New York Yankees Summer Camp

The New York Yankees have been engaging in Summer Camp or Spring Training 2.0.  Whatever you want to call it, personally I think they are all kind of lame but it is what it is.  Baseball is back though and two weeks from today the Yankees will be opening up in Washington at 7:00PM.  Cole will be on the mound and it looks like Judge and Hicks will be in the lineup.  It will be a different kind of season with a 60 game sprint but the expectations for the Yankees shouldn't change.  They have a stacked team and should have the motivation to go out and try to win the whole thing.  Yes there will be an asterick this year but who cares if you are the champion you are still the champion and that should be just fine. 

The Yankees have been practicing and playing intrasquad games.  What have I noticed early on, well first of all Cole is maybe even more impressive then we thought.  We obviously all know how great he is as a pitcher.  But he is one heck of a competitor and leader as well.  Just listen to him talk and watch how he operates, it is amazing and just what the Yankees needed to lead their rotation.  James Paxton will be back as well as he had the extra time to heal from back surgery.  Masahiro Tanaka got hit in the head by a line drive off the bat of Giancarlo Stanton and suffered a concussion but he is doing well and should be ready to go for Opening day.  All of the pitchers have looked good but of course they are ahead of the hitters at this point. 

The hitters haven't really looked good at all, Thairo Estrada has stood out though as he has hit two homeruns.  Miguel Andujar took Cole deep so that is impressive and I think some people forget about him but he can hit and the Yankees will find at bats for him between outfield, DH, 3B and maybe even some 1B. 

Luke Voit has shed some pounds and looks great.  It will be interesting to see if he just takes the job or will there be any kind of platoon with Mike Ford as he is a lefty.  How about DH, it looks like especially early on it will be all Stanton as he is also healthy and they want to keep him out of the OF but eventually they may want to get other guys in the DH spot. 

It is such a different year because you really can't fool around and try things and say there is always tomorrow.  In baseball it is such a long season and they are used to not getting too high or too low but this year it is different because 60 games is so quick.  You can't afford to get off to a bad start or have a 10 game bad stretch, that could end your season. 

I think the Yankees still have the best team and so much depth that will help them.  I think they will win the division and then the playoffs are a crapshoot but I think they have a great chance to win it all.  Another interesting thing is no fans so there really is no homefield advantage this year.  That will be interesting to see how that affects teams.