Around the Empire: Yankees News - 4/8/15

NJ.com | Ryan Hatch: It's obvious that there's no need to make more of Monday's disappointing loss than needs to be made, but the day off really allowed fans to sit and stew with it. Ryan Hatch has five promising reasons not to panic that include the bullpen and Brett Gardner.

LoHud Yankees Blog | Chad Jennings: The best part of getting the season underway is that we now start to have actual performances to react to rather than the endless slew of questions regarding players' health and potential. For Masahiro Tanaka, we are still as up in the air regarding his 2015 as we were prior to Monday afternoon. There were times he looked scary effective, and then there was that 5-run fifth inning where things all fell apart. Whether or not Tanaka can remain dominant while having his fastball serve a different role in his pitching repertoire is one of those questions we'll have to continue waiting on an answer for.

ESPN.com | Andrew Marchand: It seems like he's flown under the critical radar because, all things considered, Jacoby Ellsbury is far down on the list of the Yanks' biggest problems at the moment. Andrew Marchand reminds us, though, that Ellsbury is making superstar money, and they'll need to get even more from him than they did last season for him to live up to his contract.

NY Post | George A. King: If there was one part of this Yankees team that felt like it would be dependable this season it was the bullpen, and they showed why on Opening Day. The biggest standout, though, was the hard-throwing Chris Martin, who came in to face Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, and Josh Donaldson and struck out the side.