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American League
Anaheim Angels: It's not a good time to be an Angels pitching prospect. The injury demons are upon them. Bobby Jenks has had a recurrence of the stress reaction in his throwing elbow -- just like last year. Joe Torres, Ervin Santana and Joe Saunders have also had their share of physical difficulties of late, reports Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times. Jenks fastball has reached the century mark on occasion but a loss of velocity tipped off the Angels that something was wrong. "We caught it before it got worse," general manager Bill Stoneman told DiGiovanna. "Our plan is to rest it, let it cool down. The encouraging thing is he came back after last year's injury and performed better than he did before he got hurt."

New York Yankees: This is why they say you can never have enough starting pitching. Back in spring training, it seemed as though the Yankees were overloaded with starters. Injuries have forced them to turn to Jorge DePaula and Alex Graman to make starts and Mike Mussina and Jose Contreras have struggled. Only Kevin Brown and Javier Vazquez -- both newcomers -- have lived up to their billing so far. In spite of their needs, the Yankees are not going to shotgun Jon Lieber back into place. In spite of a need for a quality arm to face Pedro Martinez and the Red Sox on Sunday, the Yankees are going to hold off using him until they are certain his injured groin is completely healed. "I just don't see how we speed up his timeline," general manager Brian Cashman said to Tyler Kepner of the New York Times. "The only temptation is to throw him when he's ready." Instead, the Lieber -- whose last major league outing was on August 1, 2002 for the Cubs -- will be making a rehab start in Tampa and the Yankees may turn to Donovan Osborne or give Graman another shot to improve on his 16.88 ERA.

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