Hiroki Kuroda Should Start On Opening Day

The Yankees are more than likely going to start CC Sabathia on Opening Day this season like they have every season since they acquired him in 2009, but they shouldn't. Hiroki Kuroda should start Opening Day for the Yankees for a plethora of reasons, reasons I will touch in here in this article.

The Yankees really balance out their starting rotation by starting CC Sabathia, especially if Vidal Nuno wins the fifth starting rotation spot this spring. With CC in the top spot and Nuno in the last spot we would run into running consecutive lefties out there in some series. With Kuroda starting game one we could split up the lefties in Nuno and Sabathia and keep teams off balance.

There has also been talk of splitting up Kuroda and Masahiro Tanaka due to their similar pitching mechanics and stuff, it makes sense. Batters get more and more comfortable the more they see a pitcher, even if it's a similar and comparable pitcher. Splitting up Kuroda and Tanaka with CC in the middle really keeps the batters guessing and makes it harder to prepare for these three in a series.

Oh and your best pitcher should start on Opening Day, it's a prestigious thing, and that is Kuroda. It has been Kuroda for two seasons now and it will be for a third season in 2014. CC struggled in 2013, got out pitched in 2012, and looks like he may struggle again in 2014. His velocity is down and he is experimenting with a new pitch, Kuroda is the rock and the solid piece you want at the top of the rotation. It won't happen but it should, make it happen Cash.

Yankee Stadium Legacy: #17 Joe Gordon

The Yankees success in the 1930's carried over into the 1940's as the Yanks were stocked with All Star caliber players at almost every position on the field. Joe Gordon earned six trips to the Major League Baseball All Star Game while with the Yankees and even started the game at second base in 1939, 1940, and 1942. Gordon also had a two run double in the 1946 All Star game as the American League won the game 12-0.

17 days until Yankees Opening Day

Happy Birthday To My Biggest Fan

On this day four years ago at 1:41 AM my best friend, my first son, and my biggest fan was born at Piedmont Hospital in Jasper, Georgia. He was 8 lbs and 6 oz and 21 inches long, all that and he was three weeks early almost to the day. Evan Daniel Burch was born and the rest is history. This blog or anything I do in my life is for him and now my youngest son Hayden Alexander. I just wanted to take a second to say Happy Birthday to my son and that I love him very much. Enjoy your day little guy (he will, we got him an iPhone, among other things of course, for his birthday and he has a pizza and arcade party tomorrow).

This Day In New York Yankees History 3/14

On this day in 1961 the New York Mets landed former Yankee general manager George Weiss out of retirement to become the teams first president. Weiss had been the Yankees' general manager from 1947-1960 before retiring.

On this day in 2003 Cablevision agreed to a one year interim deal to offer the Yankees YES Network to New York Yankees fans for a fee, ending a bitter and costly year long feud. This essentially made the YES Network a premium channel instead of a basic cable channel preventing the company from forcing every subscriber to pay for the channel whether they wanted it or not. The rest, my friends, is history.

Yankees Finally Finalize Panama Roster

Pitchers
74 Bruce Billings
64 Cesar Cabral
62 Robert Coello
38 Preston Claiborne
40 Matt Daley
57 Chris Leroux
61 Jim Miller
30 David Robertson
52 CC Sabathia
63 Yoshinori Tateyama
43 Adam Warren
83 Chase Whitley

Catchers
29 Francisco Cervelli
80 Jose Gil
66 John Ryan Murphy
82 Gary Sanchez

Infielders
93 Dean Anna
2 Derek Jeter
72 Corban Joseph
86 Jose Pirela
89 Yangervis Solarte
98 Zelous Wheeler

Outfielders
65 Zoilo Almonte
36 Carlos Beltran
95 Adonis Garcia
11 Brett Gardner
73 Antoan Richardson
12 Alfonso Soriano

Yankees Sign Remaining Pre-Arbitration Players

#Yankees have signed all 40-man non-arb players, including Nunez ($576,900 if in majors), Phelps ($541,425), Pineda ($538,475)
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) March 12, 2014

The Yankees signed all of their remaining pre-arbitration players to major league deals today. This is all procedural right here, these players need a contract for the season if they make the Major League roster and the Yankees finalized them all today. All of these players are far from free agency and still under Yankees team control for quite some time. We still felt like this was worth mentioning since we mentioned it here when New York signed Dean Anna ($500,000), John Ryan Murphy ($502,700), and Vidal Nuno ($504,500) to pre-arbitration deals.

