AROUND THE HORN

***YANKEE NEWS***
Bartolo Colon has out pitched Freddie Garcia by a wide margin, but the Yanks are concerned that Colon has not pitched since 2009 and Garcia has a reputation for durability. You can only keep one, so who do you go to? Colon seems very motivated now, but hasn't always been. Garcia is the ultimate professional and seems to find a way to win. I'd go with Garcia.

One of the main points of focus this spring has been the defensive abilities of super-prospect, Jesus Montero. I can now report that all the time spent with Jorge Posada this spring has paid off: Montero has regressed and is now catching like him. This has created some concerns, and it now seems likely that Jesus will be sent down. He's not hitting either, and that's supposed to be his ticket to the bigs.

Curtis Granderson isn't recovering as well as hoped and may start the season on the DL. This means we get to see Andruw Jones a lot. This can't be good. Jones has looked like his best days are behind him...way behind him. Swisher is hurt, too. He fouled a ball off his instep. No word on the severity of his injury.

***...AND THE REST OF STORY***
Forbes Magazine has put the value of the Boston Red Sox at $920 Million, good for 2nd place in MLB. Who's first? Guess! Yeah, it's the Yanks at $1.7 Billion. In all sports, it's the Dallas Cowboys at $1.8 Billion. By comparison, the Batavia Muckdogs price out at $49.95 (Just kidding).

Which team is the worst in the majors this year? Not the Pirates, apparently. One talent evaluator says it's the Arizona Diamonbacks. "There just isn't a lot of talent there," he said. What would you expect when your #1 starter is Ian Kennedy?

What's the word at the Barry Bonds trial? Here's a description from Mark Purdy of Mercury News. "Each time you leave the courtroom, you feel like taking a shower." Pretty much sums it up.

One of Joe Torre's duties, besides being a poster boy for No-Doz, is determining the punishments for on-the-field mis-behavior of the players. Torre has claimed that umpires go too far trying to prevent bean-ball wars and they should be more inclined to let the players themselves police these situation. Anything that reduce the elitist attitude of the umps is okay in my book, but I'm not sure how that will fly.

My poor showing in the NCAAs continues. Yesterday, I mentioned BYU and Duke in the post -just mentioned them - and today they're both on the way home. Annie-O, in the meantime, is upset that she got one of the four games wrong. Picasner got only one right. Go away, Annie.

Many laughs at lunch with Vod & his lovely bride yesterday, and we out-lasted another waitress.

CP-