Baseball Season

Well the Yankees clipped the Red Sox on opening night -- that's a silly concept -- and Randy Johnson looked good. All signs point to an improved Yankees team this year from the team that came 3 outs from getting to the World Series, and then 6 outs, and then....

But, my word of caution goes to their pitching. Last year's pitching staff limped into the playoffs. They weren't helped by Kevin Brown's tirade which left him with a broken hand. This proved fateful in Game 3. Although they won 19-8, Ken Rosenthal at Sporting News makes the great point that Brown's early exit put more stress on the bull pen than was necessary and weakened them for games 4 & 5, the games they should have won. A more important point that I saw mentioned only once last year is the remaining right-handed tilt of the pitching staff. Johnson was the most important addition of the off-season because he throws lefty. The only other lefty is Mike Stanton - no spring chicken. Everyone else throws right-handed. Against the likes of Johnny Damon, Bill Mueller, Trot Nixon and Yankees killer David Ortiz, the pitching staff is likely to struggle over a 7 game series. I mark this down as a big concern heading into the season.