Down on the Farm - March 26

It's time for a quick look at what's been going on over at the Yankees minor league camp. Chad Jennings covers the Scranton-Wilkes Barre Yankees and has been down in Tampa for Spring Training. He got the following information from speaking with Mark Newman, Yankees senior VP.

1. The fact he didn't quite commit to Chase Wright being in the Triple-A rotation had me curious, so I asked if the team might move Wright to the bullpen. Newman said he still thinks of Wright as a starter.

2. Kevin Whelan is not going to be ready to start the season in Double-A. Whelan left the Arizona Fall League with a sore arm -- Newman said it was an elbow issue -- but now has a sore shoulder. When he pitches, Whelan will be pitching out of the bullpen. No more rotation to get him stretched out.

3. Anthony Claggett will also not be ready to start the season. Claggett has a hamstring issue and when he's ready to pitch, Newman said Claggett will also be working out of the bullpen. Not having Claggett makes the Double-A rotation a little clearer, seeming to put Dan McCutchen, Phil Coke, George Kontos, Jason Jones and Brett Smith in line to start for Trenton.

4. A few people has asked about three independent league pitchers the Yankees signed this offseason: Luke Massetti, Stephen Artz and Chace Vacek. Newman spoke about them very briefly, saying all three have been fine this spring but that he wasn't sure where they would start the season. Somewhere in A ball.

* Mark Newman when asked about Humberto Sanchez will be used when he's healthy: "We're looking at him as a reliever right now, but we'll see how it goes. He can do both, depending on what our organization needs."

* Eladio Rodriguez, the catcher who was signed with Jason Rees out of the Israel Baseball League, never reported to the Yankees. Newman said he had some sort of visa problems.

J.B. Cox threw the 1st inning of Monday's Triple-A game and looked good, according to Jennings.

I thought Cox looked great. I stood behind the plate for his inning and he threw a lot of nice sliders for strikes, but when I asked Cox what he thought he just said it was "alright" and then did that hand thing where you rock it from side to side. I don't know if that particularly hand motion has a name, but it's what he did.

Eric Duncan has gone for 7-12 over the last 3 games with a home run and 5 RBI