Time to break out the Pinstripe 51 jersey....

That's right. Yankees baseball is back on television. I haven't spoken too much about the team of '08, besides the obvious off-season scandals:

o A Rod's agent, Scott Boras, announced that his player was opting out of his contract during Game 4 of the World Series. Rodriguez proceeded to renegotiate his contract with the Yankees, without Boras, and claims to this day that he hasn't spoken with Boras since. (But Boras still got a pay-day, so what does he care?)

o "PED-gate." Call me a cynic, but I still think that Pettite has something to prove. His teammates have forgiven him, the media has forgiven him, but at the end of the day, he ratted out his friend. That bugs me. Clemens, well... When you deny too much, you've usually got something to hide.

o Donnie Baseball followed Joe Torre to the Dodgers, then took the year off to deal with his divorce.

Oh, Bobby Murcer's most recent biopsy showed that his scar tissue is benign. Huzzah =)

'08 Bombers look good. Good enough to win it all, I doubt it... This is what I've learned about them so far:

Damon - OF/DH. He has a hot, hot trophy wife who lives in Dr Phillips (she was in SI last month). He reported to camp in shape this year (like everybody else - new manager Joe Girardi called everybody and told them to show up in shape) with the will to keep playing. IDK if this is his walk year or not.

Jeter - SS. Still just wants to win. Despite the Ivy Leaguers saying that he's the worst SS playing right now, he's not, his Gold Gloves prove that. The current Yankee captain, deservedly so. I still think of him as Mr November, even though they lost the '01 Series. The man.

Abreu - OF. Went to Taiwan last year - while Wang was in AZ. I haven't read too much about him this spring besides that. I still think that he's afraid to run into walls.

A Rod - 3B. Reigning MVP, just signed a monster contract, youngest player to hit 500 HR's, etc, etc, etc. Last year I coined him Mr. April for his monster start, then falling off the following month.

Giambi - 1B. Dropped a bunch of weight during the offseason, looks like he's finally worked off the extra weight that he put on while he was juicing. "Moves like a cat," I've read a few times, which is something that you NEVER read about Giambi. He may have earned the 1B job, Girardi had something like 5 or 6 people report to camp for that position. (I'm still not sure that it was a good idea to release Doug Mintewicantspellhisname, he had a .997 fielding percentage, but couldn't hurt a fly with his bat.) This is his walk year.

Posada - C. Signed a good 3 year contract during the off season. Shoulda been at least a contender for MVP last year (even though Rodriguez deserved it). If Jeter dropped dead tomorrow, he'd be the next Yankee Captain.

Cano - 2B. I didn't read anything about him this offseason, besides that he got reupped at the price that he was looking for. The Yankees refused to offer him as trade bait for Johan Santana, that says good things about him. I'm a fan. He's been in the batting champion race for the past few years (behind DJ). Still needs to work on his glove work.

Cabrera - CF. On the other hand, the Yankees did offer him up to the Twins, which I think is a mistake. Melky is a part of the future of the Yankees. Yes, they HAD a CF in Damon, but Melky earned his position when Damon was injured. I look for big things from this kid, hopefully he'll learn to be a bit more selective at the plate, but he's not too shabby. I like him, too.

I'm gonna sit back and watch the game, now. IPK has done well, just gave up a dinger, though, but as Girardi said, "Better that than a walk." Joba should be pitching next inning. I'll cover Yankees pitching in a later blog. Its gonna be interesting to watch them this year, that's going to make, or, as it has in so many years past, break them.

Oh, ESPN didn't show it, but Pete Abe's blog over at Lohud.com had this to say about the beginning of today's game:

The Yankees just had three wounded Iraq vets throw out the first pitch.
Johnny Damon, the national spokesman for the Wounded Warrior Project, was out there with Petty Officer 3rd Class Robert Roeder, Cpt. Jon Pruden and Sgt. Jace Badia. The crowd gave them a standing ovation.