HEY YANKEE FANS, ARE WE READY?

I'm probably in the same boat as many of you when I say that there is a high level sense of confidence going into Spring Training and into the upcoming Yankees baseball season…am I right? Hey, who can blame us? The Yankees went hard after some of the top players in the free agent market this off season.

Yankees brass did what needed to be done, bringing in players to don the pinstripes. It's definitely not a shadow of last off-season where moves were questioned or minimal. This time around, the front office signed top players and sprinkled in a few “utility” guys… i.e. Scott Sizemore for instance. I like what I see.  

Welcome to the Bronx Brian McCann, Jacoby Ellsbury, Carlos Beltran, and Masahiro Tanaka. The sense of winning is surely present now.  We also have to feel good about the health of our Captain Derek Jeter, and Mark Texiera, who pretty much missed all of 2013. We all know these guys are ready to get back on the field and win.  

 

How about that new look of CC Sabathia?  Alittle slimmer and alittle stronger.  Now, I’ve heard people bickering that his weight loss may have hampered his velocity. There may be some truth to that and that’s why he did more weight training this off-season.   

In the end, we are talking about the overall health of an individual who still will have a life after baseball, and a family that will need him.  CC, you look great,  BYB is behind you…Way to go on your results, you look great!.  

As always, there is a 162 game schedule to deal with. With it, comes the obvious, the rest of the league and division will be hungry to win, and will do whatever it takes to diminish the Yankees pickups. Like the old saying goes "This is why we play the games."  I don’t doubt that this Yankee club is built for the playoffs.

 It reminds me a lot of 2009, picking up Sabathia, AJ Burnett, Nick Swisher and Teixeira. We will be there again, and hopefully win it all again!   But, here’s a question; Are we ready to deal with the "What if they don't?" part of this scenario?  Just what exactly happens should we fall short of winning the World Series?  Who do we blame this time around? Joe Girardi? Brian Cashman? How about Hal and Hank? I mean, in fairness, these guys got us what we needed after an embarrassing 2013, right? 

What if we face the same ordeal we did last year and perhaps have a sudden injury depleted roster? By the way, I knocked on wood saying that… but it's true, it’s got to be in the back of your mind… it’s in the back of mine.  Look, there's an endless list of things that could hamper us along the way to baseball dominance and derail the progress in 2014. As a fan base, we expect good results from a big off season. Go back to 2009.  The team went shopping after missing the playoffs in 2008 and you know how that went… World Champs in 2009.  It's certainly similar to that off season.  I’m not doubting my Yankees… I am suggesting that there needs to be an "IF we don't” scenario… just in case.  I have the solution…plain and simple, fix the farm.  

(In Photo: Dante Bichette Jr.)

Bottom line, it’s about time we take care and truly develop the Yankee kids to be OUR future. This way, if there are issues, we know we can bring the kids up, much like the Core Four did years ago… it was huge and it worked.  

We can no longer have “farm player trade chips” to lure in players for immediate impact.  Look, nobody will deny the farm system needs to be looked at as a resource for our needs…it should always be utilized that way, and it has to be done now, not later.  We start with better scouting both domestic and foreign.  It's something that will take some time to fix, but the sooner we start at it, the better.   

For now, we have a Yankees team that should make many Yankee fans proud. I for one can't wait. Whichever way it turns out, I'm anxious to see some baseball. Let’s go Yankees!

-- Rudy Laurens, BYB Writer
Facebook: House of Champions
Twitter: @rlau75
 
 
 

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