The Cole Nine Yards

 

Okay, 4 games into the season and I'm honestly pretty pleased with my New York Yankees. Only real sour spots have been turns by Clarke Schmidt and IKF, Judge, Stanton and Torres have 2 homers apiece, and the only thing keeping us out of first are those farshtunkener Rays. All in all, could be a ton worse.

I think the biggest cause for relief so far has been Gerrit Cole, honestly. I saw him in a Spring Training start in mid-March and he looked really good then, striking out everybody and only getting back to his late-start tendencies a little bit. Cole is 32 years old, is coming off the first mediocre season since before his Astros days, and, most notably, tore off his trademark longer hairdo in exchange for a more kept, trimmed back of the head. 

I mean, hey, it worked for Jacob deGrom, so I get it.

Gerrit Cole beginning the season by going 6 innings, striking out 11 and only allowing 3 hits, let alone any runs, is the single best thing for this team, with no offense meant towards Volpe doing well or Judge hitting a ton of homers or whatnot. If our ace is good, and like, classic-good, then that's one less big thing we have to worry about, and I can sleep at night. 

The tricky part, at least until Severino, Rodon and Montas come back, is gonna be rotation depth. Because right now, I trust Cole, I trust Nestor Cortes, and I believe I trust Jhony Brito, especially after he proved he was MLB ready in his first start with the team. But like...beyond that we have Clarke Schmidt, who was given the second game of the year and couldn't cut it, and we have Domingo German, who HAS BEEN good, and CAN BE good, but I never know which one we're gonna get.

I mean, German is at least a better rotation pick than Matt Strahm, who the Phillies are starting tonight because Ranger Suarez and Cristopher Sanchez are injured. But at least Strahm has been relatively consistent the last few years. German could be really nice, but it's not guaranteed.

The Yankees went into this season with sky-high expectations and hopes, and so far the team looks extremely good, and even the depth guys like Franchy Cordero and Kyle Higashioka are succeeding. They've looked good against the Giants and Phillies, two teams that are competing this year, and considering how the Phillies looked against the Rangers, it's nice that we haven't wilted yet. 

Hopefully the team keeps this energy up, because I do like this feel-good vibe for this team, and I hope it improves once the injured pitchers return.

Coming Tonight: Yeah...yeah, the Twins reeeeally shouldn't have given him up.