By WFAN.com
The Yankees will enter the season banged up, but there are reasons to believe they'll be in good shape in the standings when they finally get healthy, WFAN's Boomer Esiason and Gregg Giannotti said Tuesday.
One reason is a relatively friendly schedule early on.
"When you take a look at this Yankees schedule, this schedule lends itself to getting the Yankees off to a great start regardless of what their pitching staff looks like," Esiason said at the start of the "Boomer & Gio" show.
Giannotti agreed.
"That is one of the main reasons why all these injuries, whether it's (Aaron) Hicks, (Luis) Severino, (Dellin) Betances, Didi (Gregorius) ... really doesn't concern me if the timetables stay the same," he said.
"If you think of the Tigers and the Orioles, and the White Sox are in there. ... There are some Red Sox games mixed in there, but it's generally against the worst teams in baseball. So that is good news for the Yankees."
Esiason said it's also a good sign that first basemen Greg Bird and Luke Voit have played so well this spring -- one will take Hicks' spot on the roster until he returns. Boomer added that Troy Tulowitzki, who is earning the league minimum after being released by the Blue Jays, could prove to be one of the season's best signings if the five-time All-Star can hold down the shorstop position until Gregorius returns from Tommy John surgery.
Tulowitzki hit his fourth home run of the spring Monday.
"All he has to do is not be pathetic," Giannotti said. "He just needs to be OK."
To listen to the full open from Tuesday's show, click on the audio player above.
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