New York Yankees News Roundup: Why does Hank open his mouth?

We have to start with this. Hank Steinbrenner seemed to take a verbal shot at Derek Jeter, saying some Yankees were too concerned with "building mansions" last year, and that's why they fell short of the World Series. Why is he doing this? What purpose does it serve? (Hank is lucky the Carmelo-to-the-Knicks deal finally went down or his comments would be the talk of the town.)

• Surprising news was revealed about the catching situation. Joe Girardi believes Jesus Montero can learn just as much being a major league back-up and playing 1-2 games a week as he can playing everyday in Triple-A. I don't know about that, Joe. Don't hitters need to be out there almost everyday if they're going to get into any rhythm? Anyway, it means Montero has a legitimate shot to break camp with the big club.

• Girardi has also been impressed by six-foot ten-inch Andrew Brackman -

He had a hard time consistently throwing strikes, where now it appears that that's behind him. You look at what he did the second half of last year and what he's done here in spring training - he's throwing a lot of strikes. That's a big part of the battle when you're pitching.

He's likely to start the year in Triple-A Scranton.

• WEEI.com points out that the Yankees could have signed Boston reliever Daniel Bard after drafting him in 2003. He says he would have signed for $2 million, an unheard of sum for a 20th-rounder (FYI, the fourth overall pick got $750K). The question is: if Cashman had been in charge of the draft the way he is now (having built a top five system), would Bard be a Yankee?

• A-Rod asked whether anyone had watched the Super Bowl.

• Boone Logan hit a girl in the stands with an errant pitch. 

• Be sure to check out The Yankee Analysts, a merging of two of the best Yankee blogs out there: TYU and Yankeeist.