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anyone have a optimistic view? seems like the pundits have us at 3rd again in the AL

they seem to focus on everything going wrong for yanks, but everything going right for the other teams


what are your thoughts?


i think this team should win the division with the pitching talent they have

Yankees win the division with 97 wins... although my prediction highly hinges on if AJ is able to stay in our rotation in most of the year or not.

It's hard to tell. We have so many question marks.

-Will Posada be able to catch at least 100-110 games this season
-When will A-Rod be back and would he be effective from day 1
-Will our rotation stay healthy this year(Wang, Chamberlain and Burnett)
-Will Cano/Jeter rebound from a mediocre 2008 season
-How will Teixeira, Burnett and Sabathia adjust to New York

I think our biggest competition this year is Boston, I really think Tampa overachieved last season and will come back down to earth and win something along the lines of 75-85 wins this season.

every team has questions...i just see doomsday scenario for yanks out there and best case scenario for the rest

jeff1624 wrote:I really think Tampa overachieved last season and will come back down to earth and win something along the lines of 75-85 wins this season.

That's really wishful thinking. I could see Garza and maybe Sonnanstine taking a step back ERA-wise, but they also should see improvement from the likes of Longoria and Upton and Pat the Bat's going to be a very good addition to the lineup so long as he stays off the field. And Matt Joyce should overtake the bench players that are starting in right before too long. Even with the division looking beefed up, i'll be surprised if they fall below 88-90 wins and the potential's there to do much better than that.

I think you can come up with just as many question marks for the other teams as you can the Yankees. This is off the top of my head, without really thinking about it.

Red Sox:
-Matsuzaka walks 53682301^2 per game
-John Smoltz won't pitch until mid-season at best
-Brand Penny is a huge injury risk
-Varitek is .200-.220 batter
-Ortiz doesn't have protection in the lineup
-Can JD Drew stay healthy?
-Will the league catch up to how Pedroia can't hit up and in

Rays:
-Their starting 5 started almost every game last season effectively so can they do it again?
-Will their entire staff stay healthy considering they pitched so many more innings last year than they are used to
-They aren't a surprise team anymore
-Evan Longoria is now well documented, let's see how he responds when the pitchers adjust
-Troy Percival is the closer
-They have to face stiffer competition in that they will be facing a top flight Yankee staff instead of the Rasners, Ponsons and Kennedys of the minors. (This could be 5-6 fewer wins)

Those are just quickly off the top of my head. I'm sure if we sat down to analyze the teams, we could find more things that could go wrong or aren't perfect like the media is nitpicking with the Yankees about.

As for my prediction, 105 wins and Cano is going to have a monster season like .335 with a .370 OBP and 25 home runs. I also think we will see Austin Jackson take over for Damon in left field before the year is out with Damon moving to DH. I don't see Matsui holding up or playing anywhere close to 5 times a week. -Jitpal

Jitpal wrote:I think you can come up with just as many question marks for the other teams as you can the Yankees. This is off the top of my head, without really thinking about it.

Red Sox:
-Matsuzaka walks 53682301^2 per game
-John Smoltz won't pitch until mid-season at best
-Brand Penny is a huge injury risk
-Varitek is .200-.220 batter
-Ortiz doesn't have protection in the lineup
-Can JD Drew stay healthy?
-Will the league catch up to how Pedroia can't hit up and in

Rays:
-Their starting 5 started almost every game last season effectively so can they do it again?
-Will their entire staff stay healthy considering they pitched so many more innings last year than they are used to
-They aren't a surprise team anymore
-Evan Longoria is now well documented, let's see how he responds when the pitchers adjust
-Troy Percival is the closer
-They have to face stiffer competition in that they will be facing a top flight Yankee staff instead of the Rasners, Ponsons and Kennedys of the minors. (This could be 5-6 fewer wins)

Those are just quickly off the top of my head. I'm sure if we sat down to analyze the teams, we could find more things that could go wrong or aren't perfect like the media is nitpicking with the Yankees about.

As for my prediction, 105 wins and Cano is going to have a monster season like .335 with a .370 OBP and 25 home runs. I also think we will see Austin Jackson take over for Damon in left field before the year is out with Damon moving to DH. I don't see Matsui holding up or playing anywhere close to 5 times a week. -Jitpal

That's why I believe Tampa isn't gonna be a threat this year. They had a lot of good luck last year with their starting pitching which I doubt repeats itself. The offense is nothing to write home about and as you said, Troy Percival is their closer.

