Ok, let’s get some serious baseball talk going now that the guys are holding full squad workouts.  All kidding aside about how bad this outfield is going to be.  Let’s take a prelim look at the relative strengths and weakness of this club heading into spring training.

First the positives:

Full season of A-Rod.  He’s back and better than ever!  A-Rod is rested, hip injury resolved and relaxed now that he’s got the elusive world series ring.  A full season of a healthy A-Rod will go a long way to helping the club defend its title this summer.  With a little rest at the DH, Girardi should easily be able to keep A-Rod fresh and capable of putting up a typical top 5 MVP like season.

Mark Tex more comfortable.  In that same vein, Mark Tex had a great year.  He’s probably going to be even more effective this season as he knows what to expect, is more comfortable in his place in the order and the stadium.  The media and the fans know what he’s all about and have embraced him to allow him to work through those inevitable slumps.  Hey, no slump with the glove for this guy.

Joba and Hughes.  Another year of maturity.  No innings limit on Joba.  A high limit on Hughes (180 innings).  There’s an open competition for the 5th spot, but no matter how that shakes out, both guys have had success as the 8th inning guy to set up for Mo.  Hey, that’s a plus, isn’t it?

Deep Rotation.  Cashman did a good job with acquiring Vasquez.  Over the long season, he will make a difference and may, as my friend Mike T says, become the #2 starter. 

Now on to the weaknesses:

Injuries.  It’s a fact.  This is an older club.  In order of most likely to get hurt: 1) Posada; 2) Pettitte; 3) Mo; and 4) Jeter and A-Rod.  Which always brings us to the bench.  The bench is not a strength and if any of these guys goes

Joba and Hughes.  That’s right they are on the plus side and the negative side.  Everyone knows that they both have great potential.  But they are listed as a potential negative here because this is the year.  Enough of the babying.  Enough of the excuses.  They have a couple of big league seasons under their belt and now is the time.  No more 3 1/3 innings starts from Joba only to have him say: “Well, I struck out 5 today.”  Hughes, we don’t want any excuses either.  If they both do not perform up to capabilities, the team might survive because of overall depth, but it will be disappointing.

Outfield and Bench.  We’ve gone over the outfield.  Suffice it to say, they might be a wash in terms of offense overall, but defensively they are still weak.  I don’t know who has the throwing arm out there, I guess we’ll see.  The bench is similarly a problem, anyone in the field goes down, it’s Ramiro Pena.  Not that he can’t play defense, but the infield is the strength of this team offensively.  They have to be concerns. 

Clutch Factor.  It’s listed here and admittedly it’s always difficult to envision.  All I know is that Damon and Matsui were clutch.  You might have valid reasons for not resigning either one because of age or injury.  But, you can’t get around the fact that in a big spot, for one at bat, Yankee fans had confidence when either of those two guys stepped to the plate.  The new guys might prove to be clutch eventually too… but, we knew that Damon and Matsui could be counted on, it’s got to be listed as a negative.

This team should be north side of 95 wins.  Problems may emerge as they always do during the season, and it might get the Red Sox back into things.  The Red Sox are easily an 89 win, 92 win team.  They have real good pitching.  They have a very solid lineup one through nine.  Ellsbury, Scutaro, Pedroia, Youkilis, Martinez, Ortiz, Beltre, Cameron, Drew.  Very solid indeed.  They are going to have their way with most clubs.  They do not have the one player who can match our top guys, but the whole may be greater than the sum of its parts.  That lineup will be a pain, not in quite the same way as in past years – they won’t hit as many HRs, but they have good, contact, line drive hitters.  They play better defense than in the past.  You can’t count on them to mess up a bunch of plays defensively anymore.  Scutaro, is a real nice clubhouse addition.  I sense that they have a real good mix over there.  Anyway, there will be more time to talk about them.  Hope this makes the site less boring.