Home Sweet Home

Partly to honor the Yanks six game road trip to start the season, and partly due to the fact that 'something came up', I have not been gracing you with my company for about a week now. Well, I'm back. And what do you know, it coincides with the whole Yankees coming home to play KC. I'm telling you you can't make this stuff up. Now up until now Crosstown has provided you simply with articles about news and/or players. Starting now, I'm gonna get a little more technical, what with series previews and such. However, don't fret, I'm still coming back with more prospects, players, predictions, and my long incompleted series' on the AL East and the top 10 Yankees of all time. Let it rip. We got ourselves a thrilla against the Royals this week, let's take a looksie, shall we?

Starters:
Game 1: Tuesday, 1:05
Chien Ming Wang vs. Joe Mays
Game 2: Wednesday, 1:05
Shawn Chacon vs. Jeremy Affeldt
Game Three: Thursday, 1:05
Randy Johnson vs. Denny Bautista

KC Breakdown: Record- 2-4 (why is that record eerily familiar)
Oh man, bad place to start. There's not much you can say about the Royals other than the fact that they are utterly hapless. Reggie Sanders has been decent coming out of the gate, and if anyone is capable of making a dent in our pitching, it's him. When your lineup includes Mark Teahen, Emil Brown, and Dougie, you know you're in for a load of hurt. More importantly, they literally have no pitching. It does not exist. The only real halfway decent guys they have are Elarton, (who we don't even have to worry about him cause he won't be starting against us), and Bautista, a youngun who I happen to believe may be the real thing but who could conceivably be a one hit (literally) wonder. I can see our bullpen getting roughed around by someone of the likes of Mark Grudzielanek, but other than that, clear sailing.

Players to Watch for:