Getting ready for Opening Day
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- April
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Camden Yards is a beehive of activity on this beautiful Sunday afternoon. Workers are painting the dugout roof, installing bunting on the railings and getting the park ready for Opening Day.
The yard opened up in 1992 and it’s still in like-new condition. What a great place to watch a game.
The Yankees will be on the field around 1:15 or so.
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on Sunday, April 5th, 2009 at 12:08 pm by Peter Abraham.
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Chad Jennings
Sam Borden
Josh Thomson
Unfortunately, the Yankees are probably not playing on Monday because of the expected thunderstorms.
Looks like baseball!
Thanks, Pete.
p.s. Tell the O’s that field looks awful. That’s like wearing argyle with hounds tooth, too busy! The IF and foul territory is overkill. And the O’s should’ve painted interlocking NY’s outside the lines to honor the Yankees.
We made it through another wild and wacky off season.
High five everyone!
http://cache.daylife.com/image.....X/340x.jpg
Looks better than the new yankee stadium.
And opening day won’t be tomorrow— 60% chance of “severe” thunderstorms all day! that is, according to weather.com
Camden Yards was the impetus that really triggered the whole “let’s build ourselves a brand new modern stadium” movement that’s taken place in the last 15 years. It was really the first new beautiful ballpark of this era and it’s still one of the nicest stadiums in baseball.
Too bad the team hasn’t held up as well as the stadium.
27in 2011-It doesn’t matter to me. Unfortunately I’ll be out all day and will have to miss it anyway.
Opening day should be a night game.
S.A.-I like that picture of the high-fiving people.
By the way, guess Peter got the hint that a lot of fans didn’t like the A-Rod thread.
heh, look at that tiny screen. Lame.
From prior thread:
M, actually Gardner would look like PigPen if there were dirt in the outfield……..According to some, Cano would be like Linus because he needs his security blanket (Bowa), lol.
The only thing I would say about Coke is that I don’t want to prematurely anoint him as anything just yet. He’s been outstanding this spring, but let’s first see him deal with adversity in major league games. I’ve seen the same kind of hype over Melancon, saying he’s the 2nd best guy out of the pen. He hasn’t thrown one pitch in the big leagues and he’s talked about as a savior in a way – way too premature.
I couldn’t agree with you more on AJ and Tex. It’s nice to have an honest-to-goodness power pitcher on the mound who won’t take you-know-what from any hitter. If a Yankee gets hit, someone on the other team is going down. AJ seems to have found a home in pinstripes (right time, right place?). He’s very comfortable and happy and he’s going to surprise a lot of people (who naturally expect him to get injured or don’t believe in his transformation). As we discussed yesterday, I think he is the key to the rotation. The Yankees will be very good if AJ is just good, but if he pitches up to his potential, then watch out. I honestly can’t wait for him to shut the fans in Fenway up.
Tex is almost too good to be true. He seems almost giddy to be in pinstripes. He also has one of the sweetest swings I’ve ever seen to go along with his fantastic D at first. I used to love watching Donnie play defense almost as much as I did watching him hit – it will be the same with Tex for me.
CC – huge impact. The guy is a stud (and an amazing person off the field as well) – and I’m still in awe of what he did last year. The Yanks need to take care of this guy’s arm and let the pen save him some wear and tear.
Jeter – I think he’s in for a big year. Too many obits have been written about him.
Cano – he’s just a tremendously talented hitter and I think he’s finally grown up. I expect him to have a great year – and I won’t kill him if he gets off to a slow start, either. Some players are just slow out of the gate, period.
very disappointed in the weather forecast…my dad and i are supposed to be heading down there tomorrow for the game. no way i can get off of work on tuesday as well.
From the previous thread:
Since Yankees’ fans hate ARod so much, I have a trade possibility. Yankees trade ARod to the Tigers for Brandon Inge, and eat all of his remaining salary.
Deal?
M, lol you’re right – that grass is hard to look at without getting dizzy.
Camden Yards is still the best ballpark in the AL to watch a game, even all these years later.
