December 24, 2008

What's Next for Yanks? Any other holes?

The Yankees are putting themselves in position to have an amazing year. They've put together and outstanding rotation and lineup to go along with a good bullpen. To do this however, they've had to guarantee over $400 million in contracts by signing CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira, and A.J. Burnett. The question now becomes, did they do everything they had to? Lets break it down this way:

Lineup:
C Jorge Posada:
By signing Kevin Cash, the Yankees have prepared themselves if Posada gets injured or still feels the effects of last year's. To prevent this, they'll probably have to use Jose Molina 2 times for every 5 days instead of once. However, if Posada can't preform, they'll call up prospect Francisco Cervelli to catch.

1B Mark Teixeira:
Great signing by the Yankees. Teixeira is not only a good hitter, but an outstanding fielder too (something the Yankees have lacked in previous years). He fills up a blaring hole and will bring good things for the ball club in years to come.

2B Robinson Cano:
Cano didn't have a great year in 2008 and there have been many reports of even trading him (which isn't going to happen because the organization still has great faith in him). However, he has been working on his swing with, Yankees' hitting coach, Kevin Long over the offseason and actually was hitting quite well with his new swing at the end of last year.

3B Alex Rodriguez:
Nothing wrong here. Alex is in the prime of his career, a good defender (much better than people think), and one of the best hitters of all-time. He's won MVPs in '03, '05, and '07, could there be one coming next year in '09? 

SS Derek Jeter:
Jeter's another guy who has to have sort-of a bounce-back year. He did hit .300 last year, but he struggled mightily there at the end (due to a possible leg injury?) and his defense was very sub-par. This leaves many fans concerned that his age might be getting the best of him.

LF Johnny Damon:
Damon's fine, in fact more than fine as he's coming off one of his best years ever! Damon hit .303 with 17 HR, 71 RBIs and 29 SB. The Yankees might however use him as trade bait as they have a log-jam in the outfield after signing Mark Teixeira.

CF Brett Gardner/Melky Cabrera:
The Yankees are going to see how this plays out in Spring Training. They will have Gardner and Cabrera compete against one and another and then the best one will be their starting center fielder. However, they probably won't be next year as Austin Jackson is rising, and rising fast.

RF Xavier Nady:
By not re-signing Bobby Abreu, the Yankees designate Nady as their starting right fielder. There have been some rumors about possibly trading him but I don't see them playing out because they don't have anyone with a better arm in RF and the organization really likes him as a player.

Rotation:
After signing Sabathia and Burnett, the Yankees have one of the best rotations in baseball. This comes as good news as they've rarely been able to say this in their long history. If you put this with a solid offense, it'll mean good things for years to come.

Bullpen:
After being a real weakness in 2007, the Yankees built their bullpen out of their farm system last year and it turned out pretty good. However, there still is a hole in the set-up position, despite what Brian Cashman thinks. Remember last year when the Yankees bullpen blew a game against the Blue Jays, they just couldn't get an out. To me, there is a hole here and they need to fix it. However, this time they don't have to spend a lot of money to fix it, just bring up Mark Melancon; the next Joba.

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