New York Yankees Notes from Opening Day

The New York Yankees lost on Opening Day but it is just one game out of 162. CC Sabathia the ace didn’t pitch so well but this was his fifth opening day start for the Yankees and he has yet to win one. He also has not fared well at all in opening days period. The talk was about Sabathia and his velocity but he says that he is fine. He had off-season elbow surgery so of course it is going to come up. If you look at his past seasons though it is common for his velocity to be a little bit down in April, he is a slow starter and then once he gets going as the weather warms he is fine. 
The offense is what the critics have been talking about all winter. The thing I saw though is that they had their opportunities they just didn’t capitalize. How many times did that happen last year when they had a supposedly great offense?? It is just one game but of course it looks worse when what the critics have been saying comes to fruition.

Why was David Phelps in this game when he is in the rotation. It was his throw day and he is still on schedule to start the Saturday game in Detroit. He said he knew that he could pitch in the game and it was no big deal.

Yankee Stadium was really a ghost town by the end of the game. The game was bad and it was raining by then but it was still an ugly scene. If there were a couple of hundred people there that is a lot. Vernon Wells said that he didn’t blame them and Francisco Cervelli said if he was a fan and it was raining he would of run also.

Joba said about his bad outing that walks kill you and he just wasn’t making his pitches. Elias had some nuggets to share from this game. It was the first Yankees opener without a switch hitter in the lineup since 1992. The Yankees had Bernie Williams and Jorge Posada for many years and then Teixeira the last couple of years. The Yankees also snapped a major league record streak of homering in 14 straight opening day games.

There were six players that made their Yankees debut, Lyle Overbay, Vernon Wells, Shawn Kelley, Kevin Youkilis, Travis Hafner and Ben Francisco. Youkilis joined Johnny Damon and Wade Boggs to start an opener for the Yankees one year after doing so for the Red Sox since Steve O’Neill did it in 1925.

The Yankees and Red Sox will play game two of the series on Wednesday night and conclude the series on Thursday night. Hiroki Kuroda will face Clay Bucholz on Wednesday and Andy Pettitte vs. Ryan Dempster on Thursday.

The big news from the off day on Tuesday was that Robinson Cano fired his agent Scott Boras. He is now represented by CAA which Jay-Z is partnered with through his PR firm. It looks more likely that Cano will stay in New York and play his entire career with the New York Yankees.