The New York Yankees have a new stadium to kick off the season and with it comes a lot of pressure from the most demanding city in world of baseball and their fans after spending a ton of money during the off-season.
The Yankees’ biggest need the past 2 seasons has been starting pitching, and finally this year they picked up 2 young pitchers with upsides to them in C.C. Sabathia and AJ Burnett. Pairing those two guys into a starting rotation which already has Chien Ming Wang – whose season was shortened last year due to injury, but when healthy can be counted on to win 19 games – Joba Chamberlain and fan favorite Andy Pettitte surely gives the Yanks an advantage.
The Yankees offseason has not been without turmoil. After a leak in a survey that was conducted anonymously to players where they were questioned on whether or not they had ever used performance enhancing drugs or human growth hormones, it was later revealed that Alex Rodriguez was one of those players who tested positive. A black cloud has been hanging over the head of A-Rod ever since those allegations and it doesn’t help that he was injured before the start of the season playing in the World Baseball Classic for the Dominican team. He was diagnosed with a cyst in his hip and this injury will keep him out of action at least until mid-May where doctors are timing his return.
The Yankees will be fine without A-Rod if their offense and pitching can be on par with one another. Last year when Yankee pitching was at its best, their hitting was subpar; therefore if they want to avoid missing the postseason for a second straight year they have got to do their job.
The recent addition of Mark Teixeira should give them a shot in the arm to boost their offense and an upgrade in defense. The X-man, Xavier Nady had half of last year to play in a Yankee uniform and he has two years experience playing with the Mets, thus he’s familiar with the pressure that come with playing in New York.
All in all the Yankees have a much better team now than they did last year, and their new pitching rotation makes them serious contenders in the American League. In order to win they will need to contend with their AL East division rivals the Rays and Red Sox who both got better than a year ago, so if they can win games against both those teams they should be in good shape and be playing through October.