Today marked open season on 16 year old international free agents and the Yankees came to terms with catcher Gary Sanchez, as expected. Kiley McDaniel at Baseball Prospectus reports that the team also brought in RHP Chris Cabrera and SS Damian Arredondo. Mike Axisa of River Ave. Blues says that Sanchez's $3 million dollar bonus is the biggest one that the Yankees have ever given to an amateur hitter.

Via Ben Nicholson-Smith.

...literally. In a game that took only 2 hours and 17 minutes, the Yankees defeated the Mariners 4–2 thanks to some stellar pitching and a few timely long balls. The win was the Yankees' 7th in a row and they kept pace with Boston and created some room between them and the Rays, who lost to Toronto.

All four Yankee runs were scored via the home run tonight. Johnny Damon homered in the 3rd to put the Yankees up 1–0 and Melky Cabrera (confirmed by replay) hit a monster shot into left field in the 5th inning to put the Yanks up again by a score of 2–1. Both of those home runs were answered in the next inning by 1-spots from Seattle. A-Rod put the Yankees ahead for good in the 6th with a two-run shot into Monument Park.

Andy Pettitte was solid after being roughed up a bit in Atlanta, with the only blemishes being a home run by Ken Griffey Jr. and a run-scoring ground out by
Wladimir Balentien (I'll admit, I had to copy and paste that name). Pettitte finished with a line of 2 runs on 6 hits in 7 innings of work. Alfredo Aceves and Phil Coke combined for a 1-2-3 8th inning and Mariano Rivera pitched a hitless 9th to record his 20th save of the season and the 502nd of his career.

As an aside, I heard just a minute ago on YES that Xavier Nady will in fact have Tommy John surgery and that Jose Molina will play for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on a rehab assignment tomorrow in Pawtucket.

The Yankees will send CC Sabathia to the mound tomorrow at 7:05 ET and will try to complete a sweep of Jason Vargas and the Mariners.

Recap records: Patrick: 22–11, Seamus: 18–14, Andrew: 5–7

Peter Abraham reports that Ramiro Pena has been optioned to Triple-A to make room for Eric Hinske. The Yankees plan to give him some time in center to increase his flexibility.

Mike Ashmore reports that five players on the Trenton Thunder, the Yankees Double-A affiliate, have been named to the Northern Division team for the Eastern League All-Star Game. They are pitchers Zach McAllister and Josh Schmidt and infielders Reegie Corona, Eduardo Nunez and Jorge Vazquez. McAllister and Vazquez were added through fan votes. Trenton manager Tony Franklin will lead the coaching staff.

MLB.com has video of Mariano Rivera throwing out the ceremonial first pitch before last night's game. He would later throw the real last pitch in the game, as well.

MLB.com's Doug Miller has the latest update in the 2009 American League All-Star balloting. With 3,046,813, Derek Jeter is the only player with 3 million or more votes, holding a commanding lead at the shortstop position.

Mark Teixeira has fallen behind Kevin Youkilis by 40,047 votes. You can vote online through Thursday at 11:59 PM ET.

Via Tyler Kepner.

Chad Jennings reports that George Kontos, a 23 year old RHP with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees, is expecting to have Tommy John surgery, requiring 10 months of rehab. After going 1-1 with a 2.66 ERA on Double-A Trenton, Kontos had been 3-4 with a 3.35 ERA in 9 starts at the Triple-A level.

The Yankees and David Wells. Always destined to be together, it seems. John Harper of the Daily News says that the Yankees were eying the then 32 year old Tigers right hander and when Detroit sent back the players that they had in mind, Mariano Rivera's name appeared, according to Gene Michael, the Yankees general manager then.

Joe Klein, Detroit's general manager during that period, told Danny Knobler of CBS Sports that he offered Wells straight up for Rivera. Klein felt that Michael was interested, but wouldn't say yes. Klein made it clear the offer wasn't going to last forever - but he gave the Yankees GM some time. However, Michael says, somewhere around that point, Mo's velocity jumped up in the Minors and he refused to include him in a deal.

Michael says it was in the minors, but Knobler disputes that, saying that Mo was in the Major League rotation when Wells was eventually dealt to the Reds for C.J. Nitkowski, Mark Lewis and Dave Tuttle.

Talks of Wells to the Yankees revived in the next offseason, however, when the Reds were looking to trade the pitcher away. Ben Kabak was River Ave. Blues points to an article in The New York Times on December 27, 1995, authored by Murray Chass.

Chass said that, according to an "official familiar with the Wells talks", George Steinbrenner made a call to Reds general manager Jim Bowden, offering not just Mariano Rivera - but also Jorge Posada. Yikes. However, Wells ended up in Baltimore with the Reds receiving Curtis Goodwin and Trovin Valdez.

The Yankees would finally get David Wells in the offseason following the 1996 season, signing him on Christmas Day. Wells would pitch two full seasons, winning a world title, before being shipped in a package for Roger Clemens. He'd return once more for the 2002 and 2003 seasons, finally leaving the club for good. And, of course, we know what happened with Mariano Rivera and Jorge Posada.

Via Ben Nicholson-Smith.

Joba Chamberlain's pitch count issues continued on Tuesday, but as he has many times this season, Chamberlain managed to keep things under control.

It took him 96 pitches to get through 5 and 1/3. In that span, he walked 3 hitters and allowed 9 hits, but only 3 runs scored. He exited with the game tied at 3.

He left a runner in scoring position with one out for Phil Coke, who retired the only two batters he faced to get out of the jam.

After Phil Hughes pitched a 1-2-3 seventh, Alex Rodriguez hit a two run shot in the bottom half of the frame to put the Yankees ahead 5-3.

It wasn't a lead the team could keep, though. Brian Bruney began the eighth and immediately, three consecutive singles put runners on first and third and the lead to a single run. After a sacrifice and an intentional walk, the bases were loaded for Russell Branyan, who hit a sacrifice fly that tied the game. Bruney retired Jose Lopez for the third out.

Hideki Matsui lit the fire to with a double to lead off the bottom of the eighth. Brett Gardner pitch ran and Nick Swisher bunted for a single, moving Gardner to third. Melky Cabrera came up with a big hit, doubling home Gardner and then Derek Jeter brought both Melky and Swisher around with a two RBI single. 8-5, Yankees.

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Joel Sherman of the Post heard that Eric Hinske, who the Yankees acquired today, cleared waivers two weeks ago and could have been claimed for the approximate $800,000 left on his contract.

Via Ben Nicholson-Smith.