Yankees baseball has officially arrived. Earlier this afternoon, the Yankees played their first spring game against the Philadelphia Phillies. The Yankees won the game 9-4.
This is a weird season coming up for the Yankees. Will they be good? Will they be average? No one really knows. For the first time in a long time, and especially in my lifetime, the Yankees have some uncertainty behind their team.
Filled with young talent and tons of potential, this can either go one way or the other. The young guys could step up and display their potential to be able to play in New York. On the other hand, the young talent can fall flat and show they aren’t ready and the veterans can show that their age has caught up to them.
Here are 3 major questions surrounding the Yankees this season.
1. Can Gary Sanchez play up to his expectations?
No player in the league is facing tougher expectations than Gary Sanchez. Much of those expectations were set when Sanchez came out last year as a rookie and put up historic numbers. Sanchez, as a rookie, hit 20 home runs in just 201 at bats last season. A historic feat that brought many people to games last year in an otherwise forgetful season.
New York is a difficult place to play. Now, with the bar set extremely high, can Sanchez perform the way he did last season? Or will he be another victim of the sophomore slump? Lets hope its not the latter or the New York media is going to have a field day.
2. Who the hell is going to pitch?
Lets face the facts. The Yankees do not have an ace.
**Masahiro this, Masahiro that**
Tanaka is not an ace. Don’t @ me.
He was very good last season, but he is injury prone and inconsistent.
Besides him, they are left with an old CC Sabathia, a not so good Michael Pineda and a young and inexperienced Louis Severino.
This is by far the biggest question facing the Yankees. The young kids could step up but without pitching, no games will be won.
3. Do they have enough talent to compete in the loaded AL East.
All my life I have been blessed to watch incredible Yankees teams win a lot of championships. These last few years have been a little different and this year seems like it will be that way too.
Yes, they are loaded with young talent. However, unless these young guys play like veterans, the Yankees probably wont be able to compete with Boston or Toronto.
The Red Sox are very good. Like scary good, World Series caliber good.
The Red Sox have arguably the best rotation in baseball. That rotation will lead them to an AL East title and frankly the Yankees will be left in the dust.
So unless the young guns play like seasoned veterans, they probably wont make it too far this season.
Change at Jamaica 