New York Yankees 2008 Preview

I don't remember the last time I was this excited for baseball season.

I'm not sure which I'm looking forward to more: watching Joe Girardi's hands-on approach lead the Yankees to their first World Series title in eight years or laughing at my frustrated Dodger fan friends in the middle of June, by which time Joe Torre will have already blown out Takashi Saito's arm by forcing him to pitch 60 innings in the first two and a half months of the season.

Now that New York has a manager who will treat his roster like baseball players instead of spoiled grandchildren, the Bronx Bombers are ready to reclaim what is rightfully theirs: the world championship.

But it won't be easy.

The return of the '90s philosophy of nurturing home-grown talent and not trading away top prospects is refreshing, but the Yankees might have taken it too far by passing on an opportunity to get Johan Santana. The 29-year-old lefty is not some former ace at the end of his career like Randy Johnson or Kevin Brown. Santana is the best pitcher in baseball in his prime, so trading some young talent for him may have been justified.

Not making the move for Santana leaves the pinstripes with some question marks in their starting rotation. Chien-Ming Wang is a possible 20-game winner, but after him lies inexperienced youngsters and veterans with baggage.

We all know about Andy Pettitte's tumultuous offseason involving the Mitchell Report and Roger Clemens. Despite all that, the lefty should be able to come close to replicating the 15-9, 4.05 ERA season he had in 2007. Nevertheless, the long-time veteran will be 36 this June and his age has already started to show through back spasms that have pushed back his first regular season start.

Mike Mussina had a terrible 2007 campaign during which he went 11-10 with a hefty 5.15 ERA and, at some points, found himself dropped from the rotation. The Moose has earned his spot back, but his stay as a starter will be determined by his ability to put batters away once he has two strikes on them.

Everyone says Phil Hughes will be great at some point in his career. Whether or not that greatness begins in his second season will go a long way to determine how successful the Yankees can be. Hughes went 5-3 with a 4.46 ERA in 2007 and has had an up and down spring during which he has overthrown at times.

Ian Kennedy pitched wonderfully during the exhibition portion of the schedule, earning the number five starting spot. A 2.00 ERA and 14 strikeouts in 18 innings during five spring appearances (four starts) combined with a 1.89 ERA last year when he went 1-0 with 15 Ks in 19 IP, gives the Yankees a lot of promise at the back end of their rotation. But how the 23-year-old will hold up over the rigors of an entire season is yet to be seen.

Joba Chamberlain, meanwhile, will begin the season in the bullpen serving once again as the set-up man to Mariano Rivera.

I think this is a mistake.

Considering the many question marks in the Yanks' starting five, Chamberlain should be in the rotation. He was a great starter in the minors and proved last year that he can get major leaguers out with ease, striking out 34 and walking only six in 24 innings during which he went 2-0 with a save and a microscopic ERA of 0.38.

The babying of Chamberlain needs to stop. I believe he is the second or third best pitcher on the team behind Wang and possibly Pettitte and therefore should be starting games instead of entering in the eighth inning.

My hatred for the overspecialization of the bullpen is better saved for another article, but let me sum it up this way: The best pitchers on your team should be starters because starters pitch more innings. You don't keep Dwayne Wade on the bench until the fourth quarter.

The plan is to probably put Chamberlain in the starting rotation sometime in the second half of the season. If he's good enough to be a starter then, why not now? The thought that he will damage his arm is way too cautious.

Jake Peavy came up in 2002 and started 17 games, throwing 97.2 innings. Over the following five seasons, he's pitched an average of about 200 innings a year and has become one of the best pitchers in baseball. He didn't blow out his arm and neither did a number of other guys who weren't coddled as much as Joba.

I would put Chamberlain in the rotation in place of Mussina, who I don't believe will be able to do a whole lot better than last year.

Then who will pitch the eighth? How about the starter? Is that allowed? Or how about Rivera? Is he allowed to pitch more than one inning?

The point is, as an eighth-inning set-up man, Joba would only pitch about two or three innings a week, generally in games that the Yankees were already winning. He would help the team a lot more if he was pitching 10 innings a week as a starter.

The Yankees lineup has been the team's strength for several years and it remains pretty much in tact from last season. The only change from 2007 is at first base where the departure of Doug Mientkiewicz, Andy Phillips, and Josh Phelps has left the Yankees searching for an everyday replacement in '08. I believe New York made a mistake by letting Mientkiewicz go. He hit a solid .277 in 72 games last year, flashing a very good glove at first.

It looks like Jason Giambi will be his replacement after hitting .417 this spring. It's good to see Giambi hitting to the opposite field for the first time since coming to the Yankees, however, his defense is a liability.

The success of the 2008 season for New York should hinge on its starting pitching and whether Girardi will bring more of a small-ball mentality to a lineup that has primarily just sat back and waited for a three-run homer for the past seven years under Torre. In the end, I believe the new Joe will be able to get the job done and bring the World Series trophy back to the Bronx.