Love the backdrop
How about no
Someone Else-A-Rod for Inge? Why not just have the Mets trade Santana for Igawa?
jack-Yankee Stadium could give it a run for its money!
Opening day for the Yankees was pped due-to-rain last season as well.
Is this some sort of new trend or something?
Its interesting to see all of the various experts, whether that’s the talking heads on ESPN to sabermetrics inclined bloggers, make their picks right now.
Lots and lots of support for the Sox and the Rays.
I often cite numbers but I really do believe that ultimately it’s a combination of scouting/talent evaluation are necessary. They’re both critical.
So many people may just feel that talent wise, depth, age, etc. the Sox and Rays are the superior clubs.
But one thing is for certain right now – the Yankees are an absolutely tremendous club per the stats. Not just good – tremendous.
And for the first time in a very long time what makes them look so good is that the pitching staff looks poised to be absolutely overwhelming.
As good as the rotation may look on face value due to the talent – the numbers are even more impressive.
As I said before statistics and projections are in no way the whole story. But they are part of the story going into a new season.
And the story the numbers tell right now is that there is simply no comparison between the Yankees rotation and anyone else’s in the AL East. If they perform up to expectation (which is always the big if and the reason why the games are played on the field…) no one is close.
That’s why to me the much of the season is going to hinge on who AJ Burnett is this year as a pitcher.
If AJ continues to evolve from a thrower to a pitcher this year forget it. Dustin Pedroia can insult as many yankee players as he wants. It’s not going to make any difference.
If AJ clicks this is an overwhelming staff. Not just good. And no other team is going to come close to what they can throw out there everyday.
Alex’s injury is clearly now the biggest issue. Posada’s shoulder is second.
But after that the 3rd biggest question of the season is AJ Burnett.
If he’s able to simply throw the way he did yesterday this staff will run roughshod over the league.
Randy Levine already tried to void A-Rod’s deal after the steroid admission, there is no loophole. The PA would never allow steroid clauses to be inserted into contracts.
What I really like about Camden Yards is that you don’t have to look through a net to watch the game on TV.
The same thing can be said for the Sox and Smoltz or the Rays and Price… if they are healthy and dominant, their rotations can be the best too.
Ultimately, these 3 teams are evenly matched and will be in a dog fight all year. Pre-season predictions of any kind are useless. Because it is going to come down to the health issues of guys like AJ, Posada, A-Rod, Smoltz, etc.
Yeah! :Big internet fist pump: @ CB!
Weather is going to be awful everywhere tomorrow… it’s going to rain in Boston and even going to snow in Cincinatti for the Mets.
Looks like we’ll see lots of PPD tomorrow. Of course, these forecasts are hardly ever right ahead of time.
I love Camden, its one of the nicest parks in the game and perhaps my second favorite behind the old Yankee Stadium. That field pattern is horrible, however.
Danny-You’re right, but if all three teams are healthy, then I pick the Yankees to win.
“The same thing can be said for the Sox and Smoltz or the Rays and Price… if they are healthy and dominant, their rotations can be the best too.”
It could in theory sure. But in no way is there an equal probability of that happening.
The probability of the yanks having the best staff in the AL east is much, much higher than the probability of either the Sox or the Rays.
And that probability isn’t just a small increased likelihood of the yankees being the best. It is very significant.
Both the Sox and Rays have very talented staffs. But going into this season many, many more things will need to go optimally (injuries, performance and luck) for either of those teams to have the best staff in the league than it will for the yanks.
That much can be said going into the season.
This is the reason to ban outdoor baseball. If YS had a roof, they would be seeking their 37th title now.
m,
Season starts tomorrow and it’s very exciting. The idea of finally having a pitching first team is just fantastic.
They could be frighteningly good. Collectively good in ways baseball has not seen for quite sometime.
The Rays and the Red Sox are two of the best teams in baseball, no question.
