Chamberlain & Kennedy Looking Good. Joba Chamberlain started yesterday's exhibition against the Reds, tossing 49 pitches, 32 of which were strikes. Chamberlain struggled with putting hitters away and forced him into deep counts after quickly getting ahead of the majority of batters he faced. Unlike his 2007 season, Monday night's game saw erratic command of Joba's infamous slider. The Nebraskan did flash the plus curveball crucial to his becoming a successful starting pitcher. The 3-2 deuce Joba threw to Edwin Encarnacion was absolutely filthy and made the righthanded hitter look pretty silly.

Ian Kennedy threw up four scoreless innings, allowing two hits and striking out two. His changeup was particularly nasty and he commanded it especially well down and away from lefties. As he is known to do, Kennedy started off slow before becoming better as the game progresses. To this end, Kennedy retired the last eight batters he faced. Unfortunately, the FSN Ohio feed did not post any radar readings, but technique is more just as important this early in the preseason.

...In the meantime, Newsday transcribed Alex Rodriguez's appearance on WFAN yesterday. A-Rod did not say anything controversial during the interview, praised Kevin Long and revisited his rejuvenated friendship with Derek Jeter.

As for his relationship with Derek Jeter, [Alex] said: "I'll give it an A, A+. We're on the honeymoon again ... Things have been really good. It reminds me a little bit of our old days, back when we were kids."

This can only be a good thing for the Yankees and their future.