The New York Yankees begin spring
training on Friday February 20, 2015. It
is the official report day for pitchers and catchers and they will hold their
first official workout the next day Saturday February 21, 2015. The Yankees roster is pretty much set with
maybe a couple position battles for backup catcher and last spot in the
bullpen. There are definitely some
interesting storylines though.
The biggest story will be of course
the return of Alex Rodriguez from a year long suspension for his role in the
biogenesis PED scandal. He has had his
meeting with the new commissioner and the Yankees and in the coming days before
spring training will meet with the media probably at Yankee Stadium at the
request of the Yankees. The Yankees
don't want him to do it in Tampa and be a distraction for spring training. After all the talking and the questions it
will be back to baseball. Does Alex have
anything left? Can he perform at a high
level or any level at all? If he does
make it through spring training and looks pretty good will he be the starting
DH, will he bat in the middle of the order?
Will he play any 3B, 1B?? Will he
be just a part time player? As you see
there are plenty of on the field questions to be answered.
Masahiro Tanaka, Michael Pineda and
CC Sabathia. The questions with these
guys are will they be healthy? Tanaka
has a tear in his elbow we know that, the questions is will it hold up with the
rehab he has had and the rest like three doctors recommended or will it blow
out and he will need to get Tommy John surgery after all?? Pineda is a question because he hasn't been
fully healthy in a few years. When they
were healthy last year they were dominant so if they can stay healthy that will
be a big plus for the Yankees. CC
Sabathia is getting older and he has a degenerative knee condition. He has been saying that he feels good and is
ready to go but can his body really hold up and pitch a full year and then if
it can, how effective will he be??
Is Stephen Drew really the second
baseman? Can Rob Refsnyder or Jose
Pirela have a good enough spring and change their minds and make Drew a bench
player?? If Drew is the starter was last
year just a bad year because of not signing until the summer and not having
spring training etc? This could be the
most interesting part of spring or the season.
If Drew struggles how quick will they pull the trigger on him and bring
up one of the kids to take over, Pirela may make the team as a utility guy
also.
Can Carlos Beltran, Mark Teixeira
and Brian McCann get back to being very good middle of the order hitters and
run producers. McCann showed some life
in September and the Yankees hope that will carry over. They will give him the first year grace
period and expect him to be better this year but are Beltran and Teixeira just
shells of themselves or can they bounce back from injury and
ineffectiveness. They were both pretty good
early last year until Beltran fell over a wall in Tampa Bay and his elbow
bothered him the rest of the season and now Teixeira is another full year away
from that wrist surgery. He was pretty
good the first half of last year and then just terrible in the second half last
year. It figures to be a very busy as
usual camp but different in the fact that there are no Derek Jeter, Mariano
Rivera etc and there is Alex Rodriguez and a bunch of new faces to go with the
aging veterans. There will be a lot of focus
in camp also of the young kids that appear to be the future and are getting
their first tastes of big league camp.
It figures to be a fun and hectic six weeks before the season
opens.
No comments:
Post a Comment