And so, at about noon today, the first domino fell.

Manny Banuelos, Jack Curry reported, had been promoted to Scranton. Manny didn't know about it. Tony Franklin didn't know about it. Frankly, it seemed as if Curry was the only one outside of the Yankees braintrust who knew about it at all.

Then the game was played (a 5-0 Thunder loss) and everything became clearer. Banuelos was in the clubhouse hugging and high-fiving his teammates, packing his things and getting ready for the next step on his journey.

He's scheduled to make his Triple-A debut Tuesday against Lehigh Valley, where (I think) he'll match up against Scott Mathieson, a guy I root for because he's survived two Tommy John surgeries.

It seems as if everyone around here was waiting for Banuelos to go on a hot streak, after which we assumed he'd get the bump. That streak never really came (although his last start was quite good), but the Yankees thought he'd improved enough to be tested at the next level.

With Scranton, Banuelos will be plugged into a rotation that features Adam Warren, Andrew Brackman, D.J. Mitchell, Lance Pendleton and Greg Smith (it appears that Banuelos will take Smith's slot).

I'll be at Scranton on Tuesday, so expect plenty of stuff from the young man's Triple-A debut.

According to Jack Curry of the YES Network, Manny Banuelos has been (or will be) promoted to Triple-A Scranton for his next start, which would come on Tuesday in one of the games of their doubleheader with Lehigh Valley.

Banuelos, the Yankees' top prospect, was 5-4 with a 3.59 ERA in 95 1/3 innings of work in Double-A this year. He's missed a little time with blister issues, but otherwise has had a clean bill of health.

Banuelos is still in the building and has not been informed of his promotion. I'll have comments from him later on in the afternoon.

TRENTON — Against some of the circuit’s top talent and with a horde of scouts watching and recording his every pitch, Manny Banuelos finally put together a signature moment for the 2011 season.

For the first half of the year, the Thunder starter had put forth results that mostly resided toward the upper end of middling. The stuff’s been there, but the command has not, and that’s what has kept him from achieving the truly elite status.

After Zach Stewart started and Princeton native Erik Arnesen pitched a frame, Banuelos entered the proceedings and blew away the competition in rather impressive and efficient fashion.

He struck out all three men he faced — Bowie’s Xavier Avery, Altoona’s Starling Marte and Akron’s Juan Diaz — on just 13 pitches, all but two of which were strikes. He threw almost exclusively fastballs and topped out at 94 miles per hour, according to one scout’s gun.

“I haven’t felt that way throughout the year. If I’m able to throw like that, good things are going to happen. That’s the way I want to throw. It’s a good thing to take forward,” Banuelos said afterward, with the help of teammate and fellow All-Star Dellin Betances.

“I’m going to try to take this outing into the second half. I feel like the way I commanded out there and the way I felt, it’s something I (would) definitely take in the second half.”

Betances, who has struggled with efficiency problems all year, got into the game in the fifth and quickly put his struggles in the rear-view. He cut through the Western Division in just seven pitches, including a strikeout of Bowie catcher Caleb Joseph.

He also got a popout from Roger Kieschnick and finished a stress-free frame on Avery’s fly ball to the left-field warning track.

“It was a quick outing, seven pitches, I can’t complain,” he said. “Last time I pitched was six days ago, so it’s one of those things. I just had to go after these guys and throw strikes, and I got some good defense.”

On the offensive side, second baseman Corban Joseph was the star, scoring a pair of hard-hit singles, including a screamer through the box against Tigers stud hurler and Futures Game alumnus Jacob Turner.

Joseph has turned his stock around since his Trenton debut, when a barking wrist veiled his true offensive potential. Now, with everything long healed, he’s putting his sweet left-handed stroke to good use, culminating in a fan selection to Wednesday night’s action in the All-Star Game.

“I enjoyed it,” Joseph said. “I got lucky and got two hits. I swung through in my first at-bat, and that’s something I’ve never done before. They encourage that here. I thought, what’s a better time to do that than at the All-Star Game?”

Catcher Austin Romine, fresh off a two-hit effort at the Futures Game at Chase Field, rolled a single to right field in his first trip, putting a cap on a very fruitful effort for Trenton’s quartet of All-Stars.

MANNY BANUELOS

MONKEYS ON DOGS HERDING GOATS

DELLIN BETANCES

CORBAN JOSEPH

AUSTIN ROMINE

MANNY BANUELOS

JN: You've watched Dellin all year. How much do you think he's improved since April?

