Jared Max: Tex, A-Rod, CC And The 2015 Yankees — Cross Your Fingers!
By Jared Max
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The 2015 Yankees remind me of a saying my mother always used to describe our dinner menu when she had not prepared to cook: Catch-as-catch-can.
Inside the Yankees fridge, there's a plethora of leftovers. The lobster isn't fresh. The filet mignon is long gone. But, this is it. Mom's not going food shopping before the season.
"Hal Steinbrenner is not sinking anymore major cash infusions into this club," said MLB columnist Bob Klapisch of The Record. "There will be no stimulus. They're counting on everybody coming back, staying healthy and hope that they can be competitive or get hot at the right time like the Giants or Royals did last year."
I get it. The Yankees are living on a prayer.
While Mark Teixeira gushed Wednesday about getting to teach his friend Alex Rodriguez how to play first base, he also raved about his new gluten-free diet helped him shed pounds and gain muscle. But what will this translate into?
Klapisch didn't sound hopeful about the Yankees first baseman, soon to turn 35: "Teixiera is just getting older. Like any player who gets to the end of his career, everybody's kind of searching for the magic bullet to regain bat speed, the fast-twitch muscles. I don't know if a special diet or special weightlifting regimen is going to change that."
As for the question marks surrounding Rodriguez, Klapisch is as curious as anybody.
"We don't know if he can hit," he said. "We don't know if he can run everyday without tearing up those surgically repaired hips. And, we don't know where he's going to be. Third base? First Base? Designated hitter?"
Catch-as-catch-can. Sounds like there are two pork chops, a piece of chicken, some vegetables and potatoes. Go set the microwave.
"Whatever scraps he could find he will be grateful for," Klapisch told me on WCBS 880. "Alex is here to prove that he can still hit. He's got bat speed, still. He's still got his reflexes. I think he still has his power. Certainly, he has put on a nice show during batting practice this week. But, can he catch up to the 90-mile-per-hour fastball? That will reveal itself in mid-March."
What may be of former ace CC Sabathia? He showed up to camp significantly heavier than last year.
"He's never going to win a bathing suit contest," Klapisch joked. But in a serious tone, he suggested: "The real question is whether or not his right knee can sustain the trauma of being landed on a hundred times a game every five days. He's got a degenerative condition in that knee which means arthritis is just around the corner. We're going to find out in a hurry if he can stand up to those rigors."
Yankees fans shouldn't prepare for a gourmet home-cooked dinner this year. But sometimes leftovers surprise us, too.
Jared Max is a multi-award winning sportscaster. He hosted a No. 1 rated New York City sports talk show, "Maxed Out" — in addition to previously serving as longtime Sports Director at WCBS 880, where he currently anchors weekend sports. Follow and communicate with Jared on Twitter @jared_max.