New York

You have to hand it to Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez. His taste in women is as varied as his hot zone at the plate.

He's been linked to women old enough to be his mom (Madonna) and he just reportedly let a 25-year-old loose for being too clingy.

He's gone Hollywood with Kate Hudson and high society with girls like Key West socialite Elaine Spottswood.

He's gone from Kate's chest impairment to Elaine's ample endowment.

Now he's going back to Tinseltown and going a little older.

There has been a lot of talk in the streets, on talk radio, and on the interwebs today about John Maine and whether or not the Mets should keep him in the rotation.

If you read my article from earlier today, you know that I would like to see Maine get at least one more start, so I won’t get into that again.

What we should talk about is if Maine is removed from the rotation, who would take his place?

The Yankees opened the 2010 season by playing their most hated rivals, the Boston Red Sox, on the road to start the year.

The Yankees won two of the three games to win the first series against Boston, a major confidence booster.

After Boston, the Yankees traveled to play another tough AL East division rival in the Tampa Bay Rays.

The first game went poorly for Javier Vazquez, and the Yankees took a 9-3 loss.

When the Yankees got Curtis Granderson in the winter, some people weren't totally sold on the center fielder.

"He only hit .249 and he can't hit lefties and he strikes out too much," were some of the things I heard about why trading for Granderson wasn't a good move.

After this past series with the Red Sox, I'm sure most of those critics will be silenced.

One of the most common things heard about new players is having them "earn their pinstripes." The way Granderson played this past series, he's earned them.

The New York Mets are a naturally occurring source of negativity.

You’d think they’d never won a World Series—something eight other expansion teams can claim, plus seven other clubs that have not exceeded the two championships won by the Mets.

Yet here we are at the beginning of another season, and the Mets are given little chance to finish third in the NL East, much less first.

Las Vegas has the Mets as an 18-to-1 underdog. Seems like pretty good odds compared to 100-to-1.

Brett Gardner had a great game for the New York Yankees on Opening Night in Fenway Park.

Against the Yankees' primary nemesis, Gardner was 2-for-4 at the plate with an RBI and a run scored.

This was very good news for Gardner and the Yankees, as his offense has been a question mark. But last night he was aggressive at the plate and on the bases, and he was valuable despite the Yankees' ultimate 9-7 loss.

In his first two at-bats Gardner slashed singles to left field. It was what he did after his second at-bat that was spectacular.

There was a lot of negativity surrounding the New York Mets this spring, but one of the bright spots was right-handed pitching phenom Jenrry Mejia.

Mejia burst on the scene this spring and was the talk of Mets camp. In 17 innings, Mejia had a 1.59 ERA and struck out nine while only walking three.

Mejia’s performance was so impressive that the Mets have decided to keep him on the major league roster to start the season.

Sorry about the updates being so late in the day today. I had a bit of running around to do this morning.

Just four days until the season starts—who’s excited? I am.

On to the news:

Nelson Figueroa got his final tune-up of the spring on Wednesday against the Florida Marlins, as he took the mound to fight for his big league career.

Figueroa—his start against the Marlins five days ago aside—has looked very strong this spring, but he indicated that he may head across to Japan should he not make the 25-man roster.

Manager Joe Girardi and the Yankees staff evaluated the entire spring training and came to the same conclusion I did: Phil Hughes should be the fifth starter.

Hughes beat out Joba Chamberlain, Alfredo Aceves, Sergio Mitre, and the recently released Chad Gaudin.

Girardi has been very impressed with the much-improved changeup that Hughes has been using and working on throughout the spring.

Chamberlain, Aceves, and Mitre are all now competing for spots in the Yankees bullpen. Nobody, including Chamberlain, is guaranteed a role. Each player will need to earn it.