The New York Yankees and the Houston Astros are playing their series opener in the MLB on Tuesday night and the matchup from Minute Main Park has both looking to get off to a nice start this season and it starts up at 7:10 pm ET on the YES TV Network for Yanks fans and it will live stream from the MLB.com website and has one team with very high expectations and another looking to just earn some respect.
The Yankees spent a ton of money this offseason and it comes as the last of the Core Four is left with Derek Jeter set to retire after the season and the puts the pressure on the team even more to make the playoffs. The team missed the playoffs last season for just the second time in the past two decades and now they have spent half a billion dollars in an attempt to get back there and while they let Robinson Cano go in the offseason, Brian Cashman signed Jacoby Ellsbury, Carlos Beltran, Brian McCann and the real prize in Masahiro Tanaka, who comes over from Japan sporting a 25-0 record from last season.
The Yankees already had huge expectations before Jeter made his announcement and now the team has the chance to get back to the playoffs and knock off the Boston Red Sox in the AL East. The team has a number of questions heading into the season, including the ability of the infield to stay healthy and how the bullpen will perform without the rock of Mariano Rivera at closer. David Robertson takes over in the bullpen and while he is a very good relief pitcher, being a closer is another type of job and it will be interesting to see how he does with it. All four of the infielders for the Yankees have dealt with injuries recently and both Jeter and Mark Teixeira are coming back after missing most of 2014.
The Yankees don't have much behind Jeter and Brian Roberts and if either of those two players go down, they may need to make a trade. Last season the team dealt with a high amount of injuries and Jeter played in just 17 games and now he will try and get one more full season under his belt before he hangs things up. Brian McCann could have the biggest impact on the team of the free agent signings, as he is going to give the team an everyday catcher after they did not really have that last year and he is the best option they have had since Jorge Posada.
CC Sabathia needs to bounce back and he is making his sixth straight start on Opening Day for the Yankees and they will also have a home opener coming up. The Yankees went 85-77 last season and their offense was not as potent as in past years and they are hoping to come in better than 16th in the league in runs and they ranked just 24th in batting average. The future of the team is right now and as Jeter looks to retire, the Yanks hope to give him one more World Series celebration.
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