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Around the Empire: Yankees news - 3/2/17

In addition to his improving swing, the word is that Bird is spreading the word; Ellsbury steps up in yesterday’s spring training game; Dellin Betances made his spring training debut; Gary has set the bar pretty high for himself; Girardi will not miss Ortiz

By Greg Kirkland
MLB: Spring Training-New York Yankees at Boston Red Sox
I think we could all get use to seeing this
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Around the Empire

New York Daily News | John Harper: The Yankees have heard. The word is that Greg Bird is doing well. His swing seems to be returning to form. In addition to his offense, the word about Bird is also about his words. He is passing along the wisdom of Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez, and others from his brief stint in the majors in 2015. The Yankees seem to think that Bird could have future leadership possibilities. Captain Bird might be the word. Maybe let’s let him start the season first.

MLB.com | Bryan Hoch & Mark Bowman: Jacoby Ellsbury has been a hot topic of conversation this offseason. Just to clarify, I do not mean that he’s getting nerd shirts and spike bracelets. Brian Cashman has said that Ellsbury needs to step it up a bit. Yesterday he stepped up his spring training game at least, hitting a double and a monster home run before being removed from the game. Good start, Ells.

Newsday | Erik Boland: Dellin Betances made his spring training debut in yesterday’s game against the Braves. Dellin did what Dellin does. Striking batters out and preventing any runs. The Yankees like what they saw from him thus far. Soon he will be heading to participant in the WBC for Team Dominican Republic. Stay safe, Dellin.

The New York Times | Tyler Kepner: As we all know, he is Gary. Gary’s Gary-like historic outburst of incredible Garyicity definitely spoiled all of us who are not quite Gary. We will see what he can do during a full regular season. The bar is clearly there though, and it’s high. He is the Yankee prospect that fans will be looking at as the Yankees flaunt the youth movement. Judge needs more ABs and time. Bird is coming off of injury. Severino is coming off a bad year. Gary is Gary though. We’ve seen what he can do and it’s intoxicating.

New York Daily News | Mike Mazzeo: David Ortiz is retired and Joe Girardi will not miss him at all. I’m sure there’s more to this story regarding the current Boston offense and such. The important thing is that no one will miss Ortiz whatsoever. That’s it. That’s how we’ll end this link dump. Move along.

The Yankees will face the Orioles at 6:35PM tonight. The game will be broadcast on YES Network and MLB Network.

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