It brings up an interesting notion:
What do you guys think of the playoff format? Would you rather keep it as is, or have the four best teams in the league make the playoffs, regardless of divisions? Should 86-win teams really get into the playoffs when there’s a 92 or 93 win team that doesn’t because the other teams in its division won 94 and 98 games?
The Yankees still would have not made the playoffs last year (Red Sox, Rays, Angels and I think White Sox all were 90+ wins), but the race would have been more intense, I think.
Hey Pete,
I would love to hear about any small changes/modifications the yankees will be making to the stadium between now and the home opener.. i would imagine after the soft opening this weekend, there are tweaks they want to make
CB, I just don’t get the disparity between the Sox, Rays and Yanks. These clubs are closely matched and I respect both of them a great deal. I don’t “get” why the Yankees’ talent level is being disparaged (relatively speaking – most people do think the best teams in baseball are these 3). What is wrong with the Yankees lineup, even now? And when Alex comes back? Are they older and rehabbing? Yes, but the Sox have questions as well. I just know that if the Yankees had signed Smoltz, Baldelli and Saito, the media would be having a field day attacking the Yankees for taking so many risks on old/injury prone players. If the Sox had signed AJ (I won’t go to CC because that’s a signing most have not really knocked), they would have been celebrated for it. Oh, he pitches GREAT against the Yankees and Rays – he’s now coming into his own, etc…. This hypocrisy is what drives me crazy…..Fortunately, games are determined on the field.
Can we get a ban on people re-posting comments from previous threads? We get it, you want us to read what you wrote.
Rebecca,
The question you raise is in many ways primarily an economic one rather than one of competition.
One of the few dynamics that allows disparities in club revenue to be viable is the fact that the large revenue teams happen to cluster more on the East coast.
The Twins are obviously at a significant disadvantage when compared to the Yankees and Sox. But what really diminishes that disparity is the fact that they are most directly competing with Cleveland, Detroit, the White Sox, etc.
And then as we’ve seen anything can happen in the playoffs.
Now this is a terrible factor for the other teams in the AL/NL east. But it’s one of the reasons why the current system is viable at all.
If you had Eastern teams crowding out midwest/wester division teams from making the playoffs at all – the outcry would be orders of magnitude greater and the game would be hurt because fans around the country would lose interest in the season.
The beauty of predictions is that none of them will matter
Two words: play ball
CB: I had never thought of it like that, but you do raise a legitimate point.
I call Tex for MVP, Gardner for ROY, and Joba for Cy Young.
Thoughts?
What is the % of the talking heads ever having their predictions hit? I would think that it is less than 25%…if they were any good at making predictions they would be working for Vegas and not in the media.
“If AJ clicks this is an overwhelming staff. Not just good. And no other team is going to come close to what they can throw out there everyday.”
Amen, CB.
It is amazing to me that the so called analysts point to the RS staff as the strongest in MLB and yet ignore their own amazement, for instance, with Dice-K defying gravity with the number of times he got out of bases loaded situations without giving up a run. THAT, will not happen again this year. Mark the tape, the RS staff will underperform this year.
Teixeiramvp
April 5th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
I call Tex for MVP, Gardner for ROY, and Joba for Cy Young.
Thoughts?
==================================
Cano MVP.
Hope they don’t get rained out tomorrow. I am so ready for Opening Day. Plus if they do have a rainout, then CC won’t be starting the home opener.
bodhisattva-I could see that. Cano will have a good year this yr. I think.
Fran-C.C. shouldn’t start the home opener, Wang should, or even Joba. C.C. hasn’t pitched a game in pinstripes. How does he get this honor? I’d say maybe Pettite too, but he already pitched the last game at the old stadium.
Teixeiramvp
April 5th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
bodhisattva-I could see that. Cano will have a good year this yr. I think.
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The beauty of Cano is there’s just no way to over rate him. I watch him in the batter’s box, and, even when he doesn’t get on, I just laugh out loud. That’s how terrifying he looks.
