Damn rain delay!…

Ah well….all that hype, and the game gets rained out! Guess MLB’s decision to leave off days in the first week of the season has paid dividends already. Still, for us it’ll mean a late night tomorrow night. The first of many no doubt! 

Opening Day lineup

Joe Girardi announced the lineup for Monday’s opening day. No real surprises in the side really…

1 – Johnny Damon – LF

2 – Derek Jeter – SS

3 – Bobby Abreu – RF

4 – Alex Rodriguez – 3B

5 – Jason Giambi – 1B

6 – Robinson Cano – 2B

7 – Jorge Posada – C

8 – Hideki Matsui – DH

9 – Melky Cabrera – CF

P – Chien Ming Wang

We’ll both likely be on after the game tomorrow night with some reaction. Gotta love that it’s at a sociable hour for us over on this side of the pond! Typical that we’re both out of the house, and having to watch it as live a few hours delayed…

Opening Day of the Closing Season

Plans for Monday’s opener were announced today, involving a display by West Point cadets, a fly over, and a ceremonial first pitch to be thrown out by Reggie Jackson, partly to mark the 30th anniversary of the 1978 World Series in addition to the obvious magnitude of being the last ever Opening Day at The Stadium.

Sadly it was also announced that the legendary Bob Sheppard will not be in attendance for the big occasion owing to health reasons. I’m sure he is as devastated as all of his fans will be that he cannot be there. Both of us here at H.O. would like to wish him a speedy recovery, and we all hope to hear his voice back at The Stadium in the near future.

What’s with all the negativity!?

Quite a few media outlets are starting to put out their predictions for the coming season, and some of them are really bugging me.

People like George King from the Post have already written off the team’s chances of getting to the postseason at all this coming year, and while Joel Sherman has stopped short of predicting such ‘doom’, he does seem to be a bit on the negative side with his predictions (certainly with regards to some of the younger members of the team).

Personally, I can’t see many ways in which the team going into this season is much worse than that from last season, and none of these negative predictions were as prevalent this time last year.

The rotation is a big question mark, and much will depend on the ‘kids’. Then again, the rotation going into last year was as much of a question mark….so much so that the team had to pay almost $20m for a pitcher who was poorer down the stretch than anyone could have predicted, not to mention having P*vano pitching Opening Day…

In terms of the rest of the team, there’s been no losses to the playing staff at all. While everyone is a year older, which will obviously have some impact, the bench is significantly stronger than last year. Where last year there was Pratt/Nieves,  now there is Molina. Where there was Mientkiewicz and Cairo, now there is Ensberg and Betemit. Melky should show the benefit of his experiences last year, and we have some decent pop on the bench, which seemed to be lacking this time last year. The biggest question mark here is Giambi. Even if he totally flops, which it sadly seems to me that some people seem to be wanting/expecting, there is adequate backup that can be used, and it’s far from outwith the Yankees reach to make an in-season pickup to plug such a gap.

I’m not going to go out on a limb and say that the team will get to or win the ALDS/ALCS or Series, but the negativity coming from some of the writers is really surprising, and I strongly suspect that many of them will be proven wrong, and the team will be in contention come late September.

More Stadium memories

Bill Madden has written an absolutely superb piece on his own experiences of Yankee Stadium, as a fan, and as a reporter in today’s Daily News.

If you haven’t read it yet, I can strongly recommend you check it out. It’ll just be one of I’m sure very very many such articles published this season, so whenever a good one comes up, we’ll try and feature it here. I’ll hopefully even do one of my own after my trip to NY this summer.

ESPN’s top 50 players over next 5 years

ESPN’s Rob Neyer has produced a list of who he believes to be the top 50 players in the game over the next five years. It apparently takes all aspects of the game into account and most of them are in their mid 20’s so should be reaching their peak in the 5 year span mentioned.

