New York Yankees Off-Season Acquisitions Get Passing Grades...So Far

New York Yankees GM Brian Cashman didn't land the the two big studs he had hoped for in the off-season and had to settle for a mish-mosh of cast-offs, over-priced players and more old guys.  One-third through the 2011 season and it's time to grade Cashman's big winter pick-ups.

The Yankees missed out on landing the class valedictorians Cliff Lee and Carl Crawford and ended up settling for the Sweathogs.  The Yankees still have a slim lead in the AL East and can attribute some of their success to a couple players in this unlikely group.

The Yankees lost Andy Pettitte and the starting rotation still got older.  Contributing to that math is the addition of 38 year-old Bartolo Colon and 35 year-old Freddy Garcia.

Both pitchers were picked up for bargain-basement minor-league contracts and looked like they were headed down to the farm until no young arms rose to the occasion in spring training and Phil Hughes later went down with "dead arm."

A-Rod's Banned Drug Mule Spotted On Yankees Road Trip

Major league baseball is looking into New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez's relationship with his steroid-supplying cousin Yuri Sucart after the admitted drug mule was spotted at the team's San Francisco hotel during the Yankees series against the Oakland A's.

Like bedbugs and Katie Couric, Sucart isn't easy to get rid of.

According to a team source, Sucart was seen at the St. Regis Hotel Tuesday night during the Yankees two-game series across the bay.  Sucart has been banned by the Yankees from any team-related activities after Rodriguez admitted that his cousin supplied and injected him with performance-enhancing drugs while he was with the Texas Rangers in 2001-3.

The source said Sucart, Rodriguez's mysterious "trainer" and "personal manager,"  has accompanied the Yankee third-baseman on numerous road trips over the past two seasons and the Yankees and MLB aren't too happy about the donkey's alleged resurrection.

Sucart was Rodriguez's constant companion during A-Rod's playing days with the Rangers, the Seattle Mariners and the Yankees.  He was banished, by the Yankees in 2009, from any Yankees team flights, stadiums or training facilities where the team was located.  Unofficially, Sucart's banishment does not apply to team hotels or sitting in the stands as a spectator.

After a 2009 Sports Illustrated story reported that Rodriguez tested positive during a 2003 drug test, he confessed how Sucart would pick up the steroids (or "boli" as it is sometimes called) in the Dominican Republic and inject the drug into both him and his cousin when he played for the Rangers in 2001-3.

Since 2003, Major League Baseball has had it's own ban on personal trainers and managers who are not affiliated with the teams and is once again looking into A-Rod's questionable relationship with Sucart.

Yankees GM Brian Cashman had no comment on the allegations, but can't be too happy about his star player bringing another distraction to the team.  MLB is already interested in the miraculous "stem-cell procedure" that has revived Yankees starting pitcher Bartolo Colon's arm.

The 48 year-old Sucart has seen better times since his Yankee banishment.  He is in foreclosure on several real estate properties according to his lawyer and feels he took the rap for A-Rod's misdeeds.

"Everybody wants a scapegoat," the dejected Sucart once said.

Maybe that's a step up from being a mule.

Yankees Bartolo Colon: The Round Mound on the Rebound

Out of all of the New York Yankees off-season scrap-heap pick-ups, was there a more questionable signing than pitcher Bartolo Colon?  The righthander  had not pitched since injuring his arm in 2009 and showed up at camp with a body that made Rosie O'Donnell look svelte than the 2005 Cy Young winner he once was.  The sight of Colon in a major league camp, never mind pinstripes, must have appeared to be some kind of joke.

Signing the rotund Colon may one of the best moves in an off-season of questionable moves by Yankees GM Brian Cashman.  Maybe Yankees bench coach, Tony Pena, should get the credit.  After all, it was Pena who phoned Cashman, after seeing Colon in the Dominican Winter League, and recommended bringing the fastballer to spring training and giving him a look-see.

Now, with Phil Hughes dead arm and Ivan Nova looking at a hitch in the minors, signing Colon may be the best move by Cashman so far this year.

The Yankees signed Colon for the bargain basement price of $900,000 and, while he won't make anyone forget the non-signing of Cliff Lee, he's taken out a little of the sting.

After throwing a masterful complete-game, 4-hit shutout victory over the Oakland A's on Monday, the 38 year-old seems to have found the fountain of youth.  And that makes people talk.

