On paper, if you could put aside potential injuries, the Yankees could be a playoff team. They made the wildcard last year, and have improved both their greatest weakness last year (second base/middle infield) and their biggest strength (the bullpen). They scored the second most runs last year, despite their #1 and 2 hitters spending the second half of the year basically doing nothing with injuries. On paper a staff including Tanaka, Pineda Iovaldi and whose best pitcher last year was a rookie who went 11-3 with a 2.89 era sounds formidable. However, due to injuries and other question marks, the starting pitching could just as easily be a total disaster. All of the key hitters in the lineup are either old (A-Rod, Tiexiera, Beltran) or otherwise injury prone (Gardner, Ellsbury), except for McCann and Castro. Gregorius was the Yankees best hitter in the second half of the season, but is he going to be that hitter, or the .220 hitter he was in April and May? With the very fragile starting pitching and lineup, this team could either win 90 games, or lose 90 games, depending on who actually breaks down over the course of the season and when. The Yankees brass are asking fans to basically roll the dice this year, in the hope that next season, with A-Rod, Tiexiera, Beltran and C.C. Sabbathia coming off the books and freeing up $85 Million in salary, and a promising free agent class, particularly among starting pitchers, they will complete an instant rebuild. The team could get a lot younger and a lot better in 2017, so I for one will just cross my fingers and hope for a miracle health wise this season.
-- Al