With yesterday’s paper, the New York Daily News included a special pull out section, previewing the baseball season. Therein was an article giving 28 reasons why the Yankees will win the World Series again in 2010. Breaking down all 28 would be tiresome and repetitive, so I’m just going to look at a few, and give some quick reactions.
“8. A-Rod is hip-hip-OK”
This is big. Huge. Monstrous. Gargantuan, even. Despite missing Rodriguez for a month, the Yankees had the best offense in baseball in 2009. This season, he’s fully healthy and ready to go from Opening Day. Perhaps this will help Mark Teixeira’s slow starts. Regardless, more A-Rod is good for both the team–as it obviously helps them win–and player, as it will allow him to make up for time lost due to injury.
9. It’s Joba time once again
The rules won’t be necessary now that Joba Chamberlain is back in the bullpen, assuming the eighth-inning setup role that made him a cult hero in 2007. Having lost the fifth-starter competition to Phil Hughes this spring, Chamberlain returns to short relief, where the Yankees hope he can regain the mid-to-high 90s fastball that helped him explode on to the scene three seasons ago. It’s unclear whether Chamberlain will eventually become a starter again, but if he can find his old bullpen magic, the Yankees will be a better team.
10. Ful-Phil-ing his destinyIt feels like Phil Hughes has been around forever, yet the 2004 first-rounder won’t turn 24 until June. Hughes has encountered his share of struggles in the rotation during his first few seasons, but with the confidence he gained in the bullpen last season and a much-improved changeup, the young righthander is ready to assume his spot in the rotation – for the next decade or so.
I’m doing these two together, because they obviously go hand-in-hand. I hope Phil Hughes does well in the rotation. And he’s a good pitcher, so he should do well. However, he is still young and doesn’t have all that much experience. He’s likely going to struggle at some point during the season. If those struggles are bad enough (think 2008), or if he gets hurt, he’ll have to be taken out of the rotation (I don’t think this is going to happen, but it could). If that’s the case and Joba is in the bullpen and can’t be properly stretched out, then the Yankees will not benefit from this strategy.
If Hughes pitches well–which he could easily do–and Chamberlain does, too, out of the bullpen, then Yankees are definitely going to be well off. This also got me thinking about the “Worst Case” scenarios for each guy. For Hughes, barring a repeat of ’08, I think the worst thing would be if his changeup doesn’t show up in the season and he has to try to get through lineups with just two pitches. For Joba, it’s if he gets drilled in the bullpen. Of those two things, I think the former is more likely to happen–but it probably won’t (at least based on what we’ve been told of Phil’s change in ST).
“12. The bullpen’s new strikeout star”
This is about David Robertson, and you all know what I think of him. 2010 is a big year for Robertson and if he succeeds, the Yankees will have a closer-in-the-making. A full season of Robertson means a lot of strikeouts for a lot of hitters. Get ready for his curveball, American League.
“17. Granderson in seventh heaven”
The fact that Curtis Granderson is the Yankees’ seventh place hitter going into 2010 speaks volumes about just how damn good the Yankees hitting is. On any other team, Granderson would be in one of the top four spots of the lineup. With the Yankees, he’s batting seventh. That’s not because he’s not good enough to bat in the top four spots, but it’s because the Yankees are just that stacked at the plate. Even if Granderson hits his average rate stats–.272/.344/.484–he’ll drive in a ton of runs and be the most valuable center fielder the Yankees have said since Bernie Williams’ prime.
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