Yankees Season Preview

Coming off of a disappointing 2011 first round playoff exit, the Yankees look to rebound in 2012 to claim it's 28th World Series Championship.  It was somewhat of a quiet offseason for the usually very active Bronx Bombers.  The biggest move being the aquisition of the hard throwing right handed Michael Pineda.  The Yankees did have to send young stud Jesus Montero to Seattle in return.  The Yankees also finally parted ways with A.J Burnett, which means they will need to find someone else to throw pies in players faces during post game interviews.  The best signing this offseason was snagging veteran Hiroki Kuroda from Los Angeles to stabalize the rotation.  The question for me is when will the age of the Yankees finally catch up to them.  I'm now going to go over the strengths, weaknesses, x factors, and predictions for the New York Yankees in 2012.

Strengths - Pitching Depth - The Yankees come into the season with a very solid pitching staff.  For the starters, Freddy Garcia has won the 5th spot in the rotation due to Michael Pindea being put on the DL.  If Andy Pettitte and Michael Pineda can both be guys that need to be in the rotation, the Yankees will have seven starters for five spots.  The Yankees pitching depth is also solid in the bullpen.  Even though Joba Chamberlain recently suffered a very severe ankle dislocation, I think the pen will be solid.  Mariano Rivera, David Robertson, and Rafael Soriano is as stable of a 9th, 8th, and 7th inning crew as you will find.  Boone Logan also adds a lefty specialist option for the team.

Weakness - Age of position players - Last year the Yankees were one of the best run producing lineups in baseball.  They did this by relying heavily on the long ball.  Robinson Cano was the only player in the lineup to bat .300 or higher.  With that being said, I don't think this will change with every guy being a year older.  Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, and Nick Swisher are all guys that are going to need to be DH'd throughout the year sporadically.  The Yankees trading away their top prospect Jesus Montero doesn't help the age either.  The 22 year old looks like he is going to have a hell of a career with his great opposite field power. Unless Alex Rodriguez's knee surgery works wonders like it did for Kobe Bryant, (who had the same surgery) this lineup won't be as scary as it looks on paper.

Pitching X Factor - Ivan Nova -  Nova recorded 16 wins in only 27 starts last year for the Yankees.  His 3.70 ERA was also solid in his first year being a consistent guy in the rotation.  Nova will be a huge factor in whether the Yankees rotation will be very strong, or just about average.  I see Nova making even more strides this season, adding to the depth of the rotation.

Offensive X Factor - Brett Gardner - The speedy Gardner can be a huge headache for teams when he is on base.  The problem is he has to get on base to be that headache.  For a guy who gets so many hits from his speed alone, a .259 batting average is not good enough.  Gardner should be more around .300 and 100 runs year in and year out.  With the Yankees lacking speed to begin with, Gardner's progression as an every day outfielder is huge to the Yankees.  Look for Gardner to raise his average from last year, while stealing at least 50 bases.  That is the spark Yankees manager Joe Girardi wants to see out of Gardner.

Predicion - My prediction for the 2012 New York Yankees is an American League East Championship.  I see it being a tight race for the division, but the Yankees have been there before, and they have enough talent to take this division.  I don't see a World Series for this team however.  The Yankees will lose to Albert Pujols and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the ALCS.  The Yankees do have to stay healthy of course.  Pineda being a prime example of health issues, Girardi did not sound to up beat when talking about Pineda's struggles in an article on ESPN New York.  He was quoted saying this,


"There was always that curiosity, you know, why isn't it going up higher, and as you're looking for answers we're looking, too, trying to figure out why isn't the velocity where it was last year Is it the innings, is he just not ready to turn it loose, you know, what is it? None of us are ever really going to know but right now, he's shut down and we'll get him back as soon as we can.'"

Who knows what the Yankees will get out of Pineda this year, but if he continues to have shoulder issues the Yankees front office will be heavily criticized for trading away the best hitting prospect in the organization for him.

One last bold prediction is that Robinson Cano will be the American League MVP.  Cano was in the running for MVP last season, but he slumped ever so slightly at the end of the year.  Justin Verlander won last year as a starting pitcher, something that is rarely done.  Cano has improved his stats every year as a pro, I see him having a monster season.  He is capable of having a .340, 30 HR, 120 RBI kind of year.  If he does that at the second base position, he will be taking home the hardware.