Yankee news and notes-December 13th

"Ok maybe I still am a kid. This place is awesome!"-Joba Chamberlain

-Jon Heyman still pushing the idea that there’s a “mystery team” involved in the Cliff Lee sweepstakes. Yawn. Whenever you hear an agent push the idea that there’s a unnamed team involved, it’s usually a ploy  to gain more leverage for his client. Remember the ‘mystery team’ that was after Manny Ramirez all winter two years ago? Boras wound up taking his client all the way to the middle of spring training and eventually signing the Dodgers initial offer. Always remember that as a rule, the highest offer lands the player with few exceptions. All reports have the Yanks with the highest offer. If I had to bet the rent money, Lee’s a Yankee.

-Old friend Hideki Matsui looks like he’s found a home for next year, and good for him.

-Nice writeup by Mike Axisa over at RAB breaking down Mark Buehrle, for those of you who’ve been wondering about him as a plan B for either Lee or Pettitte. Whether it’s Buehrle or Derek Lowe, I have trouble targeting ground ball pitchers with the Yankee left side of the infield as old and slow as it is. As a rule, the Yanks target guys who miss bats, and neither of those guys do .

-Looks like Roger hasn’t been missing many meals. And ‘Goodfellas 2′? Somewhere a shark just sprained a fin making that leap.

-According to WEEI’s Rob Bradford, Mariano Rivera’s agent initiated contact with the Red Sox. Which is another way of saying Fern Cuza was doing his job. This may be an attempt by the Red Sox brass to smooth over things a bit with the always-combustible Paps, or simply an honest answer to a direct question. Either way, it’s meaningless.