I posted this in an earlier thread. It’s one of my all-time favorites! Click the link, and check out the picture at the very bottom of the post.
http://claybuchholzloveslaptop.....82408.html
Teixeiramvp, Girardi named CC the starter for opening day tomorrow which would put him in line to start the home opener. If I was making the choice for sentimental reasons, I would pick Andy to start the 1st game in the new stadium.
Pete,
Are you going to predict your preditions before the first game tonight?
Agreed on the rotation. Should we be concerned regarding the pen?
I definitely would’ve gone with Pettitte for the home opener. But I’m a sentimental fool.
Fran-I realize that he’s been named the starter for the home opener. But he doesn’t deserve to be.
William Buckner, no. If this pen doesn’t perform as it did last season, we’ve got enough in reserve to tweak it.
The weak part of this team is going to be defense. Good times ahead.
William Buckner
April 5th, 2009 at 1:08 pm
Agreed on the rotation. Should we be concerned regarding the pen?
============================================
Concerned? If someone screws up, we immediately have other options. We are talented and deep. If Marte, for instance, proves too wild to cope with patient AL hitters, we ship him out and bring in Michael Dunn; there’s your second lefty.
We also have Melancon waiting to pounce. Don’t forget Robertson. Still others.
Peace re pen.
per espn
TAMPA, Fla. — New York Yankees right-hander Joba Chamberlain allowed two runs and two hits over 5 1/3 innings in his final spring training start on Sunday. Chamberlain, pitching for Double-A Trenton in a camp game against Triple-A Scranton/Wikes-Barre, retired 16 in a row — including five strikeouts — after allowing two hits and a walk to start the game. The Yankees’ No. 5 starter faced additional batters after three outs were recorded — two in the third and three during the fifth — to re …
m-I think our defense is pretty good.
Tex is great. A-Rod’s great, and Ransom’s very good. Cano’s very good. And I still maintain that Jeter is a very good defender. Posada is a big ?, but Molina is great. Gardner’s very good, Nady and Swisher are decent, and Damon has a chicken arm but isn’t bad.
Man, if weather holds up, Rays at Red Sox 2 p.m. on ESPN. My hope is, I’m closing deals in my pajamas, watching baseball.
Okay, Jeter is a good defender. I will take out the very.
How can you say Jeter is very good but swisher is decent lol.
Teixeiramvp
April 5th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
m-I think our defense is pretty good.
Tex is great. A-Rod’s great, and Ransom’s very good. Cano’s very good. And I still maintain that Jeter is a very good defender. Posada is a big ?, but Molina is great. Gardner’s very good, Nady and Swisher are decent, and Damon has a chicken arm but isn’t bad.
======================================================
We have a mediocre outfield at best, as we have for several years now. We have also have an outfield devoid of arms. We will have to accept that teams will be willing to run on us all year.
Good news: we can pitch and hit; hopefully enough to get away with above.
carl-I took out the very.
bodhisattva-Gardner’s arm is better than advertised. A couple days ago, first game at NYS, he threw a guy out at home and the ump made a bad call. And Nady and Swisher both have decent arms.
Good thing about pen is the ability to get K’s. But a couple guys struggle with control. I would not be surprised to see Coke and Melancon playing big roles by August.
Anyway, we got away with the rag-armed Bernie for yrs. Why (And I’m not referring to his offense)? Because, like Gardner, he has speed to track balls down.
William Buckner-Mark my words, Melancon is the heir apparent to Mo.
“The weak part of this team is going to be defense.”
This is unfortunately true. The defense will be considerably better than last season but still considerably worse than either Tampa or Boston’s.
This is an area where both those teams have a significant advantage.
It’s also the reason why the yankee’s pitching is going to need to be disproportionately better than either the Sox or the Rays.
Preventing runs depends on pitching, defense, competition and some random chance.
The defense of those other two teams will be better at preventing runs than the yankees. The only way the yankees can counter that is for their pitching staff to prevent more runs than the Sox or the Rays.
This is one of the reasons why if you just compare the total runs allowed for each team in order to gauge how good the pitchers are doing, it will be misleading.
Tampa and Boston are much better defensive clubs. Much better.
