Meet Your 2010 New York Yankees!

Easter evening is Opening Night, and the World Champion New York Yankees will be taking on the archrival Red Sox at Fenway Park. After a long winter, baseball is back, and back with a vengeance.

Spring Training treated the Yankees well, and despite a few nicks here and there (especially this past week), the team will start the season relatively unscathed.

So who is breaking camp with the 2010 Yankees?

Take a look!

Starting Pitchers

















CC Sabathia, the ace of the staff, will start Sunday evening's grand opening in Boston against Josh Beckett. A.J. Burnett and Andy Pettitte remain integral, proven pitchers at the top of the rotation, and former Yankee Javier Vazquez is back via a trade with Atlanta. One of the only true competitions in Spring Training this year was the fight for the fifth starter role, with Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain, Alfredo Aceves, and Sergio Mitre the leading candidates. In the end, manager Joe Girardi chose Hughes and sent the remaining three candidates to the bullpen.



Bullpen






















Alfredo Aceves and Sergio Mitre are two considerations for long men out of the bullpen at this point, having lost the fight for the fifth starter role to Phil Hughes. Chan Ho Park, a late addition to the team during Spring Training, will also be on hand, as well as the Yankees' only lefty out of the 'pen, Damaso Marte. Joba Chamberlain and David Robertson are likely to battle it out over the set-up man spot in front of the great and incomparable Mariano Rivera.


Infield






















The starting infield for the 2010 New York Yankees is exactly the same as the previous season; Jorge Posada, Mark Teixeira, Robinson Cano, Alex Rodriguez, and Captain Derek Jeter are the starters, meaning the Yankees literally have an All-Star at every infield position. Ramiro Pena will be the utility infielder, and following the departure of Jose Molina, Francisco Cervelli is the new back-up catcher.



Outfield














While most of the 2010 team looks much the same as the 2009 World Champion Yankees, the outfield is where you spot the real differences. Gone are Melky Cabrera and Johnny Damon, replaced now by Curtis Granderson and Randy Winn. Brett Gardner will be the left fielder, Granderson's in center, and Nick Swisher will patrol right. Winn remains a backup, along with former Yankee Marcus Thames, who was the last man to be named to the Opening Day roster.



Designated Hitter




2009 World Series MVP Hideki Matsui is a member of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim now, so the Yankees brought in their old farmhand, Nick Johnson, for DH duties. Johnson will primarily DH but can also fill in quite capably for Teixeira when Girardi needs to give his regular first baseman a rest.

So there you are. What do you think of the 2010 Opening Day roster?

(All photos courtesy of mlb.com)

The Boston Massacre, Revisited (Composed After Sunday Night Baseball Between the Yanks and Sox)

Ouch...



Coming into tonight's game, the Red Sox had surrendered 39 runs to the Yankees, lost 3 games in a row and fell to 4.5 back in the division.



They had their savior and saint, Curt Schilling on the mound to be the stopper. The ace. To stop the bleeding (pardon the pun) and restore a sense of order and normalcy to Red Sox Nation. End the madness of the Boston Massacre, Revisited.



Alas, St. Schill could not. He pitched well enough for a win though. When he was forced out because of a high pitch count, things looked good for the Boys from Beantown. They had their phenomenal prodigy on the mound to close it out and beat the big, bad Yankees. They had Jonathan...........................................Papelbon. Savior of the Universe. The Mariano Rivera of Boston (haha, yeah right!). The be all and end all.



.....Or not. Papelbon blew the save, his 6th of the season, and the game was tied- Thank you Jason Giambi, Melky Cabrera, and Captain Jeter. The greatest closer of all time entered and got himself into a big jam. Bases loaded, only one out. But Mo showed the Fenway Faithful that ice water runs in those veins...That no matter how good your closer is, he will never equal the unsurpassed greatest of one Mr. Mariano Rivera. Papelbon? Second best closer in the big leagues, at least this season. But there's only one Superman.



And after Mo's escape-artist act in the 9th, Jason Giambi and Jorge Posada provided the final blows to bury the BoSox and break the hearts of an entire Nation. Big Papi made the last out and the Yankees prevailed in the biggest series of the season.



Four games, four wins. Come-from-behind victories. 47 runs in 37 innings. Turning around a 3 1/2 game deficit to a 5 1/2 game lead in only a month. Crushing defeats of epic proportions and historical significance. Tonight's 4:17 minute game may have been the most heartbreaking of them all.



How sweet it is.

Roadtrip!

I decided to spend the first game of the All Star break in a most dangerous way- At Fenway Park, in enemy territory, and decked out in green and yellow to show my support of the Oakland Athletics and my hatred and disdain for all things pertaining to Red Sox Nation.

And apparently, it worked. The Red Sox, who hadn't lost a game at home in a month, lost this game to Esteban Loaiza and the A's in the 11th inning. My first Fenway experience was an excellent and memorable one; I've been waiting to watch the Red Sox play in their home ballpark since I was a kid, so this was pretty awesome. I also think I might just have to move to Boston to help the Yankees- I was up there and the Red Sox lost three out of four to Oakland and the Yanks, of course, swept the defending World Champions at the Stadium to pull within .5 game of first place (*Of course, after yesterday's tough loss, the Yankees are now 1.5 games back).