Thoughts on Opening Day and others

Well, today was the day so many of us were eagerly anticipating, Yankee's Opening Day! I'll give you guys my thoughts on the game, the team, and the stadium.

First off, I will start with the stadium itself. Don't get me wrong, it was nice. I liked it. A lot. But for $1.2 billion, we should be blown away, and blown away I was not! I don't hate the center field restaurant, but I do miss the black seats. I don't like how monument park is sort of hidden away in center and the Hard Rock, Museum, etc. I do not care about at all. All the new food I don't care about much either. Johnny Rockets is great, especially considering I got a free sample of a Vanilla Milk Shake not 10 minutes into me being in the stadium, so that was great (and delicious, obviously). Overall though, all the food I need is some hot dogs, Pepsi and the occasional sausage.

Rewinding, I enjoyed the pre-game ceremonies. John Fogerty playing Centerfield in center field was very cool, seeing Bernie and Paulie was great and the 40+ players were announced pretty quickly.

The seats are great. I truly felt like I was closer to the game and for me, the seats is what it all comes down to. They look smaller, but they def. feel about the same. Cup holders are a big upgrade also. When it comes down to it, I will give it a B+. It's great, but considering the price tag of the joint, I feel as though I should be blown away.

As for the game, man oh man was it bad. I don't know if it was just me, but the fans did not seem into it. The 4 guys in front of me were trashed, annoying, and 40 (the true signs of a winning life), and people generally didn't seem into it. Maybe it was because a lot of phonies come out on opening day to say that they were there, maybe it was because they all paid $2,000 and do not really care about baseball to begin with, maybe the stadium is so big it just sounds differently than the last one or maybe I am just completely wrong. Only time will tell.

As for the game, Sabathia pitched very well, but his pitch count was absolutely terrible. Almost 130 pitches and not even 6 innings, but he did do well. He battled and got it done when it counted. The bullpen on the other hand, specifically Veras and Marte looked absolutely terrible. Walking the #9 hitter with the bases loaded? Grand slams, walks, hits everywhere you look, it was disgusting. It actually got to the point where the fans started chanting "we want swisher", and you actually believed he could have done a better job.

The hitting was not good either. Tex went 0-2, and Ransom is officially one of the worst players in baseball. He is just looking over matched in every at bat. He did make a fantastic defensive play, but when you're batting .100, it doesn't really matter.

When it comes down to it, there will be many more like it and many more like it where the Yankees are the victors.

Xavier Nady was placed on the 15 day DL and the Yankees called up Dave Robertson. This is something i find surprising, considering now the Yankee bench consists of Jose Molina, Melky Cabrera and Ramiro Pena. That's it? Really? Ugh.

Now is that time of the year (pretty much bi-weekly) where I talk about a guy I want the Yankees to sign/trade for. This weeks winner: Frank Catalanotto.

A 35 year old who has a career BA of .292, Catalanotto hit .274 in 248 PA last year. In his career he has played 508 games in left, 184 at DH, 155 at 2B , 139 at 1B, 60 in RF and 35 at 3B. If that isn't a man with some versatility, I don't really know what is. For the time being, he could play 3B, we can send Ramiro Pena to AAA to continue his development and DFA Cody Ransom when A-Rod comes back, or we can just get it over with now and DFA Ransom and sent Pena to AAA when A-Rod comes back. Either way it works. For the time being, I truly believe something needs to be done. Ransom looks lost everyday and as much as I love Pena, right now, his bat can barely handle AA, so let him develop.

Also, with Nady on the DL, we could use another OF, especially considering now Melky is our 4th outfielder. I wont expand on this, but a name I have brought up in the past and will continue to bring up is Jim Edmonds.

So, in conclusion, Yankee Stadium B+, Frank Catalanotto and Jim Edmonds; sign em up! Cody Ransom, sorry, but you better start doing something or you will be back where your career has been for the past 10 years, the minors.

Think about it.