An interesting piece from Lee Sinin's always valuable Around The Majors (ATM) report (and also reported in The NY Times and The Star Ledger).


Wait, what? I'm hoping this is one of those rumors that floats around without much basis to it but if it's not, it would just be an odd move, even if it is just a spring training invite. I mean, didn't we try this once before in 2003? Didn't it fail then? Nellie is now 3 years older (entering his age 39 season) and while he was a decent reliever last year, even with injuries, there is no place to put him. They already have Ramiro Mendoza in AAA as a backup in case someone gets hurt as well as Scott Proctor (who like Nelson, is death on righties), Jason Anderson and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Called-Up (Colter Bean). Besides, wouldn't Jeff be better off trying to find a team who will give him a major-league contract? With the average salary at a little under $2.5 million dollars, I'd certainly say so. Of course, I haven't grossed over $21 million over the course of my career so I guess I'm not in a position to comment.

If Yankee brass wants to put together a reunion of the 2000 Yankees, they should have signed Mike Stanton too. Randy Keisler, Randy Choate, and Jason Grimsley should all be looking for work and I'm sure they could coax Doc Gooden out of retirement just in case they needed a spot starter.