Carl Pavano consistently reached 88-90 MPH in the first inning, according to a Milwaukee Brewers scout here on regular assignment.

Carl Pavano looked sharp in his first inning of work.
He threw 15 pitches, 12 for strikes. He allowed a double to Akron's Josh Rodriguez. His only hiccup came on a wild pitch where Rodriguez advanced to third.

Pitches: 15
Strikes: 12
Balls: 3
Walks: 0
Hits: 1
Runs: 0

Some of the highlights from Brett Favre's introductory news conference today in Cleveland:

Opening comments: "The last 24 hours have been crazy. ... This whole offseason has been bizarre. ... I'm a member of the Jets and I'm excited about the opportunity."

On general manager Mike Tannenbaum and his interest in the Jets: "I knew I would be be convinced once I talked to him (Tannenbaum). ... I was never not interested in the Jets. My interest at first was to stay in the division (NFC North). Maybe that was vindictive, competitiive. ... IN the end, that was probably the wrong motive."

Continue reading "Favre: 'Excited about the opportunity' with the Jets" »

Some thoughts from fans around the ballpark:

Yankees fan Dan Chabone on Pavano's value to the Yankees:
"His value? 40 million dollar man. I'm sure he wants to come back because his contract is up this year. Let's face it, the Yankees could use Pavano and Pavano could use a good year."

Yankees fan Bill Fischer on if Pavano can help the Yankees:
"We we've been hearing about him for four years. This is the first step to getting him back and trying to help the Yankees make a playoff run."

NEW YORK - This might be hard to believe, but David Wright swears he had never hit a walk-off home run in his life before doing it for the Mets today in the 5-3 victory over the San Diego Padres.

``Even in T-ball,'' said Wright, who took former Mets reliever Heath Bell (6-5) deep on a 1-0 pitch. ``I'm always celebrating everybody else's, and it's nice to jump into other people's arms this time.''

Especially after a tough couple of days.

Continue reading "New York Mets' Wright savors first-ever walkoff home run in 5-3 victory over San Diego" »

I just took a lap around Waterfront Park as fans file in. I'm in search of Carl Pavano jerseys. Even ones from his stint with the Thunder in 1996 will count.

I found one, just one, on the back of long-time Trenton Thunder season ticket holder Andrew Pitomyak.

Pitomyak was here two years ago for Pavano's last Thunder rehab start. He says he's looking forward to seeing if Pavano can get back to the Yankees.

"If he's good, I want him back 100 percent," he said. "But nobody, can help this Yankees win this year."

The NFL Network says it will stream the Brett Favre press conference live online. The event was supposed to begin at 6 pm.

The Star-Ledger is live from Mercer County Waterfront Park for Carl Pavano's rehabilitation start tonight.

Game time is set for 7:05p.m. Check back here for inning-by-inning updates.

Pavano is trying to make it back to the big league club after recovering from Tommy John surgery last year. He pitched last week for the Class-A Charleston RiverDogs. Pavano allowed one hit, walked one, and struck out four. He threw 28 pitches, 18 for strikes, in two innings of work.

Continue reading "Live from Carl Pavano's rehab start for Double-A Trenton Thunder" »

The Star-Ledger was on hand for Brett Favre's arrival at Morristown airport today. Deanna Favre, Brett's wife, stayed in town to look for housing while the Jets' newest quarterback headed off to Cleveland to meet his new team.

Continue reading "Video: Brett Favre's arrival in Morristown" »

NEW YORK - First, Mets interim manager Jerry Manuel ticked off all the good things about his team's 5-3 victory over the San Diego Padres today at Shea Stadium.

He started by mentioning David Wright's game-winning two-run home run in the ninth inning, which more than made up for his recent mental struggles in games.

Carlos Beltran? He's swinging that bat well.

And how about those young kids Nick Evans and Dan Murphy? A good day at the plate and in the field.

But then Manuel addressed the big issue that, regardless of the victory, continues to trouble the Mets - the unreliable bullpen.

The Mets needed Wright's home run in the ninth because their relievers had blown a two-run lead, and Manuel wasn't pretending he can live with that group's failings much longer.

