Here are a few thoughts after a week of Spring Training:
*Meticulous, prepared, competitive. All these words have been used to describe Gerrit Cole. Every great pitcher I've seen are all of these too. Mariano Rivera, Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Mike Mussina, Andy Pettitte – they could all be described the same way, but their ability and willingness to share it all varied greatly.
Cole is more outgoing it appears, to the point where he will talk about pitching with anyone in spitting distance. I am eager to hear how he breaks down games that really matter if he goes into such detail about the 30-40 pitch simulated games he's thrown here.
*Aaron Judge has a cranky shoulder, and in mid-February it's still no big deal. But given how important Judge's lineup presence is, it is a big deal. Getting Judge's bat in the lineup for more than 130 games is the goal. And the problem is that the Yankees will likely take him so slow this spring we might not get a great gauge on how he truly feels until the season starts. That's when we will get to see how he does after he plays three or four days in a row.
*Miguel Andujar will be playing some first base and left field, in addition to third base. But we all know his true value is in the batter's box. Where he plays doesn't matter very much if he isn't swinging the bat like he did two years ago. At first glance, with amateur eyes, I would say he had the most impressive round of batting practice of any of the regulars at Tuesday's first full squad workout.
*First base is still a bit of a question mark for me because we haven't seen Luke Voit stay healthy for a whole season either. And Mike Ford has had only a short time in the majors himself. There is plenty of firepower in the Yankees lineup to overcome the lack of real experience there, but that's still a position I'm curious about.
*Chad Green's best role is probably as a two-inning reliever. We saw a lot of that in 2017, not as much in 2018. And 2019 was a mixed bag because of all his time as an opener. But returning Green to a full-time bullpen role and sliding him into the Dellin Betances role could open things up for Green, meaning he could really thrive in a more consistent role. The Yankees have actually wanted to use him more as a multi-inning relief weapon the last two years, but circumstances dictated otherwise. If the staff stays relatively healthy, you could see Green turn into the latest Yankees All-Star reliever.
*I've seen some rookies who walk around their first spring training sort of wide-eyed and star struck. I'm not seeing any of that from 20-year old Deivi Garcia right now.
*One big reason the Astros story hasn't gone away is that nobody has played a baseball game since the cheating scandal first broke last November. That's about to change with exhibition games getting underway this weekend. Now there will be some real baseball to talk about, but I still wouldn't expect the Astros story to go away. It's going to keep coming, so you're allowed to be sick of it. Just don't think it will end the talk because you are.
