 "Photo: Photo Credit/ Audrey C. Tiernan/Newsday")
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Every baseball season starts with lots of promise and huge expectations in New York for both hometown teams. This season is only different in that these expectations have been ratcheted up a few more notches as both the Mets and Yankees are moving into brand new stadiums with expensive new players on their revamped rosters.
The early feeling is that both teams should be among the elite in their leagues and the Yankees spent some serious cash this offseason to fill voids in the lineup and rotation with some of the best players money could buy.
The Yankees three big signings of C.C. Sabathia (seven years, $161 million), A.J. Burnett (five years, 82.5 million) and Mark Teixeira (eight years, $180 million) has helped to create higher expectations for the franchise’s 26th World Series championship. Unfortunately, the injury bug has struck and claimed the biggest of the Yankees bat.
Super slugger Alex Rodriguez will miss the start of the regular season with a torn labrum in his hip, which led to surgery he is still currently recovering from. The question for the controversial All-Star is if he overcome the steroids controversy and focus his mind on taking care of business on the diamond.
The only significant change in the batting order is that Derek Jeter and Johnny Damon will flip-flop in the order placing Jeter as the team’s leadoff hitter after years of hitting in the two-hole. Outside of that, the only positional battle that seemed to ensue was for the starting center fielder between Brett Gardner and Melky Cabrera, which was won by Gardner after a stellar spring training in which he showed Girardi that he could provide more than a speed on the base paths.
The pitching rotation has the potential to be the best in baseball with Sabathia, Burnett, Wang, Petitte and Chamberlain, who each have the capability to shut down any lineup, when they are handed the ball every fifth day. The bullpen was strengthened last year and the same can be expected as long as their setup men can bridge that seventh and eighth inning gap to future Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera.
Although the American League East should be the toughest division baseball, the Yankees have the personnel to climb back to the top and bring a title back to the Bronx in their inaugural season at the new Yankee Stadium.
As the Mets get ready for their first season at CitiField, Mets general manager Omar Minaya went out and took care of the biggest deficiency: the much beleaguered bullpen. It seemed to be a foregone conclusion to most that record-setting closer Francisco Rodriguez (three years, $37 million) was going to receive a big money deal from the Metropolitans, but then Minaya went out and traded for reliever J.J. Putz. This blockbuster deal was done to retool a bullpen that many sports writers and fans pointed to as the main factor behind the collapses of the past two seasons.
While the bullpen and rotation seem to be built to win, their lineup has the boom-or-bust potential that could be the real key to their return to the postseason after the colossal meltdowns of ’07 and ’08. The pitching will not only benefit from the confidence of having two excellent back-end relievers in Putz and Rodriguez, but should also be much stronger with a maturing Mike Pelfrey and a healthy John Maine. The fifth starting slot should be more settled with the signing of veteran hurler Livan Hernandez who should thrive in this role and give the Amazings more than 200 innings of quality pitching.
Age and durability could be huge issues at first and second base with Luis Castillo who has been a disappointment since he came to Flushing. Last year, it seemed father time caught up with first basemen Carlos Delgado, but his second half resurgence helped erase the ideas that he could no longer be the power-hitter he once was. Another spot of concern is the catcher position which could see a decrease in production since Brian Schneider and Ramon Castro could have potential durability issues which could lead to the Mets potentially looking to acquire a catcher how can contribute offensively.
The rest of the positional starters are a more sure thing with All-Stars David Wright, Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran still in, or entering their primes, and the return to health of rightfielder Ryan Church, who was in the midst’s of a career year before a concussion and post-concussion symptoms forced him to miss significant time and a dip in his numbers. Leftfielder Daniel Murphy won the starting spot and everyone around the Mets seems to expect him to thrive and be a solid contributor this season.
Each team has the pieces in place to win their divisions and make a deep run into the postseason. A run that could provide the fans and media with the best scenario possible: a Subway Series in October.
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