A great first week for the Yanks. Despite a lousy opener and a stinker from Javier Vazquez, the Yanks opened on the road against their two division rivals–and two of the three best teams in the league–and won both series, a victory tour highlighted by new Yankee Curtis Granderson beating Papelbon, always good for a few emotional bonus points.
Nearly all lights are green for the Yanks so far: Cano looks good in the 5th spot, batting .360 with 2 HR and 6 RBI this week; Granderson is off to a great start hitting .348 with 2 HR 4 RBI and 3 stolen bases. Sabathia, Burnett and Pettitte look ready to compete. Mariano Rivera seems ageless. Robertson looks ready to pick up where he left off.
A couple of yellow lights: Joba has looked bad, good, and average in three appearances. Inconsistency appears to be his calling card so far, possibly a result of his inconsistent mechanics. If Joba can’t pitch with velocity and control more consistently he won’t get the call in the 8th inning of close games. (Although his change up looked excellent yesterday). Vazquez, in his horrible start, had nothing on his fastball. He’s going to need more giddyup for his breaking pitches and change up to fool hitters. Nick Johnson is off to a bad start hitting .125 with 7 strike outs. (For all you NJ sabermetricians, yeah, his .367 OBP is 230 points higher than his BA, but I’ll take Cano’s .360 BA with .370 OBP any day).
Red lights: Nothing so far.
Next up, World Series rings and the first homestand of the year against a weakened but still good Angels team and a dangerous Texas team. Although they have some weak teams coming up, the Yanks don’t really have a week spot in their schedule until the end of May when they have 13 games in a row against Cleveland, Baltimore and Toronto (yeah, I know Toronto has won 5 in a row, but I’m not quaking in my spikes).
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