The Yankees have had a pretty good Spring Training with a 15-12 record at the point I am writing this article which ranks them 4th in the American League and 4th in the Grapefruit League.
In this article, we will survey the players who are possibles to make the opening day roster and check out what they have done in the Spring games…
Well, the New York Yankees have had a weird off-season and it just keeps getting weirder. As we walk through the trades the Yankees made in January, I just keep hearing warning bells ringing that tell me that unless almost everyone who had an injury or a downturn in their career last year encounters a significant upward surge than this team looks worse on paper then the one which won 84 games last season and missed out on the post-season. Unless they give their manager Joe Girardi the right tools to work with, he doesn’t have a hope of turning this team into a winner.
As we move on to the second half of our survey of the Yankees’ performance in September, we find a fairly surprising picture amongst the pitchers. Whilst the team averaged giving up between 3 and 4 runs a game which is pretty competitive, more surprising was that those who had been successful prior to September struggled and some new faces were successful.
It’s funny how things work out. The last day of Yankees’ Spring Training schedule – a game against the Miami Marlins – was rained out.
(up to and including March 29)
During Spring Training, the Yankees pitchers went beyond expectations and (in some cases) lived up to the hype, leaving them looking well set for the new season. Here are those who have made the roster:
(up to and including 28th March)
The Yankees have had a good spring training, carrying a 17-12 record into the last few days before the regular season started. In fact, because of the strong performances many of the roster issues sorted themselves and there were few injury concerns to require the roster to be patched.
Here’s a survey of the players who made it through and how they performed in the springtime:
The Yankees made a pretty good start to Spring Training with two wins and two losses in the four games they played before the end of February:
25/2 Win vs Florida State University Seminoles 8-3
26/2 Loss vs Pittsburgh Pirates 5-6
27/2 Loss vs Pittsburgh Pirates 2-8
28/2 Win vs Detroit Tigers 7-4
The Yankees had a busy month in January and they managed to fill most of the most obvious gaps on their roster.
The Yankees came out of Spring training with pretty much the roster you would have predicted if you’d have sat down with pencil and scrap paper and roughed it out before they began.
And there’s something worrying about that……
It hasn’t been mentioned much but Yankees’ reliever, Romulo Sanchez, looks likely to be heading out of the Bronx with Japan a likely destination. It means that most of the pieces of the Yankees’ bullpen might have fallen into place.
twilightdawning 