The NY Yankees have their season opener for 2014 on the schedule for Tuesday and the MLB baseball game against the Houston Astros starts up on TV at 7:10 pm from Minute Maid Park and comes before the home opener for the team in New York later on in the week and this will be the first game of the season for both teams.
The Yankees come into the season after spending a boatload of money on players and while they have an old team, they are experienced and ready to get back to the playoffs. The team spent on Masahiro Tanaka in the rotation along with Brian McCann, Jacoby Ellsbury and Carlos Beltran and that should give the team a strong outfield along with Brett Gardner and Ichiro Suzuki. The infield is the biggest question mark, as Derek Jeter is coming off of a serious injury and both Kelly Johnson and Brian Roberts are downgrades from Alex Rodriguez and Robinson Cano. Roberts has been unable to stay healthy the past four seasons, while Mark Teixeira is coming in after having wrist surgery last year and he also is a question mark.
CC Sabathia comes in as the starter for Opening Day and the team needs him to be sharp this season after a down year in 2013 and the rotation looks pretty good behind him. Hiroki Kuroda has been pitching like a young man, while Ivan Nova, Tanaka and Michael Pineda make a strong starting five. The bullpen has massive questions, including whether David Robertson can replace Mariano Rivera and that could end up being the key to having a strong season for the Yanks.
The Astros were the worst team in baseball last season and now Bo Porter has his boys ready to take on the Yankees and they will be looking to play hard every day. The Yankees missed the playoffs for the second time in two decades and that sparked the spending spree and now they have the chance to get things right as Jeter returns after a lost year that saw him play in less than 20 games for the team. The Yankees feel that getting off to a good start is key this season and they are hoping to score more runs and generate more offense on a consistent basis after last season.
The Yankees were killed by injuries last season and now they have the chance to get back to their usual business and they still have a home opener to look forward to as well. Jeter is making his final Opening Day start and Sabathia comes in for his sixth straight for the Yankees and those two have been as rock steady as NY has had in the past decade and they are hoping both can avoid DL stints this season after dealing with injuries last year. The Astros made their own improvements, signing both Scott Feldman and Dexter Fowler and they are looking to get out of last place in the AL West.
Check here for the Yankees schedule for the game against the Astros from ESPN.com.