MB: Now he looks very comfortable compared with time before. His last start was very impressive. He threw very hard, he threw a lot of strikes ... it was pretty impressive.

JN: Was that his best start of the year?

MB: Yeah. He had a couple of good starts before, but I watched him all game and he looked very comfortable and aggressive the whole time.

JN: Had he not had that aggressiveness all year?

MB: He tried to, but he's still working on mechanics and some other things. I saw him aggressive all year, but this time ... wow ... all his stuff.

JN: In the beginning of the year, do you think that blister was hurting him more than maybe he was letting on?

MB: I saw his finger .. it was really bad. Every day we saw his finger, and it was getting better. I think he came back very quick (considering how bad it looked).

JN: With all the expectations on him this year, do you think there's more pressure on him than in past years?

MB: No, no. I saw him all the time relaxed. He knows what he's doing.

JN: Do you remember the first outing you saw him, way back when you both were in the Gulf Coast League together?

MB: Really tall! For the hitters, I saw him pitching and throwing really hard. I said, 'Man, he's really tall and he throws really hard. It's impossible to hit!'

JN: Did you know about him before that game, about how much money he got and what kind of pedigree he had?

MB: I never had seen him before. I'd said hi to him, but we'd never talked. Before that game, never. I just saw him pitch and said 'Who is this guy? Where is he playing? Is he in Low-A? Is he here for a rehab?' I said, 'Man, this guy's nasty."

JN: You two guys have been linked together for a while now. Have you become friends because of it? Are you guys closer because it's Dellin and Manny or it's Manny and Dellin?

MB: I like to talk to him. I like him like a player and like a friend. We talk a lot about baseball and about families and also about friends. He's not my friend just for the baseball, cause I like him like a person. He's nice. He's a really nice person.

JN: What does he do off the field for fun?

MB: I like to see him when he starts to dance. When we're at the hotel we play music and we laugh and he starts to dance really funny. He's really good.



JN: Can he breakdance?

MB: Yeah. He can dance everything. It's funny because he's really tall. You see a big guy dancing and it's really funny. His moves and everything, we laugh and we make fun.

JN: Are you as good a dancer as he is?

MB: No. Not like that.

JN: If I asked him what you do off the field to relax, what would he tell me?

MB: I have no idea, man. I have no idea. You have to ask him.

JN: You don't do anything off the field?

MB: We talk a lot, but nothing special.

JN: What does it mean to be an All-Star for the first time?

MB: I've been an Arizona Fall League Rising Star and I went to the Futures Game in 2009. ... I am pretty happy for making the All-Star. It's hard, but I'm surprised because I haven't done very well in the season and I made the team.

JN: What do you to improve in the second half?

MB: I just want to come in pitching like I want. I haven't had any starts where I've come in being aggressive or with my command. I just want to throw all my stuff like last year.

Mike Ashmore and I conducted this interview with Yankees player development guru Mark Newman on Tuesday. His questions indicated with "MA," whereas mine are indicated with "JN." Mark's answers are indicated with a simple "A" for answer. Enjoy.

JN: Where is Adams in terms of coming back to this team?

A: Adams is farther way. Adams will not come directly here anyway. He’ll probably go play in the Florida State League before he comes here.

JN: Will that be a rehab, or will that be officially on Tampa’s roster?

A: They don’t do minor league rehabs there, so he has to go on their roster.

JN: Has the fact that he’s taken so long to come back been frustrating for you?

A: It’s been frustrating for him. I empathize with him. One, he is a very good player and prospect. Two, he works beyond diligently at his craft defensively and offensively, and throughout this process at the rehab work that he faces. So he’s frustrated, but when you get down to it, what good does that do you?

What he needs to do, and what he does do, is work at it every day. Humanness dictates that there’s some frustration, but he’s a smart enough guy to know that if you spend too much time on those feelings and emotions, it’s going to make your task even more difficult.

JN: As for Stoneburner?

A: Stoneburner’s pitching in games on a rehab assignment in the GCL. He’s got some more hoops to jump through. He had two innings in his last start.

MA: And Bleich?

A: Bleich is a long way away. He’s not imminent. There’s no reason to worry about him.

JN: I assume you were made aware of Slade Heathcott’s incident this year in Charleston. Was there any talk of possible internal discipline for his actions?

