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!!!