“I just take it day by day and listen to what he tells our trainers and our doctors,” Girardi said. “We just try to increase it every day and try to get him back as soon as he’s ready.”

Also OF/DH Hideki Matsui ran the bases for the first time since being put on the DL, and could be ready to play minor league games next week according to yankees.com.

“If everything goes well, I think in a couple days,” Matsui told the AP, through a translator. “I feel like I’ve been making good progress every day. Taking a good step forward each time.”

Also in other notes Yankees have optioned SP Ian Kennedy back to Tripple-A

Dunn is hitting .233 with 32 home runs and 74 RBI’s with Cincinnati.

Twenty-Three year old Dallas Buck was 1-4 with a 3.94 ERA at Class-A South Bend.

A-rod, Jeter, Manny. Thanks to my good pals at www.bostonsportsbuzz.com

www.mlbtraderumors.com has reported Manny Ramirez would like to play for the Yankees.

I promised myself no Manny Ramirez posts today, but…George King is reporting that “a close friend” of the slugger’s told him that Manny “wants to play for the Yankees so he can get at the Red Sox.” And of course, Ramirez went to high school in the Bronx [correction: upper Manhattan].

The Yankees well know what Ramirez can do with a bat. Only two players—Jimmie Foxx and Ted Williams—have more bombs against the Yankees than Ramirez does, and the New York papers greeted news of his departure from rival Boston with unrestrained glee. In 83 at-bats in Yankee Stadium over the past three years, Ramirez has hit .325/.411/.530.

But would the Yankees actually sign him? They can certainly afford him…but my hunch is that they’d prefer to keep working on their youth movement. And if it’s true, as agent Scott Boras has been saying, that Manny wanted to get out of the media-saturated fishbowl of Boston, a move to New York would be completely illogical. On the other hand, this is Manny we’re talking about…not Spock.

My opinion on this is the only way the Yankees should even consider signing Manny is if he will be willing do DH. With the exit of Jason Giambi and his 20 million dollar contract why not? Also Mike Mussina, Bobby Abreu and Andy Pettitte in their last years of there contracts all worth 16 million. If they could get those three to return but sign for less money I don’t see a problem with signing Manny.

Thanks to Wikipedia I got an updated list of the all time home run list.

Alex Rodriguez started this season with 519 Home Runs

If Alex Rodriguez averages 30 home runs each year on the ten year contract he will end up with 819 Home Runs.

If Alex Rodriguez averages 35 home runs each year on the ten year contract he will end up with 869 Home Runs.

If Alex Rodriguez averages 40 home runs each year on the ten year contract he will end up with 919 home runs.

If Alex Rodriguez averages 45 home runs each year on the ten year contract he will end up with 969 home runs.

I’m not to optimistic on the forty five home runs for each season but thirty-five or forty could be possible. If Alex doesn’t get a career ending injury or multiple DL stints I strongly believe he will end up with 800-900 home runs.

The Angels came out early pounding Ian Kennedy taking an early lead. Yankees Came back and took the lead but for Kennedy to only lose the lead for good. Alex Rodriguez hit his 544th home run on his career.

Game 2: Angels defeat Yankees 11-4 WP: Scot Shields (5-3) LP: Edwar Ramirez (3-1)

The Yankees took an early 2-0 lead on back to back home runs from Alex Rodriguez and Jason Giambi. Alex Rodriguez has 545 home runs in his career sitting only three back of twelfth place on the all time list behind Mike Schmidt. The Yankees would later go up 3-1 when Giese left the game after going six innings. The Bullpen would fall apart giving up 10 runs in two innings.

Game 3: Angels defeat Yankees 4-3 WP: Francisco Rodriguez LP: (2-2) Damaso Marte (4-2)

Once again The Yankees jumped out to an early 2-0 lead, went down 3-2 tied it 3-3 then lost it when Chone Figgens singled in the bottom of the ninth with one out and two on.

I’m going to be doing recaps by the series from now on due to my overloaded work schedule.

“I’ll be throwing in a week. I’ll probably throw the beginning of next week,” Chamberlain said Friday when he arrived at the Yankees’ spring training complex. “Everything feels fine now.”

“No. Not at all,” Chamberlain said. “It would have been different if I wasn’t still throwing 99 [mph]. It was a different feeling that I never had, so I just wanted to make sure.”

When asked if he would be ready to start again for the Yankees by Sept. 1, Chamberlain said “I’ll throw way before that in a game.”

Also OF/DH Hideki Matsui took a step forward reporting Friday he has no problem with his knee after running,

“The knee was fine, so I’m happy about that,” Matsui said through a translator.

“The fact that the activities I had yesterday and the way the knee responded today, honestly I do feel positive in the sense that we’re progressing forward,” Matsui said.

Matsui was not able to work on the field Friday due to rain. He did ride a stationary bike and took 54 swings in the cages.

The Yankees got on the board early in the top of the first on a Derek Jeter solo home run (7). The Yankees would score again in the fifth inning on a Johnny Damon single scoring Wilson Betemit. The Yankees would add one more run in the top of the ninth in a Derek Jeter single scoring Wilson Betemit. That would be all the Yankees would need with Rivera coming in the ninth to notch his Twenty-Eighth save of the season.

WP: Mike Mussina (15-7) LP: Scott Feldman SV: Mariano Rivera ( 28 )