Some farm notes

From Chad Jennings and his chat with Yanks vice president of baseball operations Mark Newman:

Eric Fryer will most likely open the season in Tampa, where the Yankees are set and then some with Jesus Montero and Austin Romine at catcher. With that in mind, Newman's take on Fryer's playing time was exactly what you would expect. “We’ll see how it goes, have to see how that whole thing shakes out," Newman said. "We think early in the season most of his at-bats will come at first base and the otufield.” Newman agreed that there's a solid chance Montero or Romine -- or both -- will play too well to stay in Tampa all season, so opportunities behind the plate could open by midseason. Or, Fryer could get hot and move up himself. Fryer's new, so we'll all have to "see how it goes."

Here in Scranton, the ramification of the Wright trade is more immediate than a High-A outfielder/first baseman. Newman said trading Wright increased the chances of either Eric Hacker or George Kontos opening in the Triple-A rotation, but Double-A hasn't been ruled out for either of them. In theory, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre rotation could be filled without Kontos or Hacker (could be Hughes, Kennedy, Aceves, Coke and Igawa) but that's going to depend on what happens in big league camp.

From a personal level, I am hoping like heck that Eric Hacker makes the big club out of ST. I had the good fortune of interviewing Hacker here and would love to see him make the leap.