A: There wasn’t any internal discipline.

JN: When you see a kid who has Heathcott’s background, and this happens, does it worry you a little?

A: He’s doing well at what he’s doing. I was no more worried about him than I would have been anyone else. He’s been great. We’ve had zero problems with him.

MA: Betances and Banuelos are obviously the talk of the organization. How would you compare those two in terms of where they’re at right now?

A: Very close. They’re both pitching well here. They could both pitch better here. They could both improve the control and command of their fastball, so they’re very close in my mind.

MA: Is one ahead of the other?

A: I don’t really think so. If there were, I wouldn’t say.

JN: That third B, Brackman, are his issues mostly between the ears?

A: He’s not doing well. He’s scuffling. I think it’s a confidence thing. More than anything else, it’s that.

JN: What do you do to treat something like that?

A: He’s working at it, and he’s got to work through the problems. When athletes struggle, the good ones, what they do is call on past successes and they run that video through their brain. Brack’s got to do that sort of thing.

He’s got to remember how good a pitcher he is. At the end of the year last year, he was a good as anyone here. In the playoffs, a lot of our guys said he was our best pitcher in the playoffs.

He can do that again. It’s been a tough year for him, but he’s certainly good enough and he’s certainly working at it.

JN: Do you have a sports psychologist on staff to deal with such problems if need be?

A: We’ve got a department of four people that deal with those issues specifically, but all of our coaches do too. It’s an ongoing conversation. What can we do to help our players max out their performance potential? Coaches and sports performance experts – I mean, coaches are performance experts – our coaches understand these things, our sports performance department understands these things. We try to educate players about how to think and feel during competition, during preparation for competition. It’s constant.

We gameplan for three aspects with our athletes:

∙ Fundamental – how you catch, throw and hit

∙ Physical – How you get stronger, faster, quicker, bigger

∙ Mental emotionally – How you think and how you feel

All those things are intertwined. They don’t exist independently of each other. We understand that we need a program in those three areas for all of our players.

Depending on the individual and depending on where you are in this guy’s career, one of those things may be predominant. Brack right now is working on confidence. It’s what he’s got to do. It’s taken a couple of hits, his confidence has, but this is a game for tough people.

When I say tough people, it’s not just run over catchers, or break up double plays or run into walls to catch fly balls. A lot of the toughness required in this business is mental. It’s the ability to fight through junk. That’s where he’s at. He’s in a tough spot, we’ve got other players who have been in tough spots too.

MA: Wanted to ask you about the hitting coach situation. Ever since Matos left, I guess things have been in flux a little bit. When the situation happened, what was your reaction?

A: My initial reaction was just to find out went on. After that, you gather facts and you make judgments. As a result of that, we decided that it wasn’t going to work to have him here for the remainder of the season. We’re lucky we’ve got James Rowson, who’s going to spend a ton of his time here. James is an excellent hitting coach, and Pat Roessler’s our farm director. He’s a former major league hitting coach and hitting coordinator, and he’s exceptional too. So these guys will be in good hands.

MA: What is Matos’ status in the organization right now?

A: He’s still a member of the organization, he’s just not here right now.

JN: What was behind the decision to keep Cito Culver at Staten Island this year rather than move him to Charleston with Gary Sanchez?

A: Different player, different needs. Sanchez was probably the premier performer in the Gulf Coast League a year ago. Cito did a solid job. That’s all it is.

MA: Is there anybody here knocking on the door of Scranton?

A: Not right at the moment. Everybody expects Manny and Dellin to go, and they’ll go when they’re consistent, when they put together the kinds of performances we’re looking for. That doesn’t necessarily mean shutouts. It means when they continue to execute.

Austin Romine could play at any Triple-A field in the country and be at home, but that’s just a matter of he and Montero need to catch.

JN: With Montero, the word complacency has been thrown around. Is that something you’ve seen?

A: No. I see him work every day. I see his defense improve. I think his defense has improved significantly over a year ago, and I think he continues to take steps in the right direction. He’s not putting up the offensive numbers he did last year, but last year his offense came in the last two months, two and a half months, and that’s where we are now.

JN: Are you surprised it took him that long to turn it on in Triple-A last year?

A: He’s 21 years old. He’d be a college senior. I’m surprised he’s in Triple-A, and that he’s working on his second year in Triple-A.

