ARE THE YANKEES THE UNDERDOG?

 

With the changes made to the teams in the AL East, the Yankees will have to work on a few things to keep up. Just look at the Blue Jays, for example. They have made a lot of changes since last year and they have a stronger team.  In the last few days, the Jays have signed RA Dickey. Dickey is a knuckleballer that went 20-6 with a 2.73 ERA, and was the NL 2012 Cy Young winner. Add to that Mark Buehrle, Melky Cabrera, and Jose Reyes, and you have a powerful looking team.

In fact, most sports analysts are calling the Blue Jays the team to beat. Of course, that is also what they said about the Red Sox last year and we all know how that turned out. It won’t be an easy win when we face them or any of our AL East rivals. It never is. Our division is nicknamed the AL Beast for a reason. It is arguably the toughest division in the league.

The Yankees will have to work on not relying on the homer. Yes, home runs are great. But home runs alone do not win games. Look at Curtis Granderson... great home run hitter who placed second on the strike out list in 2012. Not exactly something to be proud of. Sure, we led the league in homers, but many of them were solo shots. We have to start getting runners on.

Of course that is not enough. The Yankees have struggled with leaving runners stranded. We need to start playing small ball. Not every at bat needs to be a moon shot. Get on, move guys over, bring guys home, and score runs. Last season, many games had our pitchers doing well and our hitters just not showing up for the party. Our pitchers need the run support. You can’t score runs by leaving guys stranded.

I’m looking at Kevin Long here. I like the guy well enough, but seriously, when every hitter on our team is having a problem, something has to be done. In 2012, it seemed like every hitter on the team was slumping for more than half of the season. It was cringe worthy. This problem needs to be resolved.

The division will be tough to win, but not impossible. The critics have counted the Yankees out many times only to be proved wrong. Our hitting is the biggest issue we have to face. If we can solve that issue, we should be solid.

--Erica Morales, BYB Writer
Twitter: @e_morales1804



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