The Yankees held off the Detroit Tigers for a 6-3 victory at Yankee Stadium earlier today. That makes the 11th straight opening da victory for New York.

The crowd got their money’s worth in the 7th inning when Curtis Granderson hit a go-ahead homerun. It was later followed up by a 3-run shot by Mark Teixeira that sealed the win.

“It was great — except for the weather,” said Granderson, who arrived in New York around 11 p.m. Wednesday after playing in a rehabilitation game with minor leaguers in Tampa, Fla., earlier in the day.

CC Sabathia was a workhorse on the mound and had a great day recording 7 strikeouts and 2 walks. The bullpen finished up the game in solid fashion. Joba and Mariano Rivera came in and made sure that this one didn’t get away from the Yankees.

“Their bullpen and the long ball is what did us in today,” Detroit manager Jim Leyland said. “I thought it was actually a decent game for the conditions. It was pretty rough.”

This means…

1. The Yankees are going to start off the year hot. If they can get a win off a solid pitcher like Verlander, they are going to keep swinging it with confidence.
2. The Yankees pitching staff will do just fine this year. Yes, they aren’t as stacked as Boston or Philly, but who cares. They will find a way to win.

This will have some interesting ramifications with who wil be the Yankees starting catcher for opening day and throughout the first few weeks of the regular season.

We know that Jorge Posada will not be behind the plate come opening day. He is getting older and they are going to save his knees and use him only as a DH this year.

This will give room for one of the back-ups to step into the big show and see what they can get done. From the looks of who they currently have on the roster, Russell Martin will look to get the start and receive most of the innings behind the dish. However, if he gets injured it will be interesting to see who they will throw in out of Jesus Montero or Austin Romine.

Both are solid players and are exciting to watch.

Regardless, this injury shouldn’t be too detrimental for the Yankees. They have enough bats in the lineup and none of the pitchers are super set on having a specific catcher.

This was quite an interesting acquisition for the Yankees. 1- They have an awesome closer in Mariano Rivera. 2- They really don’t need an 8th inning set up man. Mariano Rivera can handle the 8th inning if the game is ever close.

I am not the only Yankee fan that feels this way. Apparently Brian Cashman in the Yankees front office had similar thoughts. Here are his words:

We are better with Soriano, there’s no doubt about that. It’s all the other stuff wrapped around the deal – the money, allocating closer money to an 8th-inning situation. I didn’t recommend it…. I just didn’t think it was an efficient way to allocate the resources we had.

Overall it seems like the Yanks will benefit from this acquisition.

February 26 1:05 PM – New York Yankees vs. Philadelphia Phillies

February 27 1:05 PM – New York Yankees at Philadelphia Phillies

February 28 1:05 PM – New York Yankees at Detroit Tigers

March 1 1:05 PM – New York Yankees at Pittsburgh Pirates

March 2 1:05 PM – New York Yankees vs. Houston Astros

March 3 1:05 PM – New York Yankees at Tampa Bay Rays

March 4 7:05 PM – New York Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox

March 5 1:05 PM – New York Yankees vs. Washington Nationals

March 6 1:05 PM – New York Yankees at Houston Astros

March 7 1:05 PM – New York Yankees vs. Philadelphia Phillies (ss)

March 7 7:05 PM – New York Yankees at Baltimore Orioles (ss)

March 8 1:05 PM – New York Yankees at Atlanta Braves

March 9 7:05 PM – New York Yankees vs. Pittsburgh Pirates

March 10 1:05 PM – New York Yankees at Philadelphia Phillies

March 11 1:05 PM – New York Yankees vs. Atlanta Braves (ss)

March 11 1:05 PM – New York Yankees at Toronto Blue Jays (ss)

March 12 1:05 PM – New York Yankees at Washington Nationals

March 13 1:05 PM – New York Yankees vs. Minnesota Twins

March 14 7:05 PM – New York Yankees at Boston Red Sox

March 15 – Off Day

March 16 7:05 PM – New York Yankees vs. Baltimore Orioles

March 17 7:05 PM – New York Yankees vs. Tampa Bay Rays

March 18 1:05 PM – New York Yankees at Toronto Blue Jays

March 19 1:05 PM – New York Yankees vs. Toronto Blue Jays

March 20 1:05 PM – New York Yankees at Philadelphia Phillies

March 21 7:05 PM – New York Yankees at Tampa Bay Rays

March 22 1:05 PM – New York Yankees at Baltimore Orioles

March 23 7:05 PM – New York Yankees vs. Toronto Blue Jays

March 24 – Off Day

March 25 7:05 PM – New York Yankees vs. Houston Astros

March 26 1:05 PM – New York Yankees vs. Pittsburgh Pirates

March 27 1:05 PM – New York Yankees at Minnesota Twins

March 28 7:05 PM – New York Yankees vs. Tampa Bay Rays

March 29 1:05 PM – New York Yankees vs. Detroit Tigers

I guess a few years back the Yankee nation was able to cheer for David Justice without to much animosity. That is the great thing about America and sports, we as fans are always willing to forgive.

Andruw Jones will be a solid addition to the batting lineup for the Yankees if they can land him.

Jeter seems to be a little upset, and he is getting old.

Mariano may be past his prime, yet he is still good for 30 saves.

Posada will not be behind the plate every game.

Pettitte may be watching the whole season from Cancun, Florida, or sunny California.

Let us know your thoughts on what this new season will hold for the Yankees. We currently have no idea.

This has got to be a main focus for the Yankees. If the Yankees want to be able to compete in the AL East next season, they will need a veteran like Andy Pettitte in the rotation.

Will somebody please let me know why Brian Cashman is acting so weird with the public when it comes to Pettitte’s future? If you know something that we don’t, please make it public. Don’t string it our forever and leave us all guessing. We may call you the next Lebron James.

What does this mean?

The Yankees need to make a move and do it quickly. If they don’t get a veteran in the rotation to compliment CC and AJ, this could be a non-playoff appearance year….just sayin.

That amount?….$30 million is all!

I tell you what, I am sure glad that the Yankees were able to bring him back. I am also positive that he isn’t too upset about the fact that he will be averaging nearly $125,000 for every inning that he throws next year.

If you want to break it down into saves, Mariano is worth roughly $454,000 per save. That is the right business to be in!

Either way, I am glad that Mo and the Yankees front office were able to come to terms on the deal.

It will be great to keep Mariano Rivera in pinstripes for the rest of his career…hopefully.

If they want to make it number 28, they are going to have to throw a lot better. The only reason they were able to sweep the twins is because they hit the ball like they are expected to.

The Yankees have one of the deepest lineups in all of baseball and they need to make sure that opposing pitchers are aware of it. If a pitcher leaves one out over the heart of the plate, it needs to get tagged.

Being optimistic, I am expecting the Yankees to be able to handle the Texas Rangers, even if they do have the one and only Cliff Lee. Yes, he is a great pitcher. But, the Yankees are the Yankees. The rest of the Ranger’s squad don’t know how to handle the Yankees. They get too distracted by the pinstripes…

My prediciton…The Yankees beat the Rangers in 5.

A good buddy of mine posted the following article about the upcoming series finale between these two teams. All I know, is that I wouldn’t want to be behind the plate trying to break up these two teams. If anything does happen, go Yankees!

Check out the following link. It’s a great read!

http://nj.com/advnj/pm_29222/contentdetail.htm;jsessionid=8E6517DBBF3AF34A5842501C7F67BD68?contentguid=Wi1kNsiR