Here Come The Yankees

The Yankees begin their quest for the elusive 27th championship today when Carl Pavano takes the hill against the Devil Rays.

That Pavano is the Opening Day choice shows you the weakness of this team, the starting pitching is very suspect. Chien-Ming Wang is hurt, though he should be back soon. Andy Pettitte has returned, but he has already had back issues. Mike Mussina is just older and the rest of the rotation is the missing man, Pavano and a soft-throwing pitcher from Japan, Kei Igawa.

Luckily, this team wasn’t built to win 2-1 games; it was built to pound teams into the ground. Damon and Jeter will set the table for Abreu, A-Rod, Giambi, Matsui, Posada and Cano. Doug Mientkiewicz won’t help offensively, but his glove should be an improvement at first.

The bullpen has also grown deeper with Luis Vizcaino, a workhorse, joining Farnsworth and Proctor in a setup role for Mariano Rivera. Rivera just seems to get better and has finally started throwing his changeup, which is bad news for hitters.

But the real difference between this year and past seasons is that there is actual talent in AAA. Phil Hughes should be pitching in the majors soon and he is just the start. The Yankees have a number of arms who could help fortify the rotation later this summer.

What does all of this add up to? October baseball is a definite, but how far they go will depend entirely on what happens to the rotation between now and then.

Photo of preparations for opening day at Yankee Stadium by AP/Jason DeCrow

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By Peter Trinkle on April 2, 2007 11:00 AM

Comments [rss]

SP

"the red sox aren't exactly full of glaring weaknesses this year"

Uh, maybe not after you've had a tall glass of milky white Rod Sux kool aid. Their starting rotation is not exactly earth shatteringly amazing, and their bullpen is a desolate wasteland of dead arms. If they can somehow get the ball to Pepelbon, they will have to pray his shoulder doesnt fall off (again). The Sux should really be concerned with Toronto and not finishing in third (again).

ricky

Igawa soft-throwing? Just cause the man throws a curve and a change doesn't mean his ~93mph fastball should be completely disregarded. He's no Jamie Moyer!

Tim N.

Umm... you're not exactly right.

Pavano is pitching because Pettitte wanted an extra day of rest and Mussina is very exacting in his schedule so they didn't want to move him up a day or two. And Pavano, despite the past two years, had a good enough spring to warrant this. So would they rather have had Wang start? Of course, but it's not like they had to "settle" for Pavano. Their rotation is fine. And with Clemens and Hughes warming up in the bullpen, they will best whatever comes their way, certainly anything from Flushing or Southie.

josh

october is never a given, and hughes didn't exactly impress in spring training; plus, the red sox aren't exactly full of glaring weaknesses this year, not on a par with the yankees' pitching problems. don't count your chickens/rings yet.