YANKEE NOTES
TAMPA – Randy Choate did too much counting last season, too much worrying about where he fit. He is convinced that in all his concern about staying on the Yankee roster, he cost himself a spot on the Yankee roster.
“I took my focus off pitching last year and stunk because of it,” he said.
So this spring, Choate is trying hard to ignore that he is the 12th man on an 11-man pitching staff. He has shown up more tone in appearance and tone deaf to the roster noise around him. He also has shown up with some surprising supporters in Joe Torre and pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre, both of whom had demonstrated little confidence in Choate previously.
But after pitching miserably for the Yankees, Choate spent much of the second half of last season in Columbus. He abandoned his four-seam fastball, refined his two-seamer and suddenly found control of the strike zone (3-2, 1.72 ERA in 31 games at Columbus).
Upon Choate’s September call-up, Stottlemyre noticed the greater command and the good vibe has carried into this camp, with both Stottlemyre and Torre indicating a desire to get Choate onto the roster.
That will be very difficult unless Sterling Hitchcock is traded or an injury knocks out someone else.
Choate has shown in three Yankee seasons how effective he could be if he could just control his stuff, because when he is around the plate, hitters, especially lefties, have great difficulty against him. Choate has held batters to a .209 average, including just .168 by lefties.
“I know I am the 12th man,” Choate said. “But you never know with injuries and trades what is going to happen. Besides, I found in 2000 what can happen if you just worry about pitching. I was supposed to start in Double-A and actually wound up in Triple-A and eventually pitched in the majors.”
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The Pirates and Reggie Sanders came to an agreement on a one-year, $1 million contract pending Sanders passing a physical. That ends the possibility Raul Mondesi would end up in Pittsburgh.
The Pirates wanted the Yanks to eat $6 million of the $7 million they owe Mondesi in 2003, and the Yanks refused to pay that much.
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The Yanks nearly had a four-year extension worked out with Alfonso Soriano late last season, but the deal was never consummated.
Now, the Yanks are concentrating solely on getting a one-year deal done. They have imposed a deadline of no later than the first spring training game next Thursday to get all of their 40-man roster players like Soriano and Nick Johnson signed.