SPANISH HARLEM – Hello Baseball! Oh how I have missed you. There is nothing like Spring Training Baseball, when every team thinks it has a chance.. Every young outfield prospect is Mickey Mantle and every veteran pitcher is coming into camp the healthiest and strongest they ever been. The highs are the highest because reality has not set in yet… it’s what makes Spring Training so much fun.
Most Yankee fans know by now that this will not be your typical Yankee season. Familiar faces like Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira are gone and replaced with players like Matt Holliday and Chris Carter. There are holes in the pitching staff and no one knows what they will get over a full year from Gary Sanchez, Greg Bird and others but there is excitement for the future and if all goes well, this could be the core you see for the next 3 to 4 years.
The Yankees organization has refrained from adding any big money contracts the past couple seasons and that will benefit the payroll for the future because sooner or later the team will look to add some players and if you have the right pieces in place then there is less holes to fill via trades or free agency. It’s not an exact science but the good teams do it better than most. The focus will be on Joe Girardi early on but he has lead a young team before and won Manager of the Year with the Marlins in 2005
As for the Mets, they go into Spring Training with arguably the best rotation in baseball (when healthy) and although they have Yoenis Cespedes in the middle of that order; the lineup around him can be very different from day to day. Many Met fans will want to see if Adrubal Cabrera can repeat his offensive production from 2016. On the other side of the field, some players are looking to bounce back from injury like Lucas Duda and Neil Walker but the glaring question on this site has been “What to do with David Wright?” (Let’s just say he doesn’t have too many fans here – read this piece!). We also still don’t know what will happen with Jeurys Familia and how long he will be suspended but the team is still good… how good will depend on the Starting Rotation!
The path to this Baseball Season starts now and although the win-loss records don’t mean anything yet, hope will carry you through.
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