I can't think of a more uplifiting final post for 2008

I love that last post. Pretty much summarizes what happened the last two months of the season. A lot has happened since then. The Dev... Rays won the American League, the Yankees flexed their money muscles, and Joe Torre threw his former players under the bus.

You know all that, so I'll just hit on what's relevant right now. I've had the itch to write about this stuff for a few days now.

Up until Christmas, I was legitimately worried about the lineup. You don't know what you're getting from Posada and Matsui, and to a lesser extent Nady, Swisher, and Damon. Centerfield is a black hole offensively with Melky and Gardener, Jeter played hurt all year, Rodriguez had a down year without protection offensively, and Cano was miserable up until he was benched.

Then Cashman went all ninja and signed Teixeira from under the Red Sox noses, and cured lots of my fears. Not only were they able to replace Giambi's contract with Teixeira's, but you take what Giambi did well (batting eye, power) and add them to what Tex can do (glove, average, switch hitter). Perfect move, which bolsters the lineup and makes the infield defense (and pitching) better all over.



However, there's a catch here. Teixeira is a noted slow starter, and gets better as the season progresses. His OPS basically improves every month from .787 in April to .997 in September. Maybe Girardi gets him in shape and hitting early, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him start off similar to his career line, and have the media get on him right away.

The same seems to go for Sabathia, who's April numbers are not pretty on a whole. Add in the adjusting to NY bullshit that everyone goes through, and it could be a rough start. The biggest X-Factor to me is going to be Rodriguez. If he has his odd-numbered year MVP season, he'll make it easier on everyone in the lineup.

There's a million things to go over, and I will hit on some of them as spring training opens. Some of my favorites are the rotation and the bullpen.


Cashman has played this offseason as well as I could have hoped, so I'm looking forward to an outstanding season.

Just don't be shocked by a slow start. It's a road-heavy April, with trips to Tampa and Boston. If they come through the month a few games over .500, we'll be sitting pretty.