1- David Wright, 25

2- Hanley Ramirez, 24

3- Miguel Cabrera, 24

4- Grady Sizemore, 25

5- Johan Santana, 29

6- Ryan Zimmerman, 23

7- Jose Reyes, 24

8- Chase Utley, 29

9- Albert Pujols, 28

10- Alex Rodriguez, 32

11- Robinson Cano, 25

12- Curtis Granderson, 27

13- Troy Tulowitzki, 23

14- Ryan Braun, 24

15- B.J Upton, 23

16- Jimmy Rollins, 29

17- Brandon Webb, 28

18- Joe Mauer, 24

19- C.C Sabathia, 27

20- Evan Longoria, 22

21- Jhonny Peralta, 26

22- Nick Markakis, 24

23- Jake Peavy, 26

24- Dustin Pedroia, 24

25- Ian Kinsler, 25

26- Carlos Beltran, 30

27- Victor Martinez, 29

28- Kelly Johnson, 26

29- Nick Swisher, 27

30- Corey Hart, 26

31- Dan Haren, 27

32- Mark Teixeira, 27

33- Russell Martin, 25

34- Josh Beckett, 28

35- Adam Jones, 22

36- Carl Crawford, 26

37- Justin Verlander, 25

38- Adrian Gonzalez, 25

39-Hunter Pence, 24

40- Prince Fielder, 23

41- Matt Holliday, 28

42- Brian McCann, 24

43- Justin Upton, 20

44- Dan Uggla, 28

45- Ryan Howard, 28

46- Melky Cabrera, 23

47- Justin Morneau, 26

48- Alex Gordon, 24

49- Matt Kemp, 23

50- Asdrubal Cabrera, 22

Interesting to see three Yankees up there although with all due respect to him, i was a little surprised to see Melky Cabrera making the top 50. I was also half expecting to see Joba Chamberlain in there, seeing as he has already had some success in MLB while someone like Evan Longoria has not even seen a pitch in the show and is ranked at number 20. Seems strange seeing that Rob Neyer has allowed one exception to his rule that no prospects will make this list!!!

Jose Canseco

I do not want to waste many words on this post as enough has been said on the subject, but here is my take -

Jose Canseco is a one man cancer to the game of baseball.

Stadium Mememtos

Have been looking up some things about the original Yankee Stadium and came across this poster from the 70’s;

Somehow I can’t see any such generous offerings in place this time next year….Especially since I’ve heard that Steiner sports have negotiated first refusal on virtually everything sellable from within the stadium…

Outfield prospects

While Brett Gardner is without doubt an excellent prospect, in 2008 i would much prefer to see him getting 400 ab’s at AAA than sitting on the bench in the majors. He has been exceptional this spring and, on merit, may deserve a spot on the roster but i have to think that he will start the season in the minors, especially with Matsui handling his rehab well and Shelley Duncan also looking decent in the outfield.

Further down the line though, i do not see Gardner patrolling centre field in the new stadium full time. If Melky is replaced, with RF being a probable destination for him, Austin Jackson will be the man ready to follow in the footsteps of DiMaggio, Mantle, Murcer and Williams. Jackson’s upside is significantly higher than that of either Brett Gardner or Jose Tabata and after some more seasoning in MiLB, he should be primed for the big time armed with all five tools.

All in all, the outfield picture is looking pretty good for the Yankees for years to come and it’s refreshing to be able to look within the system for plyers instead of constantly exploring trades or projecting possible free agents three years down the line.

Next in a long, exceptional lineage?

 

A piece in today’s NY Times gives an good insight into the attitude and expectations of Brett Gardener, who seems more than comfortable being tipped as the next in a long, illustrious line of Yankee CF’s.

While he may not displace Melky in centre any time soon, it seems that the team will be in a decent position when Johnny Damon’s contract finishes. He certainly doesn’t seem short on confidence, which should hopefully serve him well as he progresses through AAA. Hopefully he can make this progression at a decent rate and not end up a perpetual “AAAA” player like Bubba Crosby….