MA: People talk a lot about the Hughes Rules, the Joba Rules, all that kind of stuff. When you see some of your younger guys break down a little bit like they have, not that I’m at all suggesting anything wrong is going on, do you second guess the way you’re progressing these guys along in terms of pitch counts, innings, stuff like that?

A: Second guess how? Should have pitched them more, should have pitched them less?

MA: In any sort of sense.

A: No. I’ve done this too long and seen too many injuries. When we go through last year and have basically no injuries, and I tell our young guys -- they think, for a fleeting moment characterized by a lack of humility, that we’ve figured out how to keep pitchers healthy – you’re always going to deal with pitchers injuries.

There are three things that you can control: Mechanics, conditioning and workload. You cannot control DNA, and you cannot control the fact that the human body is not designed to do this. So, our pitching coaches try to help guys develop deliveries that are going to help them sustain. Our strength and conditioning coaches get involved in arm exercise, cardio, core, flexibility exercises designed to help these guys sustain.

The programs are designed in conjunction with the best doctors and physical therapists in the country, the Andrewses and the extraordinary orthopedic surgeons who do so many of these things. That’s a lot of information, and no one’s got answers.

Every once in a while, some club will start talking about this or that program they have – tread lightly. As soon as you think you’ve got the answer – as they say in golf, as soon as you think you’ve got the key they change the lock. I’ve done this long enough – as a lot of us have here – to have a healthy amount of humility about how hard this stuff is.

We monitor pitches, innings, increases, workloads, times a year, long-throwing programs, core exercises, when they do their arm exercises, how many times during the week, how many reps … no detail is beyond our concern. Having said that, we don’t control the whole environment.

JN: You mentioned DNA. While you obviously can’t look at DNA itself, can you go back and look at a guy’s family history to see if there’s anything there?

A: If they had a mother and a father who were pitchers that pitched 300 innings a year for 20 years like Nolan Ryan, you’d probably say: Well, there’s a shot. Beyond that, you look for bigger and stronger, but jeez, who’s bigger and stronger than Grant Duff? Tim Norton, who’s bigger and stronger than him?

They work very hard. Stuff happens. If we used them four days in a row, if the starter went 160 (pitches) because we were trying to win a playoff game, then we should be rightly scrutinized. Our primary objective is to produce and get these guys ready to play, and sometimes they get hurt. This year, we’ve had more than our share, as has our big league staff.

JN: Staying on medical for a little bit, Alan Horne had platelet-rich plasma therapy. Was he the first in the organization to have that procedure done?

A: No. We’ve used it for knees, hamstrings … it’s kind of en vogue now. We’ll know in a couple of years how good it is.

JN: Which gets to the point of the question: What is the organization’s approach to newer medical procedures?

A: Our doctors are doing it. I’m not doing it. Casey Stengel once said about a player “his limits are limitless.” My limits in the medical field are limitless. I don’t know, but our Dr. Ahmad, in New York, (and others like him), they have the current research. We defer.

JN: Corban Joseph has really done well this year. What are your guys in the organization saying about the returns on him this season?

A: Well. We love his bat. He works very hard at defense. He had a really great double play turn the other day in New Britain. First and third, one out – it was a heck of a play. He’s done well.

JN: Same kind of question with Jose Pirela. First two months were bad, but now he’s turned it on. What do you think caused that turnaround?

A: Look at his month to months last year – same thing. He told me it was weather. First two months, he’s never played in cold weather, he’s from Venezuela. I said, well what happened the first two months of last year, in Tampa? It was the same thing.

Not sure he could play in the league? I don’t know. That’s rank amateur psychology. He hit a long home run to left-center in New Britain, I mean it was a bomb.

Aside from a couple of walks in the first few innings, Manny Banuelos put together his finest effort of the season tonight. He had just about everything working, including an absolutely devastating, two-plane curveball that turned Brahaim Maldonado into a human corkscrew.

His fastball was operating in the standard 93-95 mile per hour range, and his change-up was playing its usual tricks on hitters, but the curveball quite clearly took center stage on this misty evening in the capital city.





Here's what his manager had to say about his left-hander's hook:

"That's nasty. If it's breaking twice, that's nasty. Once is enough."

