Girardi's Press Conference A Big To Do About Nothing

As I am sure everybody predicted we all listened to and watched Joe Girardi's annual end of the season press conference expecting to get nothing out of him, and we got just that. We all expected the vast majority of the questions to center around Alex Rodriguez and the playoff debacle and we got just that, a lot more then we wanted actually.

Girardi has not spoken to any of the Yankees player since the season ended but plans to do so very soon. He says he is not worried about his relationship with certain players, Alex Rodriguez for example, being strained but acknowledged that every action has a consequence, i.e benching Alex for the last week or so of the season.  He also stated that he was not hiding any injuries from the media or the fans and that everybody was as healthy as you can be, besides Derek Jeter of course, after playing a 162 game marathon and a Division Series war with the Orioles.

Joe stated that he did not believe Alex Rodriguez would be traded this offseason and expects him to be a very productive starting 3B for the Yankees nest season. He was also adamant in his belief that CC Sabathia's elbow is fine and the trip to Dr. James Andrews will not be much more then routine because of the way he finished the season and the two starts he had against Baltimore. He expects CC to be ready to make the start on Opening Day for the Yankees. He also expects Derek Jeter to be back healthy on Opening Day for the Yankees as long as he does not try to do too much too quickly, which sounds a lot like Derek Jeter.

Joe was also asked about the impending retirement of both Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera and answered with your typical politically correct type answers. He did not ask Mariano whether he was coming back for 2013 but did state that he is convinced that he would by the way he pushed through his rehab and even started throwing earlier then expected. He mentioned Andy Pettitte's fire and competitiveness as reasons that Andy might come back for one more season with the Yankees but also played devil's advocate when he mentioned his family and growing sons.

I just touched on the high points as I could not do it nearly as well as Lohud and River Avenue Blues, to name a few, so I suggest going out there and giving them a read or two as well.