Although Joe Girardi has declared the fight for the final two spots in the rotation an “open competition,” it sounds as if four pitchers have a decided edge in the race.

Those four would be Ivan Nova and Sergio Mitre, who both pitched for the Yankees last season, along with veterans Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia, in camp on minor-league contracts.

– Mark Feinsand, New York Daily News.

First off, the subhead in the print edition of the Daily News deems the gentlemen competing for the Yanks’ rotation spots “The Unfab Four,” which is hilarious and mean and I hope continues.

Second, the mention of Bartolo Colon gives me an excuse to mention the time I saw Colon pitch in Salt Lake City in a rehab start in June of 2006. He got rocked, incidentally, which was vaguely satisfying to me since I felt he didn’t deserve the Cy Young he won in 2005.

I’ve seen games in 25 big-league stadiums and probably, I don’t know, 30 Minor League parks. Plenty are awesome for all sorts of reasons — most notably because they play baseball in them. But none can boast a setting as spectacular as the park in Salt Lake City. The Wasatch Mountains, the western edge of the Rockies, sit seemingly just beyond the left and centerfield walls. It’s awesome looking.

And watching a game in Utah has its peculiarities. For one thing, everyone in attendance sings along with the national anthem. I’m not saying that’s bad or anything, and the collective voice is a pretty nice one, it’s just a strange thing to hear after having been to hundreds of baseball games where that doesn’t happen. Also, the beer is sold at separate stands from the food, and there is never a line for beer. It’s quite pleasant, really.