The biggest defensive variable for the yankees is which Cano shows up with the glove. If its Cano 2007 then the defense will be able to make up some more ground on Tampa/Boston. If its Cano with the glove 2008 then they are going to fall back even more.
Cano is the key defensively because he underperformed so much in the field last year.
After that the other big defensive question is whether Jeter plays closer to 2008 where he was below average but not horrendous or closer to 2007 where he was truly horrendous defensively.
Teixeiramvp
April 5th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
bodhisattva-Gardner’s arm is better than advertised. A couple days ago, first game at NYS, he threw a guy out at home and the ump made a bad call. And Nady and Swisher both have decent arms.
===============
I don’t pay attention to what’s “advertised.” I’ve seen Gardner both at the minor league level and MLB level, in person, often enough to form my own opinions, and IMHO, you are erring on the extreme side of optimism.
No runner will be given pause because Brett Gardner is throwing the ball in. We will have to live with teams opting to go for the extra base.
CB-Our defense isn’t nearly as bad as you make it out. And our pitchers won’t have to be “disproportionately better” to make up for it.
bodhisattva-I also remember him having this wicked game where Gardner stole a homer, threw a guy out at home, then doubled, a double that eventually turned into the winning run.
The Red Sox have major questions that need to be answered positively at catcher, third base,shortstop and right field. Their purported depth at those positions include immortal names such as George Kotaris,Chris Carter and Rocco Baldelli. Jed Lowrie is a good fielder,but has a hole in his swing. He struck our in 26% of his at bats. Until proven otherwise, he can be pitched to fairly easily. Also until proven otherwise, Jason Varitek is the weakest hitting catcher in the division.Is Ortiz’s wrist fully healed? For that matter, is Ortiz’s wrist injury another steroid induced joint degradation (see Giambi, Jason and Garciapara, Nomar)? Only the trainer he shared with A Rod knows the answer to that one.
The Red Sox starting staff is headed by Josh Beckett. Folks like to talk about how fragile AJ Burnett is, but Beckett has pitched over 200 innings exactly twice in his career, DiceK only pitched 167 innings last year. Lester is solid. Wakefield turns 43 in August, has a bad back and they hope he is a .500 pitcher still.The 5 slot belongs to the ever injured Brad Penny.
The Red Sox have the potential to be very good, but they also have the potential be be solidly 3rd place. Bring ‘em on!
“Our defense isn’t nearly as bad as you make it out.”
It’s not simply an issue of the yankees defense being “bad.” That’s not what I was trying to say.
The yankee’s defense looks to be around league average this season.
That’s a huge gain compared to last season where it was one of the 5 worst.
So moving from 5 worst to middle of the pack is a huge gain.
Nonetheless that doesn’t change the fact that of the offense, pitching and defense the defense is by far the weakest link. It just is. The offense and pitching should be much better than mediocre.
And being league average defensively also doesn’t change the fact that both Tampa and Boston will be far above league average defensively. Far above.
That’s just the way it is when competition is fierce. Your not going to be better than the opposition in every phase of the game and every team has its strenghts and weakenesses.
But strengths and weaknesses are relative and they are first and foremost relative to your closest competition.
The yankees happen to play in a division with two teams that have top 5 defenses. That’s just the way it is and that means the yankees defense is a bigger issue than it would if they played in say the AL Central.
That’s the nature of the AL East and the high level of competition. Any relative weakness you have is significant because the margin for error is going to be very small.
CB-Nah, it won’t make that big a difference anyway. Our pitching is more than good enough to make up for it. And I still say we’re an above avg. defensive team.
Cano is the key defensively because he underperformed so much in the field last year.
After that the other big defensive question is whether Jeter plays closer to 2008 where he was below average but not horrendous or closer to 2007 where he was truly horrendous defensively.
=====================================================
Cano is a key, but not a crap shoot. His defense is a product of his ability, which isn’t going to vaporize. My defensive concern is the arm-less outfield, and the age and health on the left side of the infield, but to a much lesser degree than the OF.
