The Yankees are one of three teams that have not lost two games in a row this season, thanks in part to new additions Andruw Jones, Eric Chavez, and Russell Martin.
Russell Martin was pursued by three of the five AL East teams this offseason, the Blue Jays, Red Sox, and Yankees. The Red Sox and Yankees always made sense as interested teams, but the Blue Jays seemed peculiar, considering they had both a young starter in J.P. Arencibia, and a backup in Jose Molina. I talked to a few Blue Jays fans from Bluebird Banter, and this is what they had to say.
I think AA was just looking for more options. During the off-season he said numerous times that Arencibia was going to be the starting catcher and it was widely assumed that Molina would back him up, which has been the case. With Lind not having much experience at first, and the third base situation a bit unclear, AA probably thought Martin would be a good player to have as insurance for 3 different positions.
Our GM does his due diligence, I am happy with that. I preferred that he didn’t sign with the Jays as I was more then happy going with a split with JPA and Molina.
Lots of questions about Arencibia’s skills behind the plate, and playing Molina more than twice through a rotation was not an option. Also, lots of people were going ga-ga about getting a canadian player.
Makes sense for the Blue Jays after all, even though I think Arencibia will be a star at whichever position he does play in the future.
More after the jump.
Eric Schultz looked at the top minor league performers so far. Jorge Vazquez and Jesus Montero have been absolutely outstanding so far this season, and have proved they are not AAA players. Vazquez may prove to be no better than a Juan Miranda type of player in the MLB, but it's a shame for him that the (MLB) Yankees don't have a spot for him.List of all the Yankees currently on twitter.
Rob Neyer wrote about the decline in youth baseball.