New York Yankees: What I Like (and Don't Like) About This Year's Team

(Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

A new day has come. The 2009 MLB season is arriving, finally!

Once again the Yankees are going to be must-see TV. Armed with a new stadium and their old-school arrogance the Yankees are expecting nothing less than a championship and there will be a lot of pressure on the manager and players to deliver the 27th World Series to the Bronx.

Seriously, has an offseason ever felt this long to anyone? It honestly feels like yesterday that the Yankees said goodbye to their old friend and stadium with a tribute that was both garish and somewhat classless. (Remember, Joe Torre wasn't mentioned in the festivities.)

But, that tribute to the Old Yankee Stadium was just like the Yankees: Grandiose, brash, somewhat classless and a spectacle worth viewing all at once. Love them or hate them, the tribute really was the epitome of the Yankees franchise.

Now 2009 is here! And the Yankees have many reasons to be excited for the start of a new era in the Bronx. With the start of every season in baseball hope springs eternal. Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things. And with the Yankees, there are a lot of things to like and a few to dislike.

I may miss a few things so please feel free to interject something that you like or hate about the current assembled roster. This piece of writing I want to be a living, breathing article. I'm going to write a point and counterpoint for each of the things on here.

Let me know what you think!

Here are the likes and dislikes:

I like this pitching staff! I like the quality and the depth. I like the addition of CC (Not C.C.) Sabathia. I'm iffy on the Burnett signing. It looks amazing if he stays healthy. If he doesn't, it's another Pavano deal on their books!

I still have trouble thinking this rotation of CC, Wang, Burnett, Pettitte, and Chamberlain can top the potential five starters Boston could throw out. Beckett, Lester, and Dice-K are arguably the three best pitchers in Boston since Clemens, Oil Can Boyd, and Hurst.

Sabathia is already a clubhouse fit at this part of his tenure in pinstripes. Remember 2005 when another really tall, over-sized left-hander made a jackass out of himself and never really got comfortable in the Bronx?

Yeah, me too, that was Randy Johnson and thank God he's gone! The only thing that stunk about getting rid of Johnson was that Brian Cashman got nothing in return for him. Nothing of value, except to get a prick out of the locker room came from that deal.

I like the fact that CC can be an ace and he could potentially carry a franchise on his mammoth back like he did with the Brewers last fall.

What I don't like is the fact that he's never pitched particularly well in the playoffs and is going to a place where learning the ropes in the postseason is unacceptable. This is something that may take a little time to solve because the Yankees aren't guaranteed a spot in the postseason anymore like they used to be.

Here's what else I don't like about the CC Sabathia move. I don't like the innings he's thrown over the last two years. Seriously, 494 innings is a TON of innings. That doesn't count the playoffs either. Also, I wasn't nuts about the Brewers pitching him on three days rest consistently either.

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