Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Former Yankee Update : Hideki Okajima

Being borrowed from the Scranton Wilkes-Barre Blog

Apparently, failed physicals mean nothing to the Softbank Hawks.
They signed Hideki Okajima to a contract today, bringing him back to Japan after a pretty successful run as a reliever for the Boston Red Sox.
Okajima had signed a minor league deal with the Yanks during the offseason, and he appeared to be on his way to opening the season with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre before failing his physical and being released by the Yankees on the first day of camp.

Spring Training Day 17

Injuries is the word of the day, or maybe "close calls" would be a better choice of words. Francisco Cervelli was hit with a back swing while behind the plate today so Happy 26th Birthday to him. Mark Teixeira jammed his thumb while trying to make a tag at third base. FYI he dropped the ball on that play but said it only stung a little bit. Derek Jeter was also hit on the side by the baseball while sliding into second base on a pick off attempt and laughed it off. Apparently all of our players will be okay and are not expected to miss any kind of time or anything. Close calls all around.

The Yankees dropped their second straight Grapefruit League game today 7-4 to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Phil Hughes was less then impressive today, not that it matters much this early in spring, being taken out after 1 1/3 innings pitched with 4 hits allowed and a run scored. CC Sabathia gave up a run in his two innings, a Andrew McCutchen single,  but overall he looked okay.

The Yankees will return home on Wednesday to play the Tampa Bay Rays @ 1:05 pm at George Steinbrenner Field. Hiroki Kuroda will make his first start as a Yankee, albeit in a glorified exhibition game, and the game is going to be on MLB.tv.