The New York Yankees opened their Grapefruit League season over the weekend by splitting a pair of games with the Philadelphia Phillies. The results really are not important, and it was only the first two games of the exhibition schedule, but there were a few notable highlights.
— Joba Chamberlain pitched a quality inning on Saturday, reaching 94 miles-per-hour on the radar gun. That is a big difference from last spring when Chamberlain barely reached 90 mph in Spring Training. Let’s see if that is a sign of better things to come from Joba in 2011.
— Highly-touted youngster Dellin Betances had the Yankees buzzing Sunday after striking out the side in an inning of work.
— The Yankees would really like youngster Ivan Nova, who pitched in 10 games last season, to earn one of the open spots in their starting rotation. Nova got off to a good start Sunday with two impressive innings, allowing just one hit and striking out two.