YANKEE NOTES
TAMPA – Carl Pavano isn’t the only Yankee pitcher taking it slow. When the pitching groups were posted in the clubhouse at Legends Field yesterday, right-handed reliever Tanyon Sturtze wasn’t in the A or B groups that will work off mounds tomorrow and Saturday.
Yet, he was at the minor-league complex throwing on flat ground.
“They are going slow with me,” said Sturtze, who was bothered by a cranky shoulder last year but had a $1.5 million option picked up by the club during the winter. “It will probably be another week [before he will throw off a mound]. I hadn’t thrown a lot before getting here, but I feel good.”
Sturtze was 5-3 with a 4.79 ERA in 64 games (one start) last year.
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Yankees brass, coaches, scouts and medical staff huddled for more than four hours yesterday at Legends Field. George Steinbrenner dropped in for his customary 15 to 20 minutes.
Joe Torre has kept his October promise to Steinbrenner to keep the communication lines open more this year.
“I called him two or three times from Hawaii,” Torre said of The Boss. “That’s on me. If he has a problem, it won’t be because we didn’t talk.”
With John Flaherty a Red Sox, Randy Johnson doesn’t believe he will have a problem working with Jorge Posada this season.
“There is no sidebar here, I am comfortable [with Posada],” Johnson said of the Yankees’ No. 1 catcher, who didn’t start a game Johnson pitched in after July 1 in Detroit, where Johnson and Posada had difficulty getting on the same page.
Torre said he isn’t planning to have Kelly Stinnett catch Johnson exclusively. Last year, Flaherty helped straighten out Johnson in the second half.
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A year ago, Jaret Wright had the best spring of any Yankees starter and opened the season in the bullpen. It could happen again, but Wright is ignoring the chances.
“Right now there is no reason to think like that,” Wright said. “I want to start at the top, at what I am shooting for, and then face the next thing if it happens.”
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With all his pitching problems last year, Torre admitted yesterday he didn’t pay enough attention to Gary Sheffield‘s physical woes and promised to not let that happen again.
“I ignored Sheffield, I remember Donnie [Mattingly] came to me at Shea and said [Sheffield’s] thumb was bothering him,” Torre said. “[Sheffield] never uttered a word to me. I would always monitor that stuff and I let it slip away. That’s something I make sure I pay closer attention to.”
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Johnny Damon‘s spring locker is next to Jason Giambi‘s at the far end of the clubhouse, reuniting the close friends from their Oakland days.
Torre said Damon will hit first, Derek Jeter second and Robinson Cano “probably” last. Beyond that Torre said, “I don’t want to think about it.”
Pitchers and catchers take physicals today. Tomorrow is the first workout.