``We do have issues late in the game, there is no question about it. Somebody has to step up,'' Manuel said. ``That's all we're waiting on.

``I've got to keep trying to find the best possible matchups. I have to manage to give them the best possible chance to have success. I could be pushing all the wrong buttons at this point.''

Continue reading "New York Mets snatch 5-3 victory over San Diego on Wright home run after bullpen falters" »

There isn't any official supply yet, but that doesn't mean the demand isn't off the charts.

Or at least so says CNBC's Darren Rovell, who reported earlier today that orders for Favre's green-and-white jersey -- at $80 a pop -- are expected to set record numbers for first-day sales.

The Star-Ledger's Robert Sciarrino was at Morristown airport today where Brett Favre was supposed to arrive to tour the Jets' practice facility in Florham Park. Because of delays, Favre only stayed minutes before beginning his trip to Cleveland to meet his new team, the New York Jets.

Continue reading "Photos from Morristown airport where Brett Favre (briefly) landed" »

Check out the very interesting facts my bud Sal Palantonio of ESPN spit out about Brett Favre in March. Seems the worldwide leader's favorite football player has been all-too human in postseasons in the second half of his career.

All-too human? Heck, try terrible. To the tune of only three victories in his last 10 playoff games. That INT he threw to CB Corey Webster to set up Giants' NFC Championship Game overtime upset on the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field? A most common occurence for His Brettness once he hit 30.

Continue reading "Needell: Some perspective, Jets fans" »

The lineup:
Damon cf
Jeter dh
Abreu rf
A.Rodriguez 3b
Giambi 1b
Nady lf
Cano 2b
Betemit ss
Molina c
Mussina p

Alex Rodriguez this series is 0-for-10, grounding into three double plays.

The Yankees have scored five or more runs in five straight games for the first time since April. They haven't scored 5+ in six straight games this season (last year they have five streaks of six games or longer).

Bobby Abreu is 16-for-39 (.410) in his nine-game hitting streak, with 13 runs scored and seven extra-base hits.

Saying he felt he "committed prematurely," Immaculata High School center Mark Brazinski -- rated the nation's 151st-best player by ESPN.com, announced Tuesday he had re-opened the recruiting process but that Rutgers was still in the mix.

The 6-3, 297-pounder from Basking Ridge gave Rutgers a non-binding oral commitment on June 10, choosing the Knights over Boston College, Penn and Florida State.

Brazinski said by phone that Rutgers, Penn and Boston College were still on his radar. He said he expected to take official visits to all three schools in December and would make a decision then.

Continue reading "Immaculata's Brazinski de-commits from Rutgers" »

I was about 35 miles outside of Scranton when the Mets game ended. It's times like these when I remind myself that the people I work for are very nice.

Anyway, why did I drive two hours to a night minor-league game when there was a noon major-league game going on in New York City? Well, because of Phil Hughes, ladies and gents. Phil Hughes.

Continue reading "Searching for Phil Hughes" »

Brett Favre is flying off to Cleveland to meet his new teammates with the New York Jets, the Daily News reports. the Jets meet the Browns in a preseason game tonight.

Continue reading "Favre headed to Cleveland to meet his new team, the New York Jets" »

Right-hander Brett Marshall, the Yankees' sixth-round draft pick out of a Texas high school, has signed with the Yankees for a $850,000 bonus, according to Baseball America.

Marshall had a scholarship offer to Rice University. His bonus is the highest this year for a player picked after the second round. No other sixth-rounder this year got more than $350,000.

The Yankees have yet to sign their first round pick, California high-school right-hander Gerrit Cole; supplemental first-rounder Jeremy Bleich, a Stanford lefty; or second-round pick Scott Bittle, a right-hander from the University of Mississippi.

"I'm sure this will kind of all come down to the end (the Aug. 15 signing deadline)," scouting director Damon Oppenheimer said. "Nothing positive, nothing negative, just going through the gamut of the whole ordeal."

The Jets just announced they have released QB Chad Pennington -- in a transaction before 4 p.m., as Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum indicated they would early this morning in a conference call with reporters.