Asked whether, with the way he's pitching now, he'd endorse Banuelos' promotion to The Show after New York's spate of injuries, here's what Tony Franklin said:

"No, I wouldn't. If I didn't feel that he was ready to pitch there, I wouldn't recommend that he go. They could probably scar him pretty bad. It's a very difficult situation to pitch in the big leagues. If you go up there and you don't have command of the strike zone and control enough to throw balls over the plate, it's not a good place to be. I would much rather for him to be a little more ready to go rather than have some doubt in my mind."

Overall, Banuelos lasted 5 2/3 innings, allowed three hits and three walks, two earned runs and struck out eight. He threw 100 pitches on the nose, 59 of which found the strike zone. So was he good? Yes. Is there room for improvement, even at this level? Yes.

Banuelos left the clubhouse before the media had a chance to interview him. That's why there are no quotes from him.

- Kei Igawa was promoted to Scranton before the game, forcing Cory Arbiso into spot-start duty tomorrow. It sounds like Igawa will start for Scranton tomorrow, which is weird because that's Brackman's slot. Either somebody had bad information, or something is up in Moosic.

- Jose Gil hit his third home run of the season, and almost certainly his first inside-the-park dinger of his career. Maldonado dove to corral Gil's sinking line drive, did something to his arm and rolled around on the ground while Gil circled the bases.

Maldonado said afterward that he thought he had broken his wrist, even though he ultimately stayed in the game.

- With concussions fresh on the Thunder's mind, it must have been pretty scary to watch Addison Maruszak take a 90-mph heater to the helmet. Maruszak, however, bounced up as if nothing happened and jogged to first. Tony Franklin and Tim Lentych asked him a battery of questions before allowing him to remain in the game.

- Continuing a trend, Naoya Okamoto was stellar again this evening. The Japanese lefty hasn't allowed a run since coming back from the DL on May 21. In those 11 2/3 innings, Okamoto has surrendered just four hits and a walk and has fanned 10. He hasn't allowed a hit in his last seven innings, spanning three appearances.

- There's no movement on the Austin Romine front. The catcher will have more tests done before he is cleared to return. For now, all he's doing is annoying his teammates on the bench while he waits for the OK.

- Jose Pirela had the key two-run double that put the Thunder ahead tonight. Since May 27, the shortstop is hitting .316/.368/.524 with three doubles, two triples, two HRs and 12 RBIs.

- The win, coupled with New Hampshire's loss, puts the Thunder back in the lead in the E.L. East and gives the best record on the circuit.

READING, Pa. -- DeAngelo Mack and Yadil Mujica each hit their first home run at Double-A, Corban Joseph added a longball of his own, and Brad Suttle went deep twice -- and it still wasn't enough to earn the Thunder a win.

Starting pitcher Manny Banuelos had one of the worst outings of his career, and Trenton fell to Reading in 12 innings, 8-7, at FirstEnergy Stadium.

Banuelos, who has been maligned by control problems all season long, gave up two home runs to R-Phils slugger Cody Overbeck and issued three walks in his four innings on Monday. The nine hits he allowed were a career worst. He also threw three wild pitches, tying him with Andrew Brackman for third-most in the system.

The series continues tonight at 7 p.m. when Kei Igawa takes the hill.

After eight games on the road, there's obviously going to be a fair amount of ground to cover in the clubhouse. Today is no exception. Here's what various members of the Thunder had to say:

Pitching coach Tommy Phelps, on Manny Banuelos' mechanics, and how they've affected his control this season:

"He's just getting late with his separation and his rhythm's off. (We're) just trying to get his tempo a little quicker and get some rhythm in his delivery so he can be more natural and be like he used to be. Sometimes he gets real slow and deliberate, and it gets too mechanical and he can't let his natural ability take over."

On whether the problems mechanically are causing his command issues this season:

"I think so. ... Even last year, he didn't command the ball really well. He threw a lot of strikes, but there's a difference between commanding and throwing strikes. He's starting to get really good to the glove side of the plate, which is good for a pitcher. His arm side's getting better; a lot of times his ball will run off the plate, but he's getting better at commanding the fastball."

Phelps, on Pat Venditte's mental struggles and how a pitching coach deals with that side of the game:

"That's a part you deal with. It's not just mechanics, curveball, fastball; there's a lot of mental aspects that are a part of it. I think it's just him getting comfortable and realizing his stuff is good enough here to get hitters out, as it was at every other level."