Especially concerned against teams like Tampa, and even Baltimore, who will run on us until the cows come home.
Teixeiramvp
April 5th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
bodhisattva-I also remember him having this wicked game where Gardner stole a homer, threw a guy out at home, then doubled, a double that eventually turned into the winning run.
=========================
I already understand where you’re coming from. You’ve decided that Gardner is superman in miniature.
Me? I am just hoping for a lot of swings and misses, and for the best.
“Our pitching is more than good enough to make up for it. And I still say we’re an above avg. defensive team.”
That’s interesting. In your prior post you disagreed with me saying that the yankees pitching would need to “disporportionately” better than the sox and rays in order to make up for the difference in the respective defenses.
Yet you just wrote the pitching is “more than good enough to make up for it [the defense].” That’s just a different way of saying the pitching will be disproportionately better and thus able to make up for the relatively weaker defense.
So i’m not sure at all what your position on this is.
And again this doesn’t change the original point which m was bringing up.
Of the offense, pitching and defense, the defense is by far the weakest link.
bodhisattva-Now I’m a little annoyed. When did I say that? I do think Gardner has potential to be a good player because he’s showed flashes in the past. That’s it. Don’t make it out like I’ve crowned him the next Mickey Mantle or something. I didn’t, never did, and never will.
Damon- average defense. For the most part gets to the balls he’s suppose to get.
Jeter- average defense. Range isn’t great but still makes all the plays. Throws aren’t always accurate but Teixeria should help.
Teixeria- above average defense.
Posada- average/maybe slightly below. Pass balls and hesitance at times to block the plate. Throws to second usually are kind of high. Doesn’t do the best job of framing pitches.
Cano- minus the mental lapses. Is above average defense. Has good range. Very good arm.
Gardner- above average. Doesn’t take the best routes. but his speed makes up for it. Average arm.
Nady- Maybe slightly below. Adequate. Not great range. Serviceable. Decent arm.
The defense is not terrible at-least to me. Everyone for the most part is average. Teixeria & Cano are the only ones you can truly call gold glove type defenders.
CB-No, it isn’t. It doesn’t need to be disproportionately better, just really good.
And my point was that even if it was worse than the other two teams by a lot, which I don’t think it is, it wouldn’t matter much with our pitching.
Trevor-You forget A-Rod. He’s a great defender, and Ransom’s very good.
“Cano is a key, but not a crap shoot. His defense is a product of his ability, which isn’t going to vaporize. My defensive concern is the arm-less outfield,”
That’s what you’d think on Cano but that wasn’t the case last year.
Sure his ability didn’t change but he was a very poor defensive player last year. Very poor – far below league average at 2b.
He was nowhere close to being as good as he was in 2007. I think he just started taking his troubles at the plate into the field and just melted down.
It’s unclear what kind of defensive player he truly is just as it’s unclear how good a baseball player he is because he’s been so inconsistent.
He has great hands – both at the plate and in the field. But tools are just tools unless they are translated into consistent performance on the field.
Consistent performance both within individual seasons (pre all star break vs post break) and between different seasons (2007 vs. 2008)
I think Cano is very good. He just needs to pull himself together. That comes with age, and I think he’ll be very good this year.
I can’t judge Arod because I don’t know how his hip will effect his defense.
“It doesn’t need to be disproportionately better, just really good.”
If Tampa, Boston and the Yankees were to pitch exactly the same level and the Yankees would be in big trouble because then Tampa and Boston would allow far fewer runs due to their defense.
That’s what I mean by “disproportionately better.” The Yankees pitching just can’t be as good as Tampa or the Sox. It needs to be better.
Not only does Boston have the better defense their offense looks to be slightly better as well.
So chances are Boston will score more runs and their defense will allow fewer runs.
That means the only area where the yankees have left to make up that gap is in their pitching.
And that means their pitching will have to be disproportionately better.
I can’t wait until tomorrow. The Red Sox have a tough opening day assignment playing against Shields and the Tampa Rays.
