The Defending Champs

After last years valiant ride to Championship, the Yankees have a lot of expectations to live up to. With an outstanding record of over 100 wins and of course the World Series title, the Yankees still needed some changes however. They need to complete their outfield, pitching rotation and bullpen. Last year the Yankees had many older players that were past optimal performance. Also, there are many free agents that the Yankees had on their team; Melky Cabrera, Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui, and others. So far all of these people have been signed to other teams except Johnny Damon. However Yankees made the move to acquire a Cy Young contender of last year Javier Vasquez and a young spark and great player Curtis Granderson. The pitching rotation is almost complete with 4 definate starters and the question of whether to start Joba or Hughes. In my opinion i would move Joba to the Bullpen because he throws a significant 4-5 mph faster and has tons of energy when he comes out in the latter innings. Hughes is more calm and I feel he could last a solid 6 innings. These moves would create the solid pithching staff the yankees need to repeat their success. one other extremely debatable topic is the outfield. Brett Gardener was a bench player who usually filled in as an outfielder and pinch runner for either the injured or slower players. I feel he has earned his spot in the outfield. He is a solid defender with humongous speed. I believe he and Granderson would be solid center fielders but the question is which one? Though they both are lightining fast I believe the Yankees should put Gardener in center moving Granderson to left field. But, that is only two of the three outfielders. I think the Yanks need to resign Damon to put in right field to complete the outfield. All of these men are fast and would cover the entire outfield with ease preventing alot of the gap shots that really hurt the team. Finally I think it was such a smart move to acquire Nick johnson and put huim in the DH spot. He gets onbase nearly half his art bat either with his keen understanding of the strike zone or his .300 batting average. The yankees really have a shot to repeat as their history has shown with this strong offensive and defensive lineup.