Prized young reliever Mark Melancon, the apple of my Spring Training eye, pitched a very impressive 1-2-3 inning Thursday against Tampa Bay.

I watched a little of the game on YES, hoping to catch a glimpse of Melancon. I was glad I did. Fastball in the low 90s, good curveball, a good presence on the mound.

At some point this year, Melancon will be in the Bronx.

• It is already plain to see that Jorge Posada, who homered Thursday, is swinging the bat better than he did a year ago. 

"I couldn't load up," Posada said, demonstrating how he was unable to use his arms to generate the bat speed needed to drive a baseball. "It was pretty much a still swing because I couldn't get my arm to move the right way. I was OK in April and May. But my shoulder got weaker and weaker as the season went on."

• Yankee manager Joe Girardi was pleased by what he saw from Phil Hughes.
• The Yankees won't be sponsored by Bank of America.
• Blogger has adventure hunting for Berra.
• Interesting note from Jon Heyman about Mark Teixeira, who is a real class act.

Teixeira called Red Sox GM Theo Epstein to thank him for their interest after Teixeira signed with the Yankees for $180 million and rebuffed Boston's final offer, which is believed to have been $170 million. While some Bostonians have taken Teixeira's decision hard, Epstein, who saw Teixeira as exactly the right man to improve their offense for eight years to come, had only kind words for Teixeira and said he perfectly understood why he would take the higher offer, especially with family in New York and New York being much closer to his hometown of Severna Park, Md.

• Scott Boras' rejection of the Dodgers latest offer to Manny Ramirez is an amazing example of Boras' arrogance. At this point, does he really think he will get a better offer for Manny? If I were the Dodgers I would put a $10 million, one-year, take-it-or-leave-it offer on the table, that's it.