New York Yankees have weaknesses

The New York Yankees may have won the World Series last year, but they showed the rest of the world how to beat them in the process. They have lost players, gotten older, and made the moves to get players that are likely to crash and burn once they hit the big stage of New York.

Along with other teams getting better, and many questions heading into the season, can the Yankees really pul off a repeat?

Starting Pitching

The Yankees tried to go out and improve their starting pitching this off season and acquired Vazquez. This is not the first time he has been a starting pitcher on this team, and the last time he was horrible. He had an ERA of 4.91 and gave up 33 home runs. He has a history of giving up home runs and in the New Yankee stadium that should be his biggest problem. His numbers were quite a bit better last year, but remember he was in the national League where everyones numbers are better.

The Yankees had problems in the post season on who they were going to start for them. They ended up using a three man rotation and prayed on the fact that Sabathia would finally play well in the playoffs. After him they have Burnett who for the first time in his career pitched 200 innings or more in back to back seasons. He had some issues and the pressure got to him last year. If his track record catches up this year and he goes down with an injury like he usually does, then the Yankees could very well be done.

After Burnett the Yankees have question marks. Can Pettitte continue to be good with his age? Can Chamberlain bounce back after a touch year? Who will be the number five starter?

All in all It comes down to can these questions be answered with a positive. As it stands right now the Red Sox have a better Starting rotation then the Yankees top to bottom, and they are Yanks biggest threat.

Lineup

While alot of the Yankees lineup stays the same this year. They have lost two key players to the free agent market. Hideki Matsui, and Jonny Damon.

Here are their numbers last year and their replacements last year.

Jonny Damon

AVG. 282
HR 24
2B 36
AB 550
RBI 82
R 107

His replacement
Brett Gardner
AVG 270
HR 3
2B 6
AB 248
RBI 23
R 48

Now you could make the argument that he was a backup, but he still played in 108 games which is more then half of the season. Take these numbers and multiply them by two and they still don't add up anywhere near Damon's.

Hideki Mtsui
AVG 274
HR 28
2B 21
AB 456
RBI 90
R 62

His replacement
Nick Johnson
AVG 279
HR 2
2B 8
AB 104
RBI 18
R 24

Johnson has not played more then 98 games the last three season, and even if you go back to 06 his numbers are still not as good. He has huge question marks going into the season on whether or not he can stay healthy and perform in a place like NY.

So if you take Damon and Matsui out of the line up and put in these people in you are loosing alot. Otherwise the lineup still looks pretty good, but you may see gaps now that this lineup is good 1-7 instead of 1-9.

Bullpen

Beyond their amazing closer the Yankees have no bullpen. They have no one that has established themselves as a set up man, other than Hughes and he is their fifth starter now. There is not much to say except that 4 of the six other relievers had an ERA that was higher then 5.

Competition

There have been a lot of moves this off season, and two teams have made improvements enough to be talked about with the Yankees.

First the Boston Red Sox
That is not really a shock at this point. They have always been the Yankees worst enemy. This off season however they have addressed all of their problems, biggest being the addition of Lackey. Their rotation now looks like this. Beckett, Lester, Lackey, Dice-K, and Buckholtz. That is the toughest rotation 1-5 in baseball. The Yankees can only match that 1-2.

Plus getting Beltra and Cameron should greatly improve their power as both of them like to pull the ball and will find the green monster many times this year. Also Papi was the best power hitter in Baseball the second half of the year, and with that confidence back, he is sure to have a better year.

Seattle Mariners
They have jumped from a non playoff team, to the front of their own division. With getting Cliff Lee the M's now have two aces that can go nine innings. This will be tough for the Yankees should they have to play them in the post season (assuming the Yankees get there). With two big time aces the Mariners look like they can keep up with anything the Yankees will throw at them this year.

They also got Chone Figgins from the Angels. they now have the fastes 1-2 in the order maybe in the history of baseball. That will make it very easy to drive in runs, and keep other teams on their toes.

Competition

There have been a lot of moves this off season, and two teams have made improvements enough to be talked about with the Yankees.

First the Boston Red Sox
That is not really a shock at this point. They have always been the Yankees worst enemy. This off season however they have addressed all of their problems, biggest being the addition of Lackey. Their rotation now looks like this. Beckett, Lester, Lackey, Dice-K, and Buckholtz. That is the toughest rotation 1-5 in baseball. The Yankees can only match that 1-2.

Plus getting Beltra and Cameron should greatly improve their power as both of them like to pull the ball and will find the green monster many times this year. Also Papi was the best power hitter in Baseball the second half of the year, and with that confidence back, he is sure to have a better year.

Seattle Mariners
They have jumped from a non playoff team, to the front of their own division. With getting Cliff Lee the M's now have two aces that can go nine innings. This will be tough for the Yankees should they have to play them in the post season (assuming the Yankees get there). With two big time aces the Mariners look like they can keep up with anything the Yankees will throw at them this year.

They also got Chone Figgins from the Angels. they now have the fastes 1-2 in the order maybe in the history of baseball. That will make it very easy to drive in runs, and keep other teams on their toes.