Damon's muscle problems and weak arm unbalance the team a lot.

Cable subscribers will once again be able to watch out-of-market Major League Baseball games, ending their fears that the Extra Innings package would become the exclusive domain of DirecTV for the next seven years.

M.L.B. and InDemand — a consortium that is owned by the cable operators Comcast, Time Warner and Cox — agreed last night to restore Extra Innings swiftly to their systems as a free preview through sometime next week, after which it will cost a discounted $159 for a short period.

...

The Dish Network, DirecTV's satellite rival, has not made a deal. "No one is locked out," said Tim Brosnan, an executive vice president of M.L.B. But Dish said in a statement that baseball's terms were too costly and that it was not optimistic that it could reach a fair deal.

The crucial part of the negotiations for baseball was InDemand's agreement to carry the MLB Channel, which is to make its debut in 2009.

Melky can handle center just fine. Made a couple nice catches out there last month. I'd say his arm makes him an upgrade over Damon out there.

If Damon goes to the DL Kevin Thompson gets called up, right? I mean Cairo's not the 5th outfielder, right? Cairo's shoes shall not touch turf (by design), right?

I'm all faklempt! :-)

I wasn't aware of this news last night, and just for kicks went to the EI channels on my Time Warner Cable box. Lo and behold, there were all the games!

Ahh .... I can listen to Vin Scully again ...

3 Cano is probably the worst choice for lead-off. I'd simply move everyone up a spot and place Melky in the 8 slot.

4 I've been a pretty vocal supporter of MLB's position and think the terms of the agreement justify their hard-line stance. The opportunity to launch the MLB channel to 40 million homes makes it a massively lucrative venture (it will be one of the biggest cable launches in history), one that would have been forfeited had Selig and Co. caved to early public pressure. In the end, it seems as if everyone will benefit...and not at MLB's expense.

Let's put that RHP surplus to work, Cash!

3 Sliced has it right on Melky. He was a centerfielder in the minors if I recall correctly and looked good there this spring. And, yes, they'll call up a Kevin (probably Thompson) if Damon hits the DL. Until then (or until Damon's ready to play again), however, Cairo is the back-up OF on a three-man bench.

Anyone follow the BoSox last night? You'll get the wrong idea if you just look at the box score. Beckett gave up just one run and two hits in five innings, but: he threw more balls than strikes. Okay, small sample so far, but the "top" of the Red Sox' rotation looks to be in trouble. They'd better be praying that Dice-K lives up to his Mike Plugh billing. On the other hand, JD Drew looks like a great get for Boston, so far.

I was really hoping that the D-Rays would be dumb enough to trade Elijah Dukes or Johnny Gomes for some less than great pitching prospects from us. that kinda made sense for both sides in terms of excess, but now we have to watch in horror as Dukes turns into a Frank Thomas lite that can play CF eeek

In other words, it's Andy Pettitte weather.

Home Opener '96. Snowed all game. Andy wins.

Home Opener '03. No snow, but freezing cold. Andy wins. Thank you, Mr. Matsui. That was grand.

Did the D-Rays pack their mittens?

Maybe I am mistaken, but didn't the Beckett who dominated the Yankees throw 97-98mph? Considering that he doesn't have great movement on his fastball and often can't command his breaking pitch, it would seem to me as if he NEEDS to hit the high-90s. Instead, over the past season (and last night), his fastball has been more in the 94-95mph range.

"As part of the agreement, iN Demand and DirecTV each will receive about 16 percent equity in the new network, a person familiar with the deal said, speaking on condition of anonymity because that detail wasn't announced. Under the original agreement, DirecTV was to be a 20 percent owner."

http://tinyurl.com/373n3t

I'm just glad they worked out a fair deal and it's finally over (however, I still feel bad for those who have Dish Network). For the first time this spring, I am actually looking forward to watching a game (now that I can watch with my family). It's like Christmas morning...

Word last year was that the band-aid Beckett wears between starts to prevent blisters is what screwed up his curve. He couldn't throw it well with the band-aid on, so when he went to it in games, it was all over the place. I wonder if the band-aid hurts the movement on his fastball too. I remember him not just throwing 96+, but 96+ with movement.

http://tinyurl.com/2wa7q7

Ah, good. Now I get to be a couch potato and watch the Yankee games. Yippee!

figures they take care of the cable deal the day after i sign up to mlb.tv for the full season... oh well... i can watch daisuke at work this afternoon...

http://tinyurl.com/35dt4u

a nice gesture, i think.

MLB.com will honor any refund request for a Seasonal subscription made within 10 days of the purchase and any refund request for a Monthly subscription made within 5 days of the purchase or within 5 days of the last billing. To request a refund please call customer support at 1-866-800-1275 or send an e-mail to customerservice@website.mlb.com

Although you might want to keep it, I have subsribed to both for a couple of years since not all Yankee games are shown on EI (stupid FOX blackout rule). It also allows me to catch games at work (don't tell my boss) and if I am travelling. Plus, the late games on the west coast are easy to watch the next morning with the condensed game feature.

thanks!

Points for MLB.tv:
-$120 for the year vs $160 for EI
-portability
-avoiding blackouts
-can quit at any time, assuming I move this summer
-condensed games
-my computer is my computer, whereas I have to share the TV that has the cable box with the wife

Points for EI:
-can watch on my TV
-sometimes games in hi def on the HD showcase channels
-can Tivo games and put them on an hour into it and blitz the commercials

Probably gonna call MLB.tv tonight and get it cancelled...

AVOIDING blackouts on mlb.tv?

please explain, 25.

mlb.tv is clearly cable's bitch.

I think it's easy to overthink these things. If he were putting Cano in the leadoff spot for a season, or even a month, I'd agree with you. For a few games, I don't think it matters that much.

BTW, their Mosaic program seems to have streaming problems. Anybody else finding that?

I like the idea of having up 6 games running at once, but unfortunately the quality of Mosaic stinks.

I was thinking about cool entry songs for players, and maybe A-Rod could endear himself more to the fans with a signature song. Jeter doesn't really have one, either, so I dunno, but look at how "Enter Sandman" makes the fans go nuts when they know Mo is a-comin'.

26,31,

my mlb.tv account is billed in florida, yet i can not watch ANY yankee games (i live in brooklyn). i assumed i could do the same as you guys, but mlb does not use your billing address, rather it determines where your IP address is physically at.

cable owns the f'in world and i am furious. i don't want two hundred channels!!! i don't want lifetime and mtv3 and espn8 and all the other shit. i just want to watch the got-damn yankee games and no one will let me do it without signing a devil's contract with the cable company.

grr!!!!

Carlos Beltran (Shoulda been a Yankee)
Grady Sizemore

Anyone else watching Matsuzaka? He seemed to throw a pretty good number of pitches that inning, giving up a hit and a walk (and two double play balls, one executed).

BTW, Greinke is also pitching a gem. 7 innings, 1 ER against the Sox. He's struck out Ortiz 3 times I think.

[gulp]

44 Yes, Greinke did pitch well. Yes he did K Ortiz 3 times. Good kid, that.

And yes I think that a decent lineup will pound him, although it will be interesting to see if he does get settled into the MLB. He looks unshakeable, but he certainly wasn't dominating. I kept thinking MAN I can't WAIT until we see him in the Bronx!!!! How many pitches did he throw in the dirt???

Royals fans seemed quieter & more polite than even Toronto fans, but maybe it was because of the cold. (Game temperature, 36F.) Anyway, they seemed to at least appreciate the cheering of this loud Yankee fan. :-)