Bleeding Yankee Blue: IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR

Sunday, April 2, 2017

IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR

I am happier than a kid on Christmas that #OpeningDay for the 2017 MLB Season has arrived and I know I'm not alone. Besides all of you who have had it with the winter and the rainy spring, the Baby Bombers are ready to light it up offensively and make a difference in game play for the Yankees this season. Skipper Joe Girardi didn't hesitate on Saturday to share with the press his biggest takeaways from this spring: 1. Our offense 2. Our depth and 3. Our 49 home runs.

Source: Presswire

1. Offense: Girardi's takeaway: "You look at the middle of our order, there's a lot of potential, I believe." With a mixture of novices and veterans, the Yankees have more opportunities to put guys in scoring position and win games with base hits and strategic running. "When you mix the older players and the younger players playing well together. Not just playing together, but playing well together, I think it's important that there's that feel and the bonding happens quicker when you start to win," Girardi said in his final spring training press conference.

Source: SI.com

Depth: Girardi's takeaway: "I think some people stepped up. I think you see that we have a lot of depth in our organization, young players that are knocking on the door. If you have an injury, you feel like there are plenty of options from within. I think that's important. Sometimes you get yourself in a tough spot if you lose someone for a substantial period of time." This is key. When you have the depth the Yankees have, calling on the next guy in is simply no problem. What I think may be difficult for some of these rookies is taking a seat on the bench when they are so used to playing everyday. Other than that, having depth is a good "problem" to have.

Source: MLB Spring Training Stats

Home runs: Girardi's takeaway: "Contributions up and down the lineup. Hit a lot of home runs in spring training, which is something we didn't do last year." And not to take anything away from the excitement of the long ball, but we were treated to a lot of clutch base hits, hard grounders and line drives nicely placed in gaps and heads up base running, which lead to 198 runs scored. We also had 327 hits and 49 home runs, placing us 12th overall in spring training and 3rd in home runs. Last year, we hit only 20 home runs...just to put things in perspective.

It's the most wonderful time of the year as we await first pitch today at 1:10 p.m. from Tropicana Field in Tampa, FL as the Yankees take on their division rival Rays. We will have to wait a week before the Yankees take the field back in the Bronx as the Bombers play host to Tampa Bay on Monday, April 10th. See the entire season's schedule by taking this link. But for now, Let's Play Ball and let the season begin!