Pete Abraham mentions that Chien Ming Wang will be going for the Yanks against the Phils in the exhibition opener next Saturday. That means Wang will be on pace to start the season opener at home vs. Toronto (and most likely Roy Halladay) on March 31st.
Given that the opponent for Opening Day will most likely be Halladay, I can see the lineup as Damon/Jeter/Abreu/Alex/Giambi/Posada/Matsui/Cano and Melky, barring any injuries. Where Girardi bats people is up in the air and to be determined, but it’s hard for Cano to move up, even though many may want him to. Somehow, I can’t see Giambi or Matsui batting 8th. I think Giambi will be at 1B, and Matsui DHing.
Some have criticized Wang’s pitching style and the fact that he was bombed in last year’s ALDS but the guy has won 19 games in each of the past two years. How many pitchers can say that?
Bad postseasons happen. How many of you remember Andy Pettitte’s 1997 ALDS? He lost two games to Cleveland that year. His ERA was 8.49 for those two games (Wang’s was 19.06 last year). Bad postseasons happen—to pitchers as well as hitters.
Hopefully nothing happens. There’s still five weeks until Opening Day, and we remember what happened last year and who started Opening Day 2007.
The fact that the increase in baseball salaries has made the doubleheader obsolete (unless it’s a makeup day/night DH) has led to baseball beginning in March the past few years. Ridiculous. The poor Mariners seemed to be snowed out every day last April. Lord knows what happens this year. The Yanks open up March 31st. Who knows what Yankee Stadium will be like that day. The Red Sox and A’s open a week earlier in Japan. This is ridiculous. Ok, I can see not wanting the two-for-one DHs of days gone by because of financial reasons, but at least bring back the Sunday DH….even if it has to be the day/night variety. Start baseball when it should be started, the first week of April. End it the last weekend of September, not October 4th or whatever (at least the last weekend of September will be the end this year). With the expanded playoffs, World Series games in November are getting more and more likely. For 2001 because of 9-11, ok. But not at a regular interval. Heck, before expanded playoffs, the Series would be over by October 10th. Then the 20th. Now the ghosts and goblins of Halloween compete with a possible World Series Game 7.
Bryan Hoch reports that it looks as though Robbie Cano has added some upper body bulk. I hope not too much. It’s good for Robbie to get more power, as he could be a 25-30 HR guy, but too much bulk leaves a batter susceptible to the inside fastball. He can’t get around on it. We saw a bit of that with A-Rod in 2006. When he took off some of that bulk, he then was able to have the great 2007.
3 responses so far ↓
1 fiermanm // Feb 26, 2008 at 2:42 am
ya know you just made me realize that we probably will have to go up against halladay on opening day.
no cake walk, huh?
of course we won our opener last year and the sox got bombed in KC…i know it doesn’t make that big a difference, it just would have been more fun to open against the orioles and scored a ton of runs.
we’ll see, right?
2 Mike Sommer // Feb 26, 2008 at 8:12 am
You never know. For some reason, the O’s have given the Yanks fits, when talent-wise they probably shouldn’t. The O’s and Yanks split the 18 games last year right down the middle, each team winning nine. Even the run differential was almost even. The O’s scored 104 runs in the 18 games, the Yanks 107. Can’t get much more even than that.
As for Toronto, besides facing Halladay in the opener, I’d like to see how Rolen adjusts to the AL, and also see how B.J. Ryan looks after he missed most of 2007.
3 fiermanm // Feb 26, 2008 at 12:36 pm
yeah, wasn’t that totally fluky about how the O’s were our Kryptonite last year?
i don’t see that happening again this year.
i was at the series at the stadium in september which was a good one. you may remember the first game phil hughes was handing out walks like candy in the first inning but then buckled down and we won. then the second game moose was at his finest and we killed them. the last one was a pitchers duel with andy on top.
i think it was in game one that farnsy almost gave up the ship again and mo had to come out and save his ass yet again.
i can’t see rolen ever getting back to what he once was. the jays however could be the sleeper team of the year. they have great starters. i only see mcgowan getting better. if that team can stay healthy they could be quite formidable.
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