Yankees Spring Training Notes—Day 8

There wasn’t much going on today, it’s probably going to stay this way until the Yankees start playing in games which start Wednesday Feb. 25 against the Blue Jays.

• Orlando Hudson signed a one-year deal with the Dodgers for a base salary of $3.4 million plus incentives. This is good news for Yankees fans who want to keep Robinson Cano, but Hudson’s one-year deal means that rumors of replacing Cano with him could pop up again next season if he doesn’t have a big ‘09.
• River Ave. Blues has a great rant on the possible sign-and-trade of Juan Cruz that MLB might allow. Basically it means that the Twins could sign him without surrendering a first round pick. It’s hard to imagine teams that have already had to surrender a pick for free agents will be fine with this.
• Pitcher Jason Johnson has been diagnosed with cancer of the retina. He’s already received treatment which is supposed to have a 98 percent success rate. He can see, but not well and he’s going to be restricted to indoor activities for the next two weeks. It’s unclear how this affects his chances of making the team, but they were pretty poor to begin with.

On to ST notes from Peter Abraham:

• CC Sabathia missed camp today with the flu. I’m not sure how this affects him pitching opening day. We probably won’t know until next week.
• Bernie Williams is taking the weekend off from his tour to promote his new album. He’ll be back in camp Monday.
• Joba Chamberlain threw 20 pitches today over two sets today. The first set was a little wild, but he improved by the second round. He said his arm is right where he expects it to be so early.
• Abraham was impressed by Christian Garcia today and said that he could be of help down the line if he can stay healthy. He’s had a hard time doing that so far in his minor league career. It’s even cost him a couple of ticks off a once very impressive fastball.
• Girardi spoke about the benefits of using Brett Gardner vs. Melky Cabrera. One has good speed and range while the other switch hits and has a good arm. Abraham guesses that it comes down to who hits in spring. Melky is out of options, but could stay on as the team’s fifth outfielder.
• Shelley Duncan might have cost himself a shot with the team as he beat up Girardi’s son Dante and a pack of his friends.