"You support him and you give him positive feedback. Keep pushing him in the right direction, and when he starts having success, the confidence naturally comes right after that. It's just a matter of him getting out there and getting the opportunities and doing it over and over again. He's going to have success with his stuff, and he's a great competitor."

"Even when he was a struggling he was a hard worker. Now that he's having success, he's working hard or harder. His focus and his determination is second to none and he comes to work to get prepared every day to get himself better, and it shows in the way he's pitching."

Brad Suttle's Home Run



Melky Mesa's fantastic catch



Banuelos strikeout No. 1



Banuelos strikeout No. 2



Banuelos strikeout No. 3



Banuelos strikeout No. 4



Banuelos strikeout No. 5



Banuelos strikeout No. 6



Banuelos strikeout No. 7

TRENTON -- Tony Franklin sounded like a rerun.

“He’s been better,” the Thunder manager said of winning pitcher Manny Banuelos. “He wasn’t sharp with his location or control of his pitches.

“Once again, the question is when you don’t have your good stuff, how good is he going to be? I think he was pretty good.”

That was essentially what Franklin had said the night before about Dellin Betances. Once again, the result was similar -- only the score was different. This time the Thunder beat the Reading Phillies by a 4-2 count.

The 20-year-old Banuelos threw 84 pitches as he worked the first five innings to pick up not only his first win of the season but his first regular-season victory since 2009. Like his manager, he wasn’t at all satisfied with his control.

“I gave up two walks. That’s bad for me,” he said. “I have to work on my command and throw more strikes.”

Both of the walks led to runs for Reading.

A two-out pass to Derrick Mitchell in the second inning was followed by a stolen base and a run-producing single by Michael Spidale.

In the fifth, Paco Figueroa drew a full-count walk and came around on Tuffy Gosewisch’s double into the right-center gap.

By that time the Thunder had staked Banuelos to a substantial lead, with a little help from Reading’s defense.

Bradley Suttle drove in a first-inning run with a single that was little more than a misjudged fly ball.

Corban Joseph opened the second with a triple into the right-field corner and scored on Ray Kruml’s single off the glove of Reading second baseman Figueroa. Kruml managed to steal second and third before scoring an unearned run when shortstop Freddy Galvis committed the first of his two boots.

Cody Johnson slammed his fourth homer of the year with one out in the third.

From then on it was up to the pitching and the defense. Better make that the defense and the pitching. Just as Reading’s defense had been shoddy, Trenton’s was superb. Shortstop Jose Pirela was especially noteworthy by starting two critical double plays.

“Those are the type of plays that sort of stem the tide,” Franklin said.

After Banuelos left, Franklin paraded Pat Venditte, Tim Norton, Wilkins Arias and Fernando Hernandez to the mound for one-inning stints. All gave up hits but all worked out of trouble, usually with help from the infield, leaving the visitors in a state of frustration.

“They’re a good team from a good organization, just like we are,” said Franklin. “We won these first two, but we know we’ll have tough games with them all season.”

Triple-A: Scranton 3, Syracuse 2

Jesus Montero: 0-for-1, left after a taking a sharp foul ball to the groin
Jose Gil: 1-for-2, R
Jorge Vazquez: 1-for-3, HR, 2 RBI
Justin Maxwell: 0-for-2, R
Brandon Laird: 1-for-3, RBI
Andrew Brackman: 6 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 3 SO

Now, as a bonus, here are the final two innings of Manny Banuelos' start against the Richmond Flying Squirrels on April 19. Why now? Because I'm cleaning out the video player in advance of the five-game RiverDogs series in Lakewood that starts tomorrow.

The end of the second video also includes Banuelos' post-game chat with reporter types. Enjoy.

TRENTON – It’s out with the new and in with the old for the Thunder – again. Kevin Millwood, whom the Yankees signed late this offseason, will make his 2011debut on Sunday at Waterfront Park. He’ll take the place of Manny Banuelos, who was placed on the disabled list yesterday with a gnarly blister on his left thumb.

Dellin Betances, the other of the team’s pair of high-echelon starters, was also placed on the shelf yesterday with the same blister problem. In his case, the right pointer finger was the offending digit.

Millwood signed with the Yankees on March 25, less than a week before big league camp broke. He stuck around the minor league complex, along with veteran Mark Prior, and threw bullpen sessions in front of team pitching guru Billy Connors, who will accompany Millwood to Trenton.

