What a hullabaloo! Personally, I don’t think it’s in the Yankees DNA to finish in the 80′s. They might struggle, but they won’t be repeating last season’s formula.

I’ll be lambasted, but Tampa Rays (still a lame name) are poised to have a better season than the Blue Jays. The Rays are on a mission and are playing with confidence. Though we were at the butt of it, the Rays are now playing like, oh what’s the word?, a team. The Jays? They don’t seem to have that verve. It seems like their “time” was the year Boston struggled and finished third.

The Yankees will struggle, but the know that it’s 162 game season. Maybe Tampa runs out of gas after it figures out that not only is there baseball in the spring, but in the summer and fall as well. It’s difficult for young teams to perform down the stretch.

I may be a sentimental fool, but I feel like this is going to be a special year. Something about one door closing and another one opening. As long as they cut out the frickin’ errors!!!

I don’t want to talk about the Red Sox. Unless they have pitching issues like in ’06 they’ll be there in the end.

If 2008 = 27, shouldn’t 2009 = 28 ???

It makes perfect sense, if they close the old stadium properly, to open the new stadium properly too … right?

Also…the only significant addition to the team that won what, 51 of its last 70 games?

If everything breaks wrong, they could drop to 3rd place. If everything breaks right, they could win 100 games. If some break wrong and some break right (probable), they’ll win low-mid 90s. Just like last year.

Yes, Posada will regress to the mean. So will Bobby, though. Not a single AB will be wasted on Andy Phillips or Miguel Cairo. The lineup against lefties will include Ensberg and Duncan instead of 7 abreu and one of Damon/matsui/Giambi.

Thank you for starting a new thread with your projections for the upcoming season. That said, as the old saw goes, we are all entitled to our opinion(s), but we are only entitled to one set of facts.

You stated that, “The only significant addition the Yankees made was right-handed reliever LaTroy Hawkins, a free agent from Colorado.”

Comparing this time last year to today, don’t we also have:

1. Dave Eiland as pitching coach – If pitching is such an important part of the game, and especially in the PS, this is big.

2. Jose Molina from the start of the season

3. A team that is in shape from the start, and as Whozat has repeated over and over, will come out of ST injury-free (except for B Gardner’s lip)

4. A dealt 7-card hand of Wang/Petitte/Hughes/Mussina/ Kennedy/Chamberlain/Rivera instead of Pavano/Wang/Petitte/Igawa/Mussina/Farnsworth/Rivera

5. Dave Eiland (oh, I said that already)

6.A manager that the rest of the AL has no template for (I think the Yankees will give Socia fits this year)

7. Morgan Ensberg, who will return to the numbers on the back of his baseball card and more than make up for Jorge’s return to his.

And in that vein, the rest of the AL will normalize as well. Who remembers Carmona in relief in 06? Lowell will go back to his norm.

But Alex is special. He is writing baseball history and we are getting to see it. 2008 = 27 (new math)