Batting Practice Begins

Over at the incomparable LoHud Yankees Blog, Pete has a roundup of today's batting practice. The starting rotation looked like this:

Wang

Pettitte

Mussina

Igawa

Pavano

Hughes

Sanchez

As Pete explains, this arrangement may foreshadow the starting rotation come opening day. Last year Randy Johnson threw first and ended up the opening day starter. Here's his breakdown of each individual pitcher's session:

Chien Ming Wang - 31 pitches and got six ground balls. He blew a fastball by Jeter.

Andy Pettitte - 30 pitches: Pettitte took the mound to loud applause [and looked] good. A-Rod homered off him to right field but he spotted everything well.

Mike Mussina - 35 pitches: I thought the Moose looked the best and there were only a few hard-hit balls.

Kei Igawa - 40 pitches: Igawa worked fast and threw the most pitches in his 10 minutes. He was “sneaky fast” according to Torre and spotted his curveball well.

Carl Pavano - 35 pitches: Pavano had good sink on his fastball, worked methodically and threw 23 strikes. He said afterward that it was just another step forward for him.

Phil Hughes - 34 pitches: Phil Franchise threw only half his pitches for strikes by my count. But six of the strikes were fouled off and only two were put in play. The rest were unhittable. Hughes showed a ridiculous curveball and the ability to spot his fastball inside or outside. “He’s filthy,” Giambi said.

Humberto Sanchez - 31 pitches: Sanchez was all over the place with his command, throwing one over the catcher’s head at one point. “Why did Detroit trade him?” Giambi said. “He’s huge and he throws 96.”

Damn, wouldn't it be nice to be in Tampa right about now?