But Boston's Question marks are somewhat minor compared to ours.

David ortiz has no protection you say. They have JD drew, Kevin Youkilis, Mike Lowell and Jason bay. Which is much better than anything we have behind Teixeira until A-rod comes back.

John Smoltz and Brad Penny are Low risk high reward players for Boston. they already have Beckett, Lester, Matsuzaka and Wakefield in the rotation.

I think it's gonna be a fight to the end with Boston.. Hope i'm wrong though..

jeff1624 wrote:

Jitpal wrote:I think you can come up with just as many question marks for the other teams as you can the Yankees. This is off the top of my head, without really thinking about it.

Red Sox:
-Matsuzaka walks 53682301^2 per game
-John Smoltz won't pitch until mid-season at best
-Brand Penny is a huge injury risk
-Varitek is .200-.220 batter
-Ortiz doesn't have protection in the lineup
-Can JD Drew stay healthy?
-Will the league catch up to how Pedroia can't hit up and in

Rays:
-Their starting 5 started almost every game last season effectively so can they do it again?
-Will their entire staff stay healthy considering they pitched so many more innings last year than they are used to
-They aren't a surprise team anymore
-Evan Longoria is now well documented, let's see how he responds when the pitchers adjust
-Troy Percival is the closer
-They have to face stiffer competition in that they will be facing a top flight Yankee staff instead of the Rasners, Ponsons and Kennedys of the minors. (This could be 5-6 fewer wins)

Those are just quickly off the top of my head. I'm sure if we sat down to analyze the teams, we could find more things that could go wrong or aren't perfect like the media is nitpicking with the Yankees about.

As for my prediction, 105 wins and Cano is going to have a monster season like .335 with a .370 OBP and 25 home runs. I also think we will see Austin Jackson take over for Damon in left field before the year is out with Damon moving to DH. I don't see Matsui holding up or playing anywhere close to 5 times a week. -Jitpal

That's why I believe Tampa isn't gonna be a threat this year. They had a lot of good luck last year with their starting pitching which I doubt repeats itself. The offense is nothing to write home about and as you said, Troy Percival is their closer.

But Boston's Question marks are somewhat minor compared to ours.

David ortiz has no protection you say. They have JD drew, Kevin Youkilis, Mike Lowell and Jason bay. Which is much better than anything we have behind Teixeira until A-rod comes back.

John Smoltz and Brad Penny are Low risk high reward players for Boston. they already have Beckett, Lester, Matsuzaka and Wakefield in the rotation.

I think it's gonna be a fight to the end with Boston.. Hope i'm wrong though..

See I don't think they are that minor. Matsuzaka does not give them length and he walks a tight rope every inning. That will catch up with him, all the extra pitches in less time not to mention the extra runs he will give up.

I agree that both Penny and Smoltz have high reward potential but what happens if they don't reach that? There are a ton of similarities to the backend of their rotation of this year and the backend rotation of the 2008 Yankees. If they both pitch well then it is fine, if they don't, they will have their own Sydney Ponson and Darryl Rasner start games. Plus their rotation isn't all it's cracked up to be. Beckett is not a great regular season pitcher and he was out of shape and unhealthy all of last year. Matsuzaka has the walks and let's see if Lester can repeat his year.

Take a look at both catchers they have in Varitek and Kottaras. Varitek isn't going to hit over .230 this year and Kottoras has 5 ABs in the major leagues and he hit .250 in AAA. That means they are going to have at least one instant out every single day in their lineup. We saw how Molina, who hits better than them, did last year. At least Molina was a top-flight defensive catcher and game caller. Varitek supposedly calls a good game but he isn't a good defensive catcher at this stage of his career. It's really odd to me that no one is talking about how big a problem this is for them.

Ortiz had Manny, now he doesn't have Manny. Youkolis and Drew are good hitters but they are not Manny. Lowell is old and he didn't look healthy at the end of the year last year, maybe it is different now. Plus, I'm not ready to say Arod has no help outside of Teixiera. A healthy Posada and Matsui will go a long way. Remember in 2007, Arod had a monster season with Posada and Matsui providing him protection.

I'm not saying they aren't a good team, but they have just as many questions as any other team. The mainstream media as usual is focusing on the majority of things breaking right for Tampa Bay and Boston but going wrong for the Yankees. It is what it is, but it isn't true. -Jitpal