For years the Yankees were everybody’s perennial favorites to win the AL East, but now no one knows whether this team can even make the post season.
No doubt the Yankees are old and injured, which does not breed confidence.
No new super star was bought in to get the team back to invincible, but remember these are the Yankees.
The same Yankees who have proven even their biggest doubters wrong, by defying the odds for years making the playoffs 17 out of the last 18 seasons.
So is it smart to bet against the Yankees again, or not?
Here are some opinions of baseball writers and bloggers from around the web (link to source after each prediction) :
One of the best organizations in baseball has been having some issues this offseason, an aging roster, and injuries. If you take a glance at the overall predicted roster they look to be a good team but in depth with A-Rod hurt and who knows how Jeter will do these little things could begin to make quite the impact overall. During the offseason the Yankees made only a few moves and none too significant. With A-Rod out the Yanks were forced to put Youkilis in who has aged quite a bit now which is a major reason the Sox game him up. The Yankees still have a strong team and very well could do good as usual but I guess time will tell. – Fan vs. Fan
New York Yankees: 91-71 The Yankees take a small step back in the record this year (95-67 last year) due in part to the improved Blue Jays and the simple fact that Boston can’t be as bad as they were a year ago. They are another year older but they will score runs. I feel this offense can still end up in the Top-5 in the Majors in run production. Continue reading ‘New York Yankees: 2013 season predictions’ »
With Curtis Granderson sidelined till mid-May with a broken right forearm, the New York Yankees have a hole to fill in the outfield and even bigger one at the plate.
Curtis Granderson (Photo credit: Wikipedia)plate.
Over his three seasons in New York, Granderson has hit a total of 108 home runs with 43 of coming last year.
Making up that kind of power is not going to happen because according to Yankees GM Brian Cashman, they are determined to find Granderson’s temp internally. This makes sense because the injury happened so early and Granderson should only miss, give or take, 42 regular season games.
With Spring Training under way, I started looking at the stats of the players signed by the New York Yankees during the off-season more closely, and figured I would share them.
The table does include Andy Pettitte, Hiroki Kuroda, Ichiro Suzuki and Mariano Rivera, who technically are not new to the Bombers, but were free agents that got re-signed.
This is a great reference for fans to look at while watching Spring Training games, and get familiar with the new guys.