No specific rules for Millwood were spelled out yesterday by Thunder manager Tony Franklin or pitching coach Tommy Phelps. It’s a safe bet there will be rules coming, however. Millwood pitched against Phillies minor leaguers earlier in the week.

If he makes it to the major leagues with the Yankees, it will be his sixth major league organization. He’s pitched for Atlanta, Cleveland, Texas, Baltimore and Philadelphia. He pitched a no-hitter for the Phillies on April 27, 2003 against San Francisco.

As for Banuelos and Betances, the blisters don’t seem to be a product of the cold. Banuelos says his troubles began during his last work of the spring, an intrasquad game between the Tampa and Charleston work groups on April 2. Although he was slated for Trenton all along, Banuelos started and pitched 4 2/3 innings for the Tampa group.

Afterward, he says, he noticed the thumb beginning to flare up but he kept it to himself.

“I didn’t tell (anyone) nothing,” he said. “Just after the game, I showed it to the trainer and he was surprised. I didn’t show him before the game. It was hard (to pitch with), especially my fastball.”

He pitched with injury on Monday in the first game of the Thunder’s series with Portland, and made it out of four innings unscathed. His pitch count, not the blister, was the reason for his removal that night, and he didn’t expect to be put on the shelf.

Despite its yellow, exposed appearance, Banuelos says he feels better, and will begin throwing tomorrow, starting with a casual game of catch. If that progresses as planned, he’ll throw a bullpen session on Saturday.

Betances is also expected back next week, possibly as early as Monday, if his rehab measures go as planned.

For his part, Franklin doesn’t seem concerned about losing his two top pitchers before his team has even played its first home game. It is, after all, only April 14.

“How many more games are there this season,” he asked. “There’s no reason to panic being 2-4 right now. I get a little bit concerned over the two pitchers we lost, because they have pretty good futures ahead of them and they need to be pitching. I’m not that concerned about (the start) right now.”

NOTES: Gary Sanchez, the Yankees’ No. 2 prospect according to Baseball America, was placed on the disabled list yesterday in Charleston. The severity of his injury is unknown, but the team called up backstop Nick McCoy from the Charleston roster to take his place. … Brian Anderson, a former outfielder with the White Sox, was called to Trenton to take a spot on the roster. He’ll work out of the bullpen, and operates with a low-to-mid 90s fastball as well as a pair of breaking pitches. ... The rotation after today's game is Graham Stoneburner, Craig Heyer, Kevin Millwood and Steve Garrison.

Just got back from the clubhouse, where it was revealed the Kevin Millwood (with Billy Connors in tow) is going to pitch on Sunday in Trenton. That's a day game, 1:05 start, if anybody is planning on coming out. No specifics on pitch count, etc., but I'm sure we'll get that when the date approaches.

(TRENTON, NJ) - The Trenton Thunder, Double-A Affiliate of the New York Yankees, announce that OF Damon Sublett has been activated from the Disabled List and that in a corresponding move, LHP Manny Banuelos has been added to the Disabled List, retroactive to April 12.

Sublett started the 2011 season on the Thunder D.L. Last season with Trenton, Sublett appeared in 35 games, batting .214 with 2 HR and 14 RBI.

Banuelos made one start this season, on April 11 in Portland. He pitched four innings and allowed four hits and no runs. In 10 games with Tampa in 2010 he was 0-3 with a 2.23 ERA. The left-hander pitched in three games for Trenton, going 0-1 with a 3.52 ERA.

The Thunder kick-off their opening home stand of the 2011 season with a match-up against the Harrisburg Senators (Washington Nationals) tonight at 7:05 PM. Limited tickets are available for tonight's Opening Night festivities at Waterfornt Park. Secure yours by contacting the Thunder Box Office at 609-394-3300 or by logging on to trentonthunder.com.

All the Thunder action can be heard on the new flagship station for Trenton Thunder baseball, 91.3 WTSR, or online at trentonthunder.com.

Per the Eastern League scoreboard, today's game between the Thunder and Portland Sea Dogs has been postponed. Left-hander Shaeffer Hall was the scheduled starter today, and it's likely (though not certain) that he'll just move up to tomorrow's home opener, for which the weather forecast looks good.

What this means for MannyWatch 2011: Banuelos, originally on track to start Saturday's game, would be bumped up to Sunday, which is a 1.05 tilt against the Harrisburg Senators. Again, nothing here is concrete.