Well, everyone knows the Bombers major problem was the starting rotation, and they had to do something about that. In my opinion, Cashman did a good job this offseason, picking up Michael Pineda from the Mariners and Kuroda from the Dodgers. They have a strong pitching rotation from 1 to 5, and as usual they’ll have one of the best (if not the best) line-up in the league.
C.C Sabathia is in for another great season, reports say that he lost something around 20 pounds and is in a good shape. He’ll be on the mound on the Opening Day, and will try to improve his last season. He had a 19-8 record with a 3.00 ERA. The 2nd pitcher in the rotation will be Ivan Nova, who had a breakout season last year, with a 16-4 record and a 3.70 ERA. After Nova there will be Kuroda (13-16 / 3.07 ERA) and Pineda (9-10 / 3.74). Kuroda and Pineda are both much better than their record, but because of poor run suport in LA and Seattle they couldn’t help very much. In New York I think they will both have 15 W’s. The veteran Freddy Garcia will likely be #5, and Phil Hughes will be right there is Garcia doesn’t deliver.
When you talk about the Yankees closers, the first name in everyone’s mind is Mariano Rivera. Altough he’s not getting any younger, if he stays healthy he’ll have something around 45 saves.
Jorge Posada retired last season, and that means Russell Martin will start behind the plate. This is not news by any means, Martin already started a lot of games last season due to Posada’s inefficiency. Martin had a good batting year last season, with 18 HR’s and 65 runs but he’ll have to improve his average from .237. His back-up will be Francisco Cervelli.
The line-up is prett much by default in the last seasons:
1B – Mark Teixeira
2B – Robinson Cano
3B – Alex Rodriguez
SS – Derek Jeter