Yankees Opening day Roster

Well tonight is officially opening night for Baseball and the Texas Rangers will take on the Houston Astros. I mean seriously of all the good pitching match ups that they could have put on, the MLB wanted to feature Matt Harrison versus Bud Norris. Tomorrow though there are a number of interesting games including CC Sabathia facing Jon Lester as the Red Sox take on the Yankees in the Bronx. Obviously the Yankees roster had a lot of turnover after the off season and then even more after all of the injuries so the opening day roster looks very different then it will likely look after the Disabled List clears up a little bit.

Rotation:
CC Sabathia, Hiroki Kuroda, Andy Pettitte, Ivan Nova and David Phelps
one of the only places that isn't terribly different than we expected as Hughes got off to a late start and will miss his first start or two.The Yankees are going to need the top of this rotation to be outstanding if they want to survive until the wounded come back. Don't forget Pineada waits in the wings too.

Bullpen:
Mariano Rivera, David Robetson, Joba Chamberlain, Boone Logan, Cody Eppley, Adam Warren and Shawn Kelley.
Its was a surprise when the Yankees DFA David Aardsma especially because of how bad Eppley has been this spring. It was an even bigger surprise when the Yankees DFA Clay Rapada and it likely means that his shoulder bursitis was very bad. Warren will get sent down when Hughes gets back and Phelps will move back to the bullpen. Eppley and Kelley both have options so either could get sent down when Rapada gets back and I would bet that if Mark Montgomery is lights out in Scranton he will be up with the big league club before too long. Girardi typically puts together great bullpens and I have no reason to suspect that this year will be any different.

Catchers:
Francisco Cervelli, Chris Stewart.
There was really no chance of not these two guys, there was some ideas that Romine could make the club but Brian Cashman said that he was going to take these two. Stewart will catch CC on opening day but I expect that Cervelli will be the primary catcher. It wont make much of a difference, the Yankees will not be getting much production out of the catching spot.

Outfielders:
Vernon Wells, Brett Gardner, Ichiro Suzuki, Ben Francisco and Brennan Boesch.
Wells, Gardner and Ichiro will be the starters until Granderson comes back, with Francisco and Boesch being the backups. If I had to take a guess I would bet that Francisco will get some time at DH against lefties so he very well might be the opening day DH with Lester on the mound. Neither Francisco or Boesch were on the roster at the start of Spring training and its doubtful that they will last the whole year as the Yankees don't typically carry five outfielders and when Granderson comes back there likely wont be any space for either of them. Yankees are banking a lot on Francisco, Boesch, Wells and Ichiro boucing backfrom bad 2012s. I know Ichiro was good with the Yankees but his last two years in Seattle were awful.

Infielders:
Lyle Overbay, Robinson Cano, Eduardo Nunez, Kevin Youkillis, Jayson Nix, Travis Hafner.
It looked like Juan Rivera would be the everyday 1st baseman until Tex came back but the Yankees picked up Overbay just a few days ago and cut Rivera. Because Overbay is a left handed batter I expect that Nix will start at third and Youkillis at first base against lefties, but its possible Overbay will need to play against lefties. Nunez was going to need to play for Jeter quite a bit anyway, but now he will need to be the starting Shortstop until Jeter returns and we have no idea when that will be. Hafner is the DH and will not play the field at all, but even then we have to hope he will stay healthy because they are really screwed if he goes down early.

Well there you have it the Yankees opening day roster and as I said in my earlier post there will be a lot of fluidity in this roster for probably the entire season. Lets see what a new Yankee season has in store!

The battle for the last bullpen spot

The Yankees resigned Eric Chavez and now have 24 of their 25 roster spots settled barring any injuries, like Cervelli's broken foot last year and Pedro Feliciano's brokenness. The Yankees could decide to go with another fielder and carry only 11 pitchers, but it seems more likely that the Yankees will have a 12 man bullpen which leaves one roster spot open until Joba recovers from his Tommy John Surgery. The frontrunner to that spot was Hideki Okajima, but he failed his physical so the competition is very open for that last spot and the competition will be the only way some of the non roster players will make it on the team.

Manny Delcarmen: Mostly known for being a native Boston kid who spent 6 seasons as a reliever for the Sox. His control disappeared in 2009 and 2010 and his walk rate went up and his strike out rate fell and he was traded to the Rockies but fared badly and spent all of last year in AAA. His numbers in AAA were bad last year, but the Yankees hope that they can capture some of his old stuff and he could be this years Luis Ayala.

Clay Rapada: After Rapada was released by the Orioles and Okajima failed his physical the Yankees signed Rapada to a minor league deal. A report on Rapada gets into a lot of detail about him, but the overall point is that Rapada is great against lefties and absolutely unusable against righties. Rapda would be the second lefty in the pen and a true LOOGY for the team.

Brad Meyers: Myers is a rule 5 pick from the Nationals who really hates walks, only walking 15 batters in 138 innings and still striking out 116. However he has always been a starter and would have fit in well for the long relief role, but now that will go to either Garcia or Hughes. If he looks good in relief though I expect that the Yankees will take him over Manny.

Cesar Cabral: The other rule 5 pick has twice been exposed to the draft by the Sox and has been the most talked about of the two rule 5 picks. Cabrel is actually better against righties than lefties and was fantastic in winter ball with .77 ERA and held lefties to  a .211 BA. If he has a good spring then he has a good shot of making the club, but he has never pitched above AA and really hasn't been consistent against lefties as his changeup is his best pitch.

Adam Miller: Miller has been called this years Mark Prior as hes been kept out of the majors by injury. Millers injury is weird looking and has kept the former first round pick in the minors this long and its very doubtful that he will make the club or even stick around past spring training as the Yankees would have to give him a $100k bonus because of the new CBA.

Matt Daley: The 29-year-old was born in Queens and raised out on Long Island, and he’s currently rehabbing from an August surgery on his rotator cuff. He struck out a good number of batters and gave up a lot of home runs in Colorado. Daley has appeared in 92 games and thrown 80.2 IP for the Rockies over the last three seasons, and he does have a funky little delivery you can see here.

George Kontos: Kontos had a real shot to make the big league club out of spring training and then he suffered an oblique injury and may not even be ready to start the year in AAA. Kontos will likely be the first arm to get called up from AAA, but it doesn't look like he will make the club because of that setback.

Kevin Whelan: Whelan was great in AAA last year and made his debut last year, but was never called up in September which was odd. He was DFA to make room for Hiroki Kuroda, but I expect that he could earn a 40 man spot back if he has another great year in AAA. However if he is great in spring training then I expect he could earn the spot and i would love to see him given a real opportunity.

David Phelps/D.J. Mitchell: I really doubt these guys will make the club because they are much better off starting in AAA than being the last man in the bullpen. These guys will be the first call-ups if a starter gets injured but probably wont move to the bullpen yet.

Overall Rapada is the most likely to make the club, but a good spring from Manny, Whelan, Cabral or anyone else could mean they get the spot. A spot could also open up if the Yankees trade Freddy Garcia, but I do not think that will happen in the spring if at all.