St. John's Gets NCAA Tournament Bid Much To LSU's Chagrin

The chances for an NCAA Tournament bid didn't look good for the St. John's men's baseball team after losing to Seton Hall in the Big East championship game on Sunday, but the Red Storm were given one of the final at-large berths to make the field of 64 for the fourth time in five years.  National power LSU cried that the selection of St. John's is a farce and says the NCAA should take a look at how they select the 64 team field.

LSU (36-20) is claiming that they play in a tougher conference and should have been picked over the Johnnies.  St. John's (35-20) finished second in both the Big East regular season standings and championship series.  It is arguably the best team in the northeast.

For the record, LSU finished 9th in the SEC and didn't make their own conference tournament finals.

The Tigers are screaming that their #23 RPI and 12-3 finish entitles the team to be picked ahead of the Red Storm, who go into the NCAA's with a respectable #54 RPI.

"I would say that this year, as a committee, we didn't use RPI as the hammer that maybe it was in previous years," said Tim Weiser, the chairman of the 10-member NCAA Selection Committee.

If LSU wants to find a culprit, the school should look at some of the automatic-bids awarded to winners of conference championships.

Mediocre AL West Means King Felix Won't Be Going To Yankees...Or Anywhere

The New York Yankees have been drooling all over Seattle Mariners pitcher Felix Hernandez for three years.  Rumors circulating about the Yankees swiping King Felix from the Mariners are just that--idle talk.  New York has a better chance of putting Keith Hernandez in pinstripes this season.

Every summer, while the Mariners wallowed in last place and New York chased another playoff spot, the whispers about the Yankees getting Hernandez before the July 31 trading deadline got louder.  This year the Mariners will put a gag on it.

Unlike last year, when the hit-challenged Mariners were going through the motions by June, red hot Seattle now finds itself in the midst of a division race and no need to unload their ace.

The Mariners have won nine of their last 10 games and are tangled up in the wide-open AL West race which separates all four teams by only 2 games.  

Hernandez, the 25 year-old righthander, is one of the most valuable commodities in the majors and there isn't one team that wouldn't want him.  Once a team has an arm like his, you don't let it go.

Jurors in Casey Anthony Trial Will See Recording of Lightning-Bruins Playoff Game

The jurors in the Casey Anthony murder trial found out this morning they will be allowed to watch a recorded tape of tonight's Game 7 Stanley Cup Playoff match-up between their home team, the Tampa Bay Lightning, and the Boston Bruins.  The 12 jurors and five alternates broke out in applause when Judge Belvin Perry announced his decision regarding the big game.

The sequestered Clearwater, Florida jury, selected from the Tampa Bay area, was transported to Orlando after Judge Perry made arrangements for Friday's 8 p.m. EST game to be recorded and shown later to the jurors of the highly-publicized case.

This is the first Game 7 in the Eastern Conference finals in five years and will be played at the TD Garden in Boston.

Anthony was charged with 1st degree murder after her 2 year-old daughter was found dead in 2008.  The polarizing trial has received a lot of national media attention.

The winner of tonight's Lightning-Bruins game will face the Vancouver Canucks in the Stanley Cup Finals.  The Canucks defeated the San Jose Sharks in five games.

The murder trial began Tuesday with opening statements after 11 days of jury selection.  The trial is expected to last about two months.

The finals series begin Wed. June 1 in Vancouver and a game seven would be played there on June 15.

Which means, if the Lightning win tonight, the jurors will probably continue seeing delayed tapes of the Lightning games throughout the Finals.

Time For Yankees Girardi To Make The Switch From Swish

It's been hard to watch Nick Swisher struggle at the plate while the New York Yankees bob-and-weave their way through the AL East, but it's even tougher to seeing Andruw Jones gathering rust in the dugout.

Last night, Jones was the knockout punch after he went 3-for-3 with 2 home-runs and 4 RBI's in the Yankees 7-3 win over division-rival the Toronto Blue Jays.  Swisher's struggles continued as he went 0-for-3 and his average dropped to a miniscule .204.

It's time for Yankees manager Joe Girardi to make a move in right field and give Jones more at-bats.

Jones has been used sparingly since he signed a one-year deal with the team for $2 million.  The reserve right-fielder/DH is batting .240 with 4 home-runs and 7 RBI's in 50 at-bats.

Swisher, meanwhile, has been consistent this year--consistently horrible.  He has 2 home-runs and 19 RBI's to go with that barely-beating average in 152 at-bats.