Christian Red and Ian Begley of the Daily News have dug deeper into the
Angel Presinal story, speaking to a former scout who alleges that Presinal was an expert at helping players beat steroid tests.
Presinal told ESPN on Thursday that he had worked with A-Rod during that three-year time frame — a “loosey-goosey” era, in Rodriguez's own words — but the Daily News reported Friday that as recently as 2007, Presinal was accompanying A-Rod throughout that MVP season with the Yankees, staying in the same hotels, often sharing a room with Sucart. Another source told The News that Presinal was with Rodriguez often last fall in both New York and Miami, where the Yankee slugger has homes, and that Rodriguez often flew Presinal to the U.S. ...
According to a former baseball scout, who worked with players who trained with Presinal in the Dominican, Presinal provided some players with steroids. The former scout declined to be named in this story but says that players refer to Presinal as “The Cleaner,” someone who can rid traces of steroids from the players' urine before a drug test.
“He puts them through a cycle and then they flush the body out,” the former scout said. “If you're afraid of testing positive, this is the guy to go to.” He said players are afraid to discuss Presinal because they depend on his expertise as a trainer. It is also expensive to work with Presinal, according to the former scout, who says the trainer charges as much as $10,000 for an offseason session.
Via
Steve.
Baseball Prospectus' Kevin Goldstein has named his top 100 Yankees prospects. Jesus Montero comes out on top, with Austin Jackson second. See the whole list for more.
Via
Mike.
Our next interview is with Mike Ashmore who covers the Trenton Thunder, the Yankees Double-A affiliate, at
Thunder Thoughts, for the
Hunterdon County Democrat.
When you aren't doing something related to or depending on the Yankees or the Thunder, what are you up to?
I'm currently in my first season of covering the Trenton Devils for the Democrat, but the coverage is online only. I'm basically using the same layout as I am for the Thunder coverage, as that proved to be pretty successful. When I'm not working, I'm usually just taking in a hockey game for fun or hanging out with friends and so on. During baseball season, when I'm not covering the Thunder, I'm covering the Somerset Patriots of the independent Atlantic League. So I'm always busy doing something.
How long have you been blogging about the Yankees or the Thunder?
This will be my fourth season as the Trenton Thunder beat writer for the paper, but I've only been doing the blog since January of 2008.
What's the best and worst part of blogging?
Best... one of the fundamental principles of journalism isn't to necessarily have it first, but to have it right. But when you know you're right, it's always best to have it first. So with the blog, I can reach literally thousands more people than I could just with my print coverage, and can provide them with the information they want before they could find it in the next day's paper. The best part, for me, of doing this particular blog is that I have total control of the content on there... basically, my paper has nothing to do with it. So I can do the blog the way I think the blog should be done, so I try to think of what I like to see when I'm reading other beat writers' blogs, which I do all the time. I want up-to-the-minute information, I want photos, I want video, I want audio, I want quotes, I want to feel like the writer is accessible to me... and those are all things I feel like I've been able to accomplish with the blog.
Worst... I wouldn't say this is necessarily a bad thing, but it makes you work super hard because you're expected to know everything about the team, inside and out. Ideally, for what I post on that blog, I would have someone else alongside me doing it. And I've had several people offer to help me with that. But while my paper has nothing to do with the blog, the credential that the team provides is through my paper... so that's not a situation that would be possible. There just isn't really time to relax during a game, which gets a little frustrating at times.
»
Read More
Looks like Bernie
got a few good swings in the other day. Final WBC rosters are announced on Tuesday. I hope he makes it.
Steve Serby has an interesting and entertaining Q&A with CC Sabathia.
Q: Why do you wear your hat cocked?
A: It feels straight to me when I have it on. ...
Q: Your son Carsten Charles III is a huge baseball fan?
A: He kept saying, "When are you playing for the Yankees?" He wanted me to play for the Yankees so bad.
Q: Why?
A: He plays Power Pros on Wii. The Yankees are his favorite team on that game.
Q: His favorite Yankee?
A: Derek Jeter, of course.
Kat O'Brien spoke with Robinson Cano, who had admitted to working with
Angel Presinal during the 2007-2008 offseason. He also says that he'd work with him again.
"To tell you the truth, I don't care about what happened with him in the past," Cano said. "I would say I know what I've got to do, and I know that he can help me." ...
Cano said he didn't worry about the risk of being tainted as "guilty by association" because he knows he hasn't done anything wrong. He would not comment on whether Rodriguez is associated with Presinal but confirmed that he had seen Presinal around the team in the past couple of seasons -- not in any official capacity but in places such as the team hotel, at the gym or in restaurants in cities in which the Yankees were playing.
Wallace Matthews spoke with an unnamed Yankee official and Joe Girardi, on the subject of Presinal.
A Yankees official told me the club would love to prohibit its players from working with Presinal but fears that doing so would open it up to a defamation or loss-of-earnings lawsuit.
"You always worry about the character of the people around your players, always," Girardi said. "But I'm not sure how much power I really have in that area."
Via
Ken Davidoff.
The
New York Post is reporting that pitcher Jason Johnson has been diagnosed with cancer of the retina.
"I went to the eye doctor to get a new pair of contacts and they found it,'' said Johnson, who is in camp on a minor league deal. "They sent me to the Wills Eye Institute in Philly. It's supposed to be the best in the world. Only 2,000 people a year get it. They put a radiation plaque on my eye for four days. They told me it has a 98 percent success rate. I can't pitch outside for two weeks. I can see but not real well.''
Our thoughts are with him and those close. Hopefully the treatment does it's job and he has a speedy recovery!
Via
Andrew.
From
Newsday:
Felix M. Lopez III, the son of George Steinbrenner's son-in-law Felix M. Lopez Jr., was charged with trafficking illegal steroids in 2002, a first-degree felony that was punishable by up to life in prison. Lopez III, 30, cut a plea deal in which he received three years of probation for pleading guilty to possession with intent, which is a second-degree felony, according to Hillsborough County Court records.
This is the important part for me:
In an interview with Newsday on Friday, the Yankees senior vice president said he stands by his son. But he said his son will never work for the Yankees because of his past and the negative perception it would create.
Via
Peter Abraham.
Former Yankee Jason Jones, drafted by the Twins in the Rule 5 draft,
talked with the Pioneer Press and wasn't terribly pleased with how he was treated during his time with the Yankees organization.
Trouble is, as much as he welcomed the thought of being a Yankee, they never seemed particularly interested in welcoming him. He shared a spring training locker room with guys who worked for the same organization, but he had a difficult time thinking of them as teammates.
"That's how I would describe it — you just don't feel like a part of the team. There are the veterans — the superstars — and then the rest of the guys," said Jones, who was drafted by New York in the fourth round in 2004. "Here, there are superstars too, but it feels a lot more like we're a team. It's a lot better chemistry."
He also described how Brian Cashman barely said a word to him. Honestly, Jones was one of hundreds of players in the Yankees system. I don't know how surprising that really is. This isn't all that bad, but it does make for funny circumstances, should Jones come back to the Yankees. With the Rule 5 draft, a player must stay on the selecting team's 25 man roster for the entire season or he is offered back to his former team.
Chad Jennings has an interesting take on this.
Update 3: The account is real!
Update 2: Or is it?
Update: The
CC Sabathia account is a fake.
New Yankees
Nick Swisher and
CC Sabathia are on Twitter. Imagine if A-Rod was on there answering questions.
Via
Mike.
