TAMPA, Fla. -- The Yankees played a simulated game against a mechanical pitcher on Monday, a diversion that Joe Girardi characterized as mostly an exercise in baserunning and defense.
“The focus was a two-edged sword, in a sense," he said. "We wanted to see our baserunners reacting to situations, and we wanted to see cuts and relays and how guys react (on defense) to game situations as opposed to being told exactly what you’re going to do. You have to anticipate. That’s a big emphasis for us. All those little things that you do, that you do correctly, make a difference in all the close games that you play. And I thought it was an outstanding job.”
But why face a pitching machine when, as Girardi pointed out the other day, there are 34 pitchers in camp this spring?
"It’s hard, in a sense, to get the situations you want with a pitcher on the mound," he said. "We could throw the ball in the dirt when we wanted. Throwing strikes, the guys could make contact. You just get a lot more out of it that way.”
No sense in recounting who hit well; all major-league hitters, and even some baseball writers, can hit a pitching machine fairly well. And if Alex Rodriguez didn't do anything to remind you how he has hit 654 big-league home runs (saw three pitches, swung twice, grounded out and popped out), his day was not nearly as embarrassing as Chris Young's. He struck out. In Young's defense, however, he had hit pretty well against Masahiro Tanaka and Dellin Betances in live BP in the morning.
One concerning note: In a game in which six DHs were used, three on each side, Girardi did not use Carlos Beltran at all. Nor will he use him in Tuesdays Grapefruit League opener against the Phillies in Clearwater, nor in the home opener on Wednesday, nor in game three on Thursday against the Pittsburgh Pirates in Bradenton.
Girardi said Beltran would not see action until probably Friday night, when the Yankees play the second of a pair split-squad games against the Pirates at home.
"We’re just taking it a little bit slower with him because of the surgery he came off of," Girardi said. "We feel pretty good about where he’s at, but I’m just going to give him a couple of extra days. Nothing that’s happened in camp to do that, just going a little bit slower with him.”
Beltran had bone chips removed and a spur shaved down in his right elbow during the off-season. He has said the elbow is much better than it had been last year, when he was limited to 109 games and did not play the last 10 days of the season.
More pitchers: We already knew Adam Warren was starting on Tuesday, Nathan Eovaldi on Wednesday and Esmil Rogers on Thursday. Now we also know Bryan Mitchell will start the first split-squad game on Friday against the Phillies in Clearwater, and Chris Capuano will pitch the night game against the Pirates at The Boss. On Girardi's message board, where he writes the initials of the starting pitchers on the days they will be starting, he wrote "CCap," to distinguish Capuano from that other CC on the staff, Sabathia, who will not start until sometime next week.