TAMPA, Fla. -- It's hard enough to consider early spring training games as "real"' baseball, but imagine if you will, a "practice" spring training game.
That's what the Yankees are doing today, an intrasquad scrimmage, Team Gator vs. Team Goose, in which two teams of 11 players, including three DHs on each team, will hit against a pitching machine for six innings.
The reason for this, Joe Girardi said, was to give a lot of guys some at-bats, especially after Saturday's workout was washed away by rain. Which raises the question, why isn't Carlos Beltran in the lineup as one of the six DHs? Beltran also isn't on the roster for tomorrow's trip to Clearwater, for the first real fake baseball game of the spring against the Phillies. When I asked Beltran this morning why he wasn't in today's lineup, he got uncharacteristically defensive. "I'm not the manager," he said. "I don't make out the lineup." He also said he was fine. So we'll see later why Girardi held him out today and will hold him out again tomorrow.
In the meantime, Alex Rodriguez is playing, sort of, batting fourth as one of the DHs for the Gators. Which means, basically, he will take four at-bats of BP caliber, or less, against Iron Mike, a pitcher I would guess he has had great success against. But he will not play the field, or do much of anything else, and he's not making the trip tomorrow either. So the first chance to see A-Rod in a real fake baseball game won't come until Wednesday when the Phillies come to The Boss for a day game.
Here are the lineups for today's scrimmage:
GATORS
Rodriguez DH
Brian McCann DH
Stephen Drew 2B
Ramon Flores LF
Tyler Austin RF
Gary Sanchez DH
GOOSE
Chris Young RF
Jose Pirela 2B
Greg Bird 1B
Jonathan Galvez 3B
Nick Noonan SS
Trent Garrison DH
Kyle Higashioka DH
The fun starts at 12:25 p.m.
Tanaka, Betances throw: Masahiro Tanaka and Dellin Betances, the presumptive ace and closer of the Yankees' pitching staff, both threw live batting practices this morning on the field to a small collection of teammates, 25 pitches each, both without incident. The only hitter who had good swings was Young, who roped a line single into left off Tanaka and pulled a hard grounder over third base off Betances. Neither pitcher seemed particularly worried.
Tomorrow's news: Ellsbury and Gardner are the only two regulars making the trip to Clearwater tomorrow. Young is also going, as are Rob Refsnyder, Pirela, Greg Bird, and Kyle (Steam) Roller, who is built like an NFL nose tackle. Adam Warren gets the start, and we will also see Luis Severino and Jacob Lindgren.