Two teams. One city. A million questions.
The Yankees and Mets open their seasons Monday at 1 p.m. in their homes in The Bronx and Queens, but where they finish is the cause of much consternation among their fan bases.
The Yankees will begin their 2013 campaign Monday against the Red Sox in The Bronx with about as many question marks as their cross-town rivals, thanks to a startling amount of injuries to key players this spring.
The Bombers lost Curtis Granderson, Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez to significant injuries, and Derek Jeter’s return date is still in question after fracturing his left ankle in last season’s ALCS.
“When you talk about the Yankees’ injuries, I get reminded about the Phillies last year,” said former Mets general manager and SiriusXM/MLB Network Radio host Jim Duquette of a Philadelphia team that had a 37-50 first half before finishing .500.
“Year in and year out [the Phillies’] expectations are at a high level. You have a high payroll. You have veterans that are a little bit aging, but they had some injuries they had to get through …. so they really sputtered for the first half.”
If the Yankees are to survive in a competitive AL East, they likely will have to depend on their pitching staff. CC Sabathia, Hiroki Kuroda and Andy Pettitte will be at the top of the rotation and Mariano Rivera will return for his final season as closer.
“I still go back to a couple of things: No. 1 it’s the Yankees and we know they have financial power and people are underestimating how good the starting pitching and bullpen are,” Duquette said. “The Yankees’ pitching is good enough to keep them in it until they get healthy.
“They are going to have to rely on speed and generating runs as opposed to mashing it over the fence, which is what we’ve seen from the Yankees over the last few years.”
What we have seen from the Mets, who open against the Padres at Citi Field, the last few years has not been nearly as appealing.
The team has had to dig out of the financial mess bad contracts and bad decisions by ownership put them in. But few expect the future to be now for the young team with an ugly outfield situation, a banged-up starting rotation (Johan Santana likely is out for the season, Shaun Marcum will miss a start) and a revamped bullpen that needs to make improvement from last season.
“The Mets are in one of those spots where they have so much of their payroll tied up in unproductive or injured players: [Jason] Bay’s gone and Santana’s hurt, so that’s put you at a disadvantage right from the start. But there are some good young pieces to keep an eye on,” said Duquette, referring to Matt Harvey, Zack Wheeler and Travis d’Arnaud. Only Harvey will start the season in Flushing.
“So, there are some pieces there,’’ added Duquette, who also will be seen occasionally on SNY’s pre- and postgame programming. “I don’t want to get overly optimistic, but there are some pieces there. It’s fun to dream about the second half and going into next year.”
Mets fans are used to that. Yankees fans are not.