Any man with a bat in his hand is dangerous. At least, that was the scouting report after Yankees pitchers took batting practice on Sunday.
Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, Ron Villone, Brian Bruney and Mike Mussina tried to hit off pitching coach Ron Guidry – with various degrees of success.
Asked who the best hitter in the bunch was, Mussina replied, “If you ask Andy, he’ll say he is.”
But Villone reported that he went yard off Guidry, as did Bruney. According to Villone, Clemens was taking it easy while punching the ball the other way.
“Everybody was swinging the bat good,” said Villone, a career .130 (22-for-169) hitter.
Mussina, who starts tonight, owns a career average of .178 (8-of-45). Clemens owns a .169 career average (30-for-177). Pettitte is at .136 (24-for-177). Bruney is 0-for-1 in his career, and Chien-Ming Wang is 0-for-5.
Count Villone as someone who likes interleague play – to a point.
“I kind of fall on both sides of the fence,” Villone said. “I like it, but I think it’s a little bit of overkill sometimes when you’re playing guys out of nowhere.”
The Yankees announced yesterday that they have signed left-hander Kai Liu and catcher Zhenwang Zhang to minor league contracts, becoming the first major-league team to sign a player from China with approval from the Chinese Baseball Association.
The 19-year old Liu began playing baseball in 2000 for the Guangdong Province team and was a member of the Chinese national team.
Zhang, 19, began his playing career in 1998 and helped lead his team, the Tianjin Lions, to the CBL championship series in three of the past five seasons (2002, 2005 and 2006). He also participated in the 2006 World Baseball Classic.
The players will be introduced at a Yankee Stadium press conference on July 6 and then report to Tampa.
“This is an exciting opportunity for us to integrate Chinese players into the organization,” GM Brian Cashman said. “We believe that this is the start of something we can develop further as we work toward our commitment to help grow the game of baseball in China.”
Pitching matchups for the Colorado series: Tonight, Mike Mussina (3-3, 5.17) faces RHP Josh Fogg (2-5, 4.95). Tomorrow night, Andy Pettitte (4-4, 2.93) opposes LHP Jeff Francis (6-5, 3.61). On Thursday night, Roger Clemens (1-1, 3.65) makes his third start against RHP Rodrigo Lopez (3-0, 2.90).