All of these players include Eduardo Nunez ($576,900), David Phelps ($541,425), and Michael Pineda (538,475). It is worth mentioning that the Major League minimum this season is $500,000 so all of these guys got slightly better than that, not totally uncommon. These are also all split contracts which means they will only make this salary if they make the 25 man roster, they will earn different (unreported) salaries in the minor leagues.

Jose Campos Optioned To High A Tampa Yankees

Jose Campos made his spring debut on Wednesday against the Detroit Tigers in a tie and is now headed to High A Tampa with the Tampa Yankees after being optioned out of Yankees camp today.  You may remember Campos as the other guy that got traded in the Jesus Montero for Michael Pineda trade or for him missing most of the 2012 season due to a arm injury.

Campos is still only 21 years old and is being brought along slowly as the Yankees are easing him back into playing games. Campos also had his innings and pitch counts limited in 2013 because of the injury, because that worked so well with Joba Chamberlain, and pitched only 87 IP in 2013 mostly for Low A Charleston with the Riverdogs.

Cervelli Replaces McCann On Panama Trip

This may or may not put the trade rumors surrounding Francisco Cervelli to bed for a few days as Cervelli will be replacing Yankees catcher Brian McCann on the roster heading down to Panama to honor Mariano Rivera. The reason we were given from manager Joe Girardi was to give more time for McCann to work with Masahiro Tanaka who starts Tuesday and Hiroki Kuroda who will start the game on Wednesday. CC Sabathia and Adam Warren are expected to make the starts in Panama in the short two game series against the Miami Marlins.

It is worth noting that McCann has not caught Tanaka in a game at all this spring and Opening Day is right at two weeks away, so the reasoning makes some sense. Especially when you consider the fact that Cervelli has caught Tanaka twice and the fact that McCann needs to get used to catching Tanaka's splitter and working with him.

While we are on the Panama trip it is worth mentioning that Girardi told us that Derek Jeter would start Game One in Panama at shortstop and would be the team's designated hitter in Game Two. Jeter, Carlos Beltran, Brett Gardner, and other prominent players will be unavailable Monday when the Yankees travel to Bradenton, Florida to take on the Pittsburgh Pirates due to the flight and travel, just as another FYI.

Yankees Assign 10 Minor Leaguers To Yankees Camp

The New York Yankees assigned a total of 10 players to the big league club today, presumably to have plenty of players when half the teams heads down to Panama to honor Mariano Rivera. The Yankees added switch pitcher Pat Venditte, LHP Tyler Webb, catcher Wes Wilson, short stop Carmen Angelini,  infielders Ali Castillo, Robert Refsnyder, and Rob Segedin, and outfielders Taylor Dugas, Ben Gamel, and Jake Cave.

An alright day; Yanks go 1-1 in today's split squad games

Michael Pineda (against the Orioles) gave up just 3 hits in a scoreless 2.2 innings of work and Ivan Nova (against the Phillies) threw a quality start (3 earned runs, 5 innings) today as the Yankees beat the Orioles at Steinbrenner Field, 6-0, and fell to the Phillies in Clearwater, 6-2, respectively. Now at first glance, that Nova line may not look all that great, although really, he was fine. I mean let's be honest, he's not gonna lose a start like this in the regular season, so let's just applaude him on the definitely solid effort that he put up here.

Anyway, some notable offensive performances this afternoon came from Carlos Beltran, who hit an RBI Single against the Orioles, Alfonso Soriano, who also hit an RBI Single against the Orioles, Brett Gardner, who doubled a home a run in Tampa, Jacoby Ellsbury, who homered against the Phillies, and Francisco Cervelli, who singled home another run today in Clearwater. So yea, I'd say today went alright. The pitching and offense were solid in both games, even though one, unfortunetaly, was a loss.