New York Yankees

Despite injuries and underperforming players the Yankees managed to secure their 39th division crown and their 8th in a row but the biggest team in baseball still fell at the first hurdle to a similarly underperforming Angels side in the playoffs.

Pitching
Before the start of last season the Yankees splashed a lot of cash on pitching and they really didn’t get anywhere near the kind of production they had hoped for. Jaret Wright spent most of the year on the DL and was poor when healthy. Carl Pavano also spent a lot of time out and was very average when he did play and Randy Johnson was good, especially down the stretch, but you don’t get a guy like Johnson just to be good. The Big Unit will be 42 next year and he needs show people that he’s not on the wane and that he can still be the fearsome and dominating pitcher who won four straight Cy’s not too long ago.

The most consistent starter was Chien-Ming Wang who emerged as an unlikely ace to the staff till shoulder problems hit him late on. He showed great poise and was totally un-phased by the bright lights and high scrutiny that comes with being a Yankee and he’ll be looking to build upon last seasons success and there’s no reason to think he won’t.

The bullpen is once again anchored by the amazing Mariano Rivera who had one of his best seasons to date last year. When he comes in the game is over and his cutter is as good a pitch as you’ll see.

The set-up staff behind Rivera is much improved from last year with righties Kyle Farnsworth and Octavio Dotel both possessing dominating, high velocity stuff that has seen them close at times in their careers (to varying levels of success) and lefties Mike Myers (I’m sure he wants to retire having played for every team in baseball) and Ron Villone both capable of logging innings and being tough in situational work. Tanyon Sturtz will likely once again be the swingman handling long duty and taking spot starts where needed.

Defence

The infield D should be an adventure with Robinson Cano carrying his iron glove to the right side with the mobility challenged Jason Giambi. Cano is one of those guys who will go through his whole career having people say he will be moving to a new position.

The left side of the infield has Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez who both have average range but secure hands and strong arms. All in all there will be holes on the infield for hitters to poke through.

Jorge Posada is showing his age behind the plate. He has a strong enough arm to keep runners honest but his footwork is often very laboured.

Bernie Williams has always had good range but has been heavily criticised due to his poor arm and now the Yankees have replaced him with Johnny Damon who has always had good range but has a very poor arm. If you put the two together you might get a passable Major League arm. In left field Hideki Matsui regressed a lot last and looked robotic in his movement. With all the ground to cover in left at Yankee Stadium he needs to up his game.

Offence

This line-up will probably lead the universe in runs scored this year.

Johnny Damon’s OBP is nowhere near as good as his high profile would suggest but he managed to be productive enough in Boston in front of some big bats and he has plenty of muscle backing him up in Yankee town too. With Jeter also helping to set the table this meaty line-up will have plenty to gobble up this season.

A-Rod will once again challenge for the homerun crown this year and Jason Giambi started to show the form that made him a league MVP before all the drugs furore. Robinson Cano had an impressive rookie year too and showed himself to be a smart hitter with occasional pop who uses the whole field.

The best hitter on the team remains Gary Sheffield who has the quickest hands in the game. He hits all pitches hard and on a line and the only thing that stops him hitting more homeruns is because he hit’s the ball so truly it doesn’t get elevated enough. There is no one out there who can get a fastball by him.

Rookie Watch

This is the Yankees. They only seem to produce home grown impact players by accident these days (they only turned to Wang and Cano last year only after they had tried everything else first). They tried to plug Melky Cabrera into the line-up to solve their centerfield problems and he was totally overwhelmed and not ready and now no one is sure what he’ll end up doing.

There is an outside shot we will see Eric Duncan some time this year but with the corner infield positions well covered at the big club we might not see him in a Yankee uniform. Duncan is an average third baseman who probably will end up at first or the outfield. He’s a smart hitter with a good left handed stroke that should get him homeruns at the big league level.

Management

You cannot understate the job Joe Torre has done as manager of this team of superstar multi-millionaire egos. You very rarely hear his players complain about playing issues and fewer say anything bad about him. He’s pretty much done it all and is as good as they come but he still doesn’t seem to be able to wear his hat properly (have a look, its like he’s not so much wearing it but balancing it on his head).

GM Brian Cashman has long been seen as George Steinbrenners glove puppet or had his efforts dismissed due to the huge payroll he handles. The thing I would question is why he changed the team set-up from the one used when they were winning World Series? They didn’t really have any big sluggers on those teams but had a bunch of character guys, many developed within the system, who played strong defence and knew fundamental baseball and many of those qualities have been abandoned with a thin farm system, a bevy of immovable contracts and a lot of average glovemen and stoic sluggers. Why change a system that works so well?

Outlook

Once again this team is built to roll through the regular season with a fearsome batting order that will bully the lesser teams in the league and with Jeter and Damon at the top of the order they might be able to sustain that into the post-season but the real question lies in the rotation where high priced players need to play like they can otherwise they will be disappointed again come October.