Mood Music - Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love by Van Halen
Hank Steinbrenner managed to get out in public again:
"We're gonna be in it every year," Hank Steinbrenner said at George M. Steinbrenner Field Monday afternoon. "Every single year. You can't say that about any other team, except maybe the Red Sox. But they weren't in it last year. And the Phillies seem to be keeping it going but how long will that last? The only team you can be assured as long as we own them is going to be in it every single year is going to be us. We're gonna be a major contender to win the championship every year."
The New York Yankees are certainly the team most likely to be in contention on any given year, but the pretense that there is no set of circumstances in which the Yankees would find themselves out of World Series contention seems a little bit silly to me.
The leadoff batter for your 2011 New York Yankees will once again be Derek Jeter according to manager Joe Girardi:
"We signed him to be our shortstop and we signed him to be our leadoff hitter,'' Girardi said. "He had a couple of rough months last year [but by] September he was back to being Derek, I thought. So I'm not really too concerned about him as our leadoff hitter.''
I'll say it until I'm blue in the face, the batting order of your nine starters does just about nothing to affect the overall potency of the offense, so I've really got no issue with letting Jeter continue to bat first.
Feeling blue about the Yankees starting rotation? Well, our friends at Bleacher Report have the answer! It's as simple as trading Francisco Cervelli and Andrew Brackman for Francisco Liriano!
No, seriously. That's real life.