he gets can't hurt.

We also finally got to see the debut of Colter Bean. He's been touted for a few years due to eye-popping statistics in the minors. However, scouts see a guy who throws with an ugly motion and barely breaks 85 mph, and think he'll get killed in the majors.

Bean looked ok to me. His pitches seemed to have good movement, if not enough velocity. For some reason, I got a Jeff Nelson vibe off him. He had a good first inning and a shaky second inning. He looks like he will struggle against lefty hitters, but I don't think it's impossible that he can be an asset in a Steve Reed/Chad Bradford way. He'll only be up for a few more days, but if there are injuries or trades he may find his way back up this year. If not, hopefully the Yankees will consider using him on next year's team when some of the bullpen contracts are up.