Teixeiramvp
April 5th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
bodhisattva-Now I’m a little annoyed. When did I say that? I do think Gardner has potential to be a good player because he’s showed flashes in the past. That’s it. Don’t make it out like I’ve crowned him the next Mickey Mantle or something. I didn’t, never did, and never will.
===================================================
If he were Mickey Mantle, then I could be as enthusiastic about him as you are
Here’s my concern: Gardner is a good outfielder. But for someone as fast and indeed, as QUICK, as he is, there is something of a disconnect.
His quickness does not translate into a superior break on the ball or a smooth path to it.
He has a tendency to turn the wrong way. Fortunately, he has the dash to outrun the ball , but he is not going to get to everything. In fact, he’s going to have to play deeper in our park, in deference to its CF.
Gardner likes to play shallow. He likes to play aggressively. Our CF is bigger than he is fast, however, and he’s going to have to split the difference, make an adjustment and play deeper. He can’t charge everything in our park.
And you can’t compare him with Bernie. Gardner’s arm is better, but that’s not saying much. Bernie was an utterly graceful, off-the-bat, straight-line-to-the-ball CF. Bernie also had the long strides and got to balls Gardner won’t, despite the former’s range.
People can talk all they want about a CF’s arm not being relevant, but in YS – even this imposter version – it is. Mantle didn’t get a great jump, either, but he had ridiculous speed and great power in his legs, and a rocket arm for what he couldn’t outrun.
It’s one thing to be excited about a guy’s speed; I am, too. But to close one’s eyes to the player’s glaring defensive weakness – his arm – coupled with the lack of an arm in RF – I’m not sure what purpose that serves.
Teams will run on us. And often.
Thunderstorms are forcasted all day for the Baltimore area tomorrow. They will probably cancel and have the opener on Tuesday which was to be an off day.
CB
April 5th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
“Cano is a key, but not a crap shoot. His defense is a product of his ability, which isn’t going to vaporize. My defensive concern is the arm-less outfield,”
That’s what you’d think on Cano but that wasn’t the case last year.
Sure his ability didn’t change but he was a very poor defensive player last year. Very poor – far below league average at 2b.
He was nowhere close to being as good as he was in 2007. I think he just started taking his troubles at the plate into the field and just melted down.
It’s unclear what kind of defensive player he truly is just as it’s unclear how good a baseball player he is because he’s been so inconsistent.
He has great hands – both at the plate and in the field. But tools are just tools unless they are translated into consistent performance on the field.
Consistent performance both within individual seasons (pre all star break vs post break) and between different seasons (2007 vs. 2008)
=====================================
Those tools don’t exist in isolation. It’s not as if he hasn’t already produced enough of a sample size not to conclude he knows what he’s doing. Last year was an aberration, and I have no residue of concern that he’s going to fall apart at 2B. To me, that would go under the heading of creating unwarranted worry. I consider him a defensive STRENGTH on a team that has some justifiable defensive question marks.
He has already amply demonstrated these tools at his position. It’s more than great hands. He pivots beautifully, he can make a strong, accurate throw off the wrong foot, when he has to, he’s great at catching pop-ups in shallow right…I could go on.
His tools add up to playing a superior 2B, which he has done.
There’s been bad blood with Tampa Bay and Boston over the last few years and it can’t be underestimated.
So …… turn ‘em loose.
Even with a disappointing 2008, the Yankees held the season’s edge over both teams.
The Yankees need to take the so-called lesser teams very seriously this year or get burned.
In the department of “things never change” and this is from the paper therecord.com :
Former New York Yankees pitcher Darrell Rasner had a rough outing in his debut in Japan on Sunday.
Making his first start for the Rakuten Eagles, Rasner coasted through the first three innings against the Nippon Ham Fighters, retiring nine of 10 batters as his team took a 4-0 lead.
But things took a turn for the worse in the fourth inning.
Former San Diego Padres outfielder Terrmel Sledge hit a two-run homer, the first of six straight hits given up by Rasner, who was taken out after giving up six runs on eight hits over 3 1-3 innings.