Good morning, Pinstripe Alley readers. Here's your usual morning news for Wednesday, April 4th, as we are just two days away from Opening Day.
- Marc Craig of The Star-Ledger reported that Brian Cashman said he believes the 2012 Yankees are more talented than the 2011 Yankees, a statement hard to argue with when considering where the club was a year ago today.
- According to Sports Illustrated, Andy Pettitte will pitch today against the Mets, the first time the left-hander will pitch in a game since he retired. Although he will only pitch an inning, I'm excited to see what Pettitte has to offer.
- Bryan Hoch of MLB.com writes that anticipation for the new season remains high for Mariano Rivera, as he recalls the thrill of making his first Yankees team back in the spring of 1996.
- David Villavicencio of MLB.com writes that Ivan Nova is ready to put this year's Spring Training behind him. He didn't have a sparkly ERA, but he and Yankees fans should take note of the amount of walks he allowed: just three in 22 2/3 innings. He also wrote about some other interesting topics, such as who the long reliever could be and Cashman's thoughts on the rest of the American League.
- Bronx Baseball Daily has a great explanation of what happened to Michael Pineda's shoulder.
- Over at Fangraphs, Marc Hulet listed his top five prospects that teams will regret trading, and Jose Campos, the young starter whom the Yankees acquired along with Michael Pineda, topped his list. From Hulet: The prospect is still a long way away from reaching his potential but he has the stuff to develop into a No. 1 or 2 starter.