Iwakuma 00740314

03/03/2008 1:30 PM ET
Notes: Ensberg faces former club
Infielder focusing on improving at-bats, fine-tuning mechanics
By Bryan Hoch / MLB.com




TAMPA, Fla. -- When Morgan Ensberg trotted to first base on Monday at Osceola County Stadium, the former Houston Astro found his surroundings extremely familiar. But what surprises him most is how well he's adjusting to a new position.
A third baseman for most of his career, the 32-year-old Ensberg is attempting to make the Yankees this spring as a right-handed-hitting first baseman. Offered another opportunity to start as he returned to one of the ballparks where he started his professional life, Ensberg hopes to keep making small adjustments and open eyes.

"I've felt really comfortable over there," Ensberg said of first base. "I feel pretty competent as an infielder. It doesn't feel so foreign. I'm not as concerned about learning first base as I am about having quality at-bats. It's familiar territory."

Ensberg said that Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long has helped him tweak his swing greatly in camp, already boiling down his mechanics and making them less complex.

"I'm embarrassed to say it, but in two weeks of working with Kevin, I have felt so much better as a hitter than I have my entire life," Ensberg said. "This is just working on stuff in the cage. This is silly. I would have thought that there was a time that I knew what was going on, but he just makes things simple."

It's striking how quickly Ensberg has separated from his Astros roots. An Opening Day third baseman for four consecutive seasons who slugged a career-high 36 homers in 2005, Ensberg was sidetracked by a right shoulder injury the next year while diving for a foul ball.

He has not been the same offensive player since. Traded by the Astros to the Padres last July, Ensberg scanned his old roster and believes that his former club is not the same organization he knew.

"There's a disconnect," Ensberg said. "I [didn't] really expect to feel anything. A lot of what makes you miss a place are the teammates that you had. The reality is that all of the guys that I came up with were all traded. I know Roy [Oswalt], Lance [Berkman] and Brad Ausmus. That's amazing."

In fact, Ensberg's closest friends from the Astros -- Adam Everett, Eric Bruntlett and Brad Lidge -- have moved on to other organizations. Another, Jason Lane, has landed in Yankees camp.

"That's not the team I was on," Ensberg said.

Ensberg, who also played alongside Andy Pettitte in Houston, said that he is not keeping up with Roger Clemens' current legal troubles. He prefers to remember Clemens as he was in the Astros clubhouse, where the right-hander was an icon for players.

"One of the best," Ensberg said of Clemens. "I said that he and Jeff Bagwell were two of the best teammates that you could have. I was really impressed with how they treated everybody. It had very little to do with the fact that they were great players. They treated people equally -- the low man on the totem pole, they treated the same as the high guy. They were just friendly guys."