"I have all the respect in the world for Chad as a person and a player," Tannenbaum said in a team release. "We have accomplished a lot of great things with Chad, including winning playoff games, which is very hard to do. He gave his heart and soul to this organization for a long, long time. I really appreciate everything he has done."

The Jets' first-round pick in the 2000 draft, Pennington is 32-29 as a starter in his eight-year career. He took the team to the playoffs three times: 2002, 2004 and 2006.

Don't buy the line that Brett Favre wanted to play for the Jets, NorthJersey.com's Ian O'Connor writes.

Continue reading "Jets, Favre marriage 'scheduled for an ugly end', columnist writes" »

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's columnist Bill Glauber begs to ask, "Does Favre know what he's getting himself into?" Continue reading "Wisconsin columnist bashes New York Jets and their fans" »

DETROIT - Live from the place where Brett Favre led the Packers to a Thanksgiving Day romp...

Sorry, just had to do that. Especially after reading the comments on the previous entry BEGGING me to end the madness with something Giants-related. Chill, folks. You just gotta give me time to fly here from LaGuardia. (The rates out of Newark were ridicluous.)

Anyway, here's your Favre-less Giants-Lions preseason opener preview:

Continue reading "A look ahead to NY Giants at Detroit Lions" »

NEW YORK -- Will it be an adventure every time the Mets go to their bullpen to close out a victory?

It certainly seems that way. Just two days after Aaron Heilman turned a four-run ninth-inning lead into a one-run lead against the San Diego Padres, Mets relievers could not hold a two-run lead and needed David Wright to bail them out with a game-ending ninth-inning two-run home run for the 5-3 Mets victory.

The Mets are proceeding with their ``closer by committee'' strategy in the wake of Billy Wagner's forearm injury. This afternoon, Scott Schoeneweis got the call to shut the Padres down with the Mets up 3-2 in the ninth.

He couldn't get it done. He allowed a solo home run to Jody Gerut, which tied the score at 3-3 and brought the reviled Heilman to the mound to a chorus of boos. Heilman (2-6) struck Nick Hundley out and then induced a Luis Rodriguez groundout, which only earned him polite applause as the Mets headed to the bottom of the ninth.

Continue reading "New York Mets snatch 5-3 victory over San Diego on Wright home run after bullpen falters" »

The Dolphins, Vikings, Chiefs and Bucs are among the possible destinations for former Jets quarterback Chad Pennington, according to a person with knowledge of the negotiations. That person spoke on the condition of anonymity because he's not authorized to speak for Pennington. Continue reading "Pennington has many suitors" »

No surprise on this one. ESPN.com reports Dolphins head honcho Bill Parcells, who drafted Chadwick for the Jets in 2000, has already contacted agent Tom Condon to pounce on the soon-to-be-former Jets' QB when he's released at 4 p.m

The storylines are just too delectable. If Miami reels in Pennington, the Fish open the season vs. the Jets in Miami. Two Favre-Pennington duels would be tasty.

Continue reading "Report: Dolphins want Pennington" »

Star-Ledger reporter Brendan Prunty is still at the Morristown Municipal Airport, where a plane landed about 10 minutes ago with brand-new Jet Brett Favre. In the meantime, though, Jets owner Woody Johnson spoke about the trade.

Continue reading "After brief stop in Morristown, Brett Favre heads to Cleveland to meet Jets" »

Earlier today on Ledger Live, Star-Ledger writer Dave Hutchinson announced that the acquisition of Brett Favre to the Jets' roster made them instant playoff contenders. Some, like Pete Prisco and Clark Judge of CBS Sports, are hardly convinced. Continue reading "Two writers slam Favre trade" »

NEW YORK -- Mets catcher Ramon Castro left the 5-3 victory over the San Diego Padres this afternoon with what the team called a ``sore right ankle.''

He is listed as day-to-day.

Castro struck out against Josh Banks in the bottom of the fourth inning and was then replaced behind the plate by Robinson Cancel for the top of the fifth. He said after the game that his ankle had been sore all day.

Brett Favre sports a Jets hat as he boards a private plane today for the flight from Mississippi to New Jersey. (AP Photo)