Updating today's earlier report, Alex Rodriguez will not be having surgery (not right now, anyway), according to Peter Abraham, who spoke to Brian Cashman.

They are going to try rest and rehab in hopes of keeping him on the field. That said, he's not going to play in the WBC.

Via Andrew.

Patrick just sent me this pretty sick video of Cody Ransom hopping onto a five foot tall box:


Well if things don't work out with the Yanks in the future at least he could always star in a Super Mario Bros. movie...

(via Tyler Kepner)

Update: No surgery for A-Rod.

ESPN is reporting that Alex Rodriguez is going to have hip surgery and will be out for at least 10 weeks, according to his brother. The injury will keep the Yanks without their third baseman until at least the middle of May.

It's a big blow, but I think the Yankees are still pretty solid without him. Peter Gammons suggested they might look to trade one of their pitching prospects for a solid starting 3B, but that might be a bit drastic. I agree that they probably don't want to go through two months of Cody Ransom at third base, but I don't think they need to do anything major. If the starting pitching turns out anywhere near as good as advertised, they could survive without A-Rod for six weeks of the regular season.

Peter Abraham reports that Mariano Rivera will be making some throws from a mound tomorrow for the first time since his surgery. The plan, Abraham says, is for Mo to enter game action on March 17, which would allow him to get the time he needs before the season starts.

Alex Rodriguez is experiencing some "tightness" and "stiffness" in his hip, thanks to a cyst. He'll be flying to Vail, Colorardo to be examined by Dr. Marc Phillipob, a hip specialist, on Wednesday.


At this stage, it is unclear as to if A-Rod will be able to participate in the WBC. I'm sure we'll know more on Wednesday or Thursday.

Derek Jeter went 2 for 4 in Tuesday's game between the World Baseball Classic U.S. team and the Yankees, collecting a run and 2 RBI. Down 6-1 in the sixth, the Yankees rallied, but fell short, 6-5.

Bryan Hoch at MLB.com writes about the WBC squad, including David Wright's kind words for the Captain.

Ken Davidoff tabulated 2012 contract commitments for every team in the game and found that the Yankees have $91 million committed to four players. They are Alex Rodriguez ($29 million), CC Sabathia ($23 million, he could opt-out before the 2012 season, though), Mark Teixeira ($22.5 million) and A.J. Burnett ($16.5 million).

This is the highest mark in the game by $41 million, with the Cubs coming in second at $50 million. The Red Sox are seventh with $30 million. Three teams, the Dodgers, A's and Nationals, have no commitments for that season.

Interesting numbers to look at, but I should say that this doesn't necessarily concern me - Sabathia and Teixeira should both be playing at high levels and 2012 will be Burnett's final year, so that number comes off the books after that season. A-Rod's the big one, though, at this point. We'll see what he looks like as a 37 year old third baseman.

Joel Sherman reports that the Yankees have finalized the contracts of the pre-arbitration players on their 40 man roster, signing Jonathan Albaladejo, Francisco Cervelli, Wilkin De La Rosa, Michael Dunn, Christian Garcia, Eric Hacker, Steven Jackson, Ian Kennedy, Cody Ransom and David Robertson.

The next guest in our Interviewing the Yankees Blogosphere, 2008-2009 edition, is Chad Jennings, who authors the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees Blog for The Times-Tribune.

When you aren't doing something related to or depending on the Yankees, what are you up to?

During the offseason, my job covers a little bit of everything. Some features. A few columns. Filling in on high school and college events. In the past two months, I've written longer features about an NFL Hall of Famer and a Boxing Hall of Famer, and I've also covered high school swimming meets and a district diving championship. It's something different every day.

How long have you been blogging about the Yankees?

About two years. Based on the overwhelming local interest, my newspaper asked me to start the blog when the Yankees came to town after the 2007 season. At the time, I had no interest in blogging. I thought it would take away from my newspaper coverage and I wasn't a huge blog reader at the time, but I've come to really enjoy it.

I try to stay on top of the entire organization, and that tends to include information that has no place in the newspaper (my daily print readers probably don't care whether Damon Sublett is going to open in Trenton or Tampa) but the blog has been a great outlet for the random tidbits I pick up along the way.

What's the best and worst part of blogging?

The worst part is that it's hard to unplug. On my days off, at least part of the day is always spent reading stories, checking fan blogs, refreshing Pete Abraham's blog, refreshing MLBTradeRumors.com, etc., etc., etc. If a story is out there, even if we have a stringer or someone else handling it for the newspaper, I want to get it on the blog as soon as possible. As far as worst things go, that one's pretty good.

The best part is interaction with the readers. It's nice to get a feel for what readers are looking for, what information they consider important. I think I usually have a solid feel for which stories are worth writing, but instant feedback is a good thing. It never hurts.

How did you end up at The Times-Tribune?

I went to school at the University of Missouri. While I was there I wrote for the Columbia Missourian and my sports editor was a guy named Scott who used to work at the Times-Tribune. I graduated and was looking to move, and Scott knew the Times-Tribune was hiring. A month later, my car was loaded and I was driving 1,000 miles east into snow like I'd never seen.

When did you decide that you wanted to be a sportswriter?

I remember being 15 years old, writing a paper for school and enjoying it. That's when I decided I wanted to become a writer. I naturally moved toward sports writing due to a desire to never, ever cover a city council meeting or a car wreck.

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WFAN's Sweeny Murti offers up some random info from the new Yankees Media Guide. Among them:


Via Mike.