TAMPA – Hank Steinbrenner isn’t sure how Andy Pettitte will handle what he has been through when the pitcher arrives in camp Monday. Nor can Steinbrenner predict how the Yankees’ young arms will turn out in the rotation and bullpen. And if he has an answer at first base, everybody is listening.
Yet, there is one area Steinbrenner is dead sure about: how good his team is.
“All I can say is that we have as much a chance as the three or four top teams in the AL,” Steinbrenner said via phone yesterday afternoon after the Yankees opened camp at Legends Field with pitchers and catchers working out. “There are a lot of good teams in the league. I don’t know if the league has ever been stronger. We have as much a chance as Boston, Detroit and Anaheim this year. After that it’s only going to get better.”
Steinbrenner and everybody else in the organization are intoxicated by the bevy of young arms assembled throughout the system – from Chien-Ming Wang, Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain and Ian Kennedy to Jeffrey Marquez, Ross Ohlendorf and Daniel McCutcheon to Mark Melancon, Alan Horne and Andrew Brackman. Steinbrenner believes the Yankees are on the verge of a pitching dynasty.
Though it is nice to dream about, the reality is simple: The Yankees are built to win now. And Pettitte’s situation will pay a colossal part in determining if the Yankees’ string of 13 straight postseason appearances will extend to 14 come October.
Pettitte, who is slated to arrive in camp Monday after taking time to decompress from the Mitchell Report, his admission of using human growth hormone twice and giving a deposition to Congress that didn’t help buddy Roger Clemens, likely holds the key to the Yankees’ season.
“I don’t know, who knows,” Steinbrenner said about how he believes Pettitte will be affected by the circumstances preceding his arrival Monday. “When he gets in we will do the best job we can with him. But it’s hard to say at this point. Eventually, no, I don’t think it will bother him but we will have to wait and see.”
Pettitte is slated to throw a bullpen session today, likely in Houston, and is scheduled to meet the press upon reporting to campMonday, when many believe he will address the HGH use and his testimony once and be done with it.
Mariano Rivera predicted the tough-minded Pettitte would shake this off.
“He is going to be fine,” Rivera said. “We have to support him. I was surprised to see his name on the (Mitchell Report). But what can you do but pray for the man?”
Due to another business venture Thursday, Steinbrenner missed the seven-hour organizational meeting that brother Hal drifted in and out of. Asked if he will be present at Legends Field during spring training, Hank didn’t sound like he will be spotted on the field like his father was.
“I will be around. Today I saw Joe (Girardi) when I bumped into him,” Hank said. “That doesn’t mean I will be hanging around the field.”
Girardi welcomes Hank anywhere at anytime.
“I am sure we will talk regularly, he is the boss,” Girardi said.
Girardi said he didn’t have a problem if Hank wants to hang around the backstop and in the dugout during batting practice.
“I would love it,” Girardi said. “It’s his team.”