BACK TO NORMAL?
Well, this season begins with more hope than last - but, still with COVID-19 reservations. Such reservations didn’t hesitate to show up on the first day of baseball with the Washington Nationals having 4 players who tested positive for COVID-19 and 5 others who were within contact. It ultimately postponed the Nationals’ opening series against the Mets. We can only hope that this season has many less obstacles than last, especially with high volumes of vaccines continuing to be administered each day. At least this season will begin with up to 20% of each stadium’s capacity of fans rooting in the stands.
With that topic out of the way, I want to concentrate the rest of this article discussing…THE NY YANKEES!
Yesterday, we lost our opener in Yankee Stadium. Our lack of timely hitting reminded me too much of our failures over the last few years. On paper, our lineup is scary - mostly loaded with power threats. This team needs to improve upon their RBI success during periods that demand it.
HITTING:
Most Yankees’ fans are quick to critique the failures from Yankees with the initials, "G.S" - George received similar critique when he was the owner. In this case it's players, Giancarlo Stanton and Gary Sanchez. Well, it’s time for the Aarons, not named Hank, to come through! Aaron Judge and Aaron Hicks are very talented, but it’s time for their heroics to happen at the right times. Don’t get me wrong, I am a fan of both, especially Judge. I love his defense (although not so much yesterday) including his quarterback-like arm. His power scares opposing pitchers, which is why they pitch all around the strike zone. Unfortunately, he doesn’t stop them from that strategy anymore than Hicks does. They are often looking for the home-plate umpire to call a ball here and there and accept walks way too gracefully. They should instead study some videos of players like Yogi Berra. It didn’t matter where the ball was, when he needed to bring a runner home, he took on the ball, not the pitcher. If these two Aarons did that once in a while, the pitchers would no longer have a successful strategy against them! Our lineup looks and should be great, they just have to hit in the clutch more often!
STARTING PITCHING:
As for our starting pitching this season, I feel confident we have a very good group. The staff isn’t exactly filled with 5 aces, but it is filled with very capable starters. Of course, just like any pitching staff, health matters. Gerrit Cole, Corey Kluber, Domingo German, Jameson Taillon, and Jordan Montgomery are a force to be reckoned compared to any other 5 starters in all of baseball, even with the lack of innings pitched from the middle of our pact over the past two years. On top of that, they have Luis Severino due back by mid-season.
BULLPEN:
The bullpen is good, but not great. Aroldis Chapman, whose 100+ MPH fastball used to be unique, is not as effective as it was a few years ago because more-and-more pitchers have also reached above 100 MPH on their fastballs. That has given the hitters more practice at catching up to that speed - and they have proved it. Still, we have a group in the bullpen that is better than most of our competitors.
DEFENSE:
Lastly, our defense has to be measured. For the outfield, as mentioned, Judge in right is typically excellent, Hicks in center is decent, and Frazier in left is better than it used to be by him. Our infield begins with our first-baseman, Voit (when he get back in a few weeks from the IL). He is good defensively - of course no where nearly as good as Don Mattingly! LeMahieu is very good at second, Gleyber Torres is somewhat weak as a shortstop, and Gio Urshela is a great third baseman, nearly as good as Graig Nettles!
PREDICTION:
Our division is not too strong this season. That alone will help the Yankees win many games. If the season successfully reaches 162 games, I predict the Yankees could win at least 93 games as long as they withstand decent health.
