The Detroit Tigers and the NY Yankees are playing live on Friday in spring training and the game will be streaming online from the MLB.com website and comes at 7:05 pm ET from Steinbrenner Field and gives the Yanks a chance to keep their winning ways going after Masahiro Tanaka made his spring starting debut on the previous day.
The Yankees are coming into the season with very high expectations after missing the playoffs for just the second time in the past two decades and the team spent a ton of money to get it done. The Yankees spent over $400 million on players heading into the future and that didn't include Robinson Cano, as he signed for over $200 million with the Seattle Mariners and the Yankees countered with Carlos Beltran, Brian McCann, Tanaka and Jacoby Ellsbury and now the team is looking to get back to the top of the AL East division after the Boston Red Sox won the World Series last season.
The Yankees are coming into the day after a win against the Phillies and they now will play against the Detroit Tigers and then the team plays against the Houston Astros and those will be away games for the team in the Grapefruit League. The Yankees still have plenty of questions heading into the season, including whether Brian Roberts can stay healthy at second base and on top of that they have the oldest roster on average ever in the MLB and that will be tough to overcome as well.
The team comes into the season after being ranked 16th in runs last year and they were 27th in slugging percentage and the team is hoping to get a boost from Beltran and Ellsbury there. Tanaka made his first start as a Yankee against the Phillies and while he wasn't perfect, he looked very good and he gave up one run on a home run and ended up with two hits over three innings. The Yankees also got a nicer look at Derek Jeter, who snapped his o for 10 in the spring with a hit and he comes in looking to have a good year since he is about to retire.
Last season Cano led the team in nearly every important offensive category, including home runs, RBIs, runs, batting average and on base plus slugging and he will be hard to replace. The team needs a bounce back year from CC Sabathia and adding Tanaka will be a huge help as well and Joe Girardi ids hoping for double digit wins from him this season.