My first game watching on an actual TV! It’s also Joba Chamberlain’s first start of the Spring. Here are my notes:

Joba is only going one inning today, Spring Training is long this year because of the World Baseball Classic so the starting five are probably going to get a break for a while. Minor League camp doesn’t start until 3/15 or so, so there is nobody to send anyone for a while until then.

The YES gun seems to be up to its normal tricks so far, or Joba is really holding back for no good reason. The first two fastballs he threw were 88mph according to it, which can’t be right.

Joba is leaving some fastballs up where they’re very hittable, I’m not really concerned here but it’s not much fun to watch. Two doubles in a row (to Delmon Young, then Jason Kubel) both smacked fastballs that were just left up there asking to be smacked out (but they were somehow not).

He threw one slider to Luke Hughes, which was an oddity since this is normally when you just throw fastball and changeups. It was a beauty and totally fooled the batter.

Joba’s final line: 1.0 IP, 3H, 2R, 0BB, 0K. 21 pitches/11 strikes.

Dan Giese…is who he is. The Yankees found him with by scouting International Leagues. He’s really limited and can’t go through a lineup enough times really to be a starting pitcher for the team, but he can be useful as a swingman/long reliever. Unfortunately for him, there are other better options for that now like Alfredo Aceves and Phil Coke so I don’t think he’ll make the Major League team.

Just gave up a homerun to Carlos Gomez. He should probably lose the swingman job in the bullpen just for that.

Pitches staying up in the zone all over the place in this game. It’s making things take a long time!

Giese finishes on a very not exciting strike-em-out/throw-em-out doubleplay.

Giese’s final line: 2.0IP, 4H, 4R, 1HR, 1BB, 1K

And now it’s time for my favorite relief pitcher, Jose Veras. His last time out it was no control Veras, so this time will probably be “can actually hit his spots” Veras.

Veras finishes up with a clean line. Had some very nice spots with his fastball, including a killer pitch that just hit the corner. He also threw a fastball that darted down and in out of nowhere, I don’t think I’ve seen him throw something with that kind of movement before. 2-seamer?

Veras’ final line: 1.0IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 2K

Michael Dunn in now after Veras. If you’re not familiar with Dunn, he’s a marginal pitching prospect who was in Tampa last year. Notable since he is one of the few left-handed pitchers the Yankees have lying around and not much else. He’s a recent conversion to pitching, so he’s very much a work in progress. Still has a while to go before his fate is determined, but being a lefty always helps out.

Dunn’s final line: 1IP, 1H, 0R, 1BB, 1K

Igawa in, he has no chance of making the team so this is just him getting a tune-up in before he heads back to anchor the AAA rotation. The starting lineups have been pretty much entirely switched out, so we’ve officially reached Spring Training garbage time.

Igawa’s final line: 1H, 0R, 0BB, 1K

Notable non-pitching things:

Cano walked on 5 pitches, didn’t hack at one bad pitch.

Jose Molina picked up where he left off, not hitting baseballs and throwing out runners.