MLB

GIAMBI SWINGING BAT WELL IN CAMP

TAMPA – Granted, it’s easier to spray balls all over the field in batting practice without Yankee Stadium’s short porch staring you in the face. Yet, Jason Giambi turned back the clock to 2001 yesterday at Legends Field when he consistently drove balls to left-center. It was the approach Giambi used in Oakland but got away from when he surfaced in The Bronx.

“That’s what he did a lot a couple of years back,” Girardi said. “Yankee Stadium can get you a little bit too pull conscious if you are a left-handed hitter. Pulling a baseball is a reaction, it’s not something that you will have good at-bats if you go up there and you try to do it. You try and stay on the ball and when the ball is inside you try and react to it.”

Yesterday was the latest good day Giambi has enjoyed. He came to camp in great shape and it has shown in the running programs.

“He has been able to go through all the running and the drills,” said Girardi of Giambi, who is in the final season of a seven-year, $120 million deal. “He has early work and stays after late.”

If the 37-year-old Giambi, who missed nine weeks last year with a foot problem, can play first base and remain healthy, the Yankees have more roster flexibility. Shelley Duncan, Wilson Betemit and Morgan Ensberg also are in the mix at first.

“I think he is going to be productive, you look at the shape he is and I look at the way he is doing his work. There is no reason he can’t be really productive,” Girardi said.

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The Yankees are looking at Sean Henn, Billy Traber and possibly Kei Igawa to fill the role of left-handed reliever. However, by the end of spring training they could have 33-year-old Damaso Marte, who is being dangled by the Pirates.

Marte, a former Yankees minor leaguer who was dealt to the Pirates for Enrique Wilson on June 13, 2001, and later pitched for the White Sox before going back to Pittsburgh, is a free agent following the season. He held left-handed hitters to a ridiculous .094 (6-for-64) average a year ago, and across the last three years he has limited them to a .206 (50-for-243) average.

According to industry sources the Pirates are looking for youth in return for Marte, who will make $2 million this year and is guaranteed a $250,000 buyout next year if a $6 million option is exercised.

Since Henn is out of options, the Yankees have to decide if he is the answer or risk losing him on waivers.

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Ever wonder how girls turn into baseball groupies? Try their mothers. When Steven White emerged from the first base dugout yesterday a woman yelled from the seats, “I have young daughters, Steven.” Later, another woman begged Alex Rodriguez to turn around at the batting cage for a picture by screaming, “Hey A-Rod, how about [a picture] for my bedroom.”

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Reggie Jackson refused to get into the middle of the Roger Clemens/Andy Pettitte relationship but did pay respect to them. “I would like to have a brother like Roger and a son like Andy,” Jackson said on his first day of camp where he is a guest instructor. . . . Yogi Berra arrives today. . . . The Yankees will play a seven-inning intra-squad game today, hold a light workout tomorrow and open the exhibition season on Friday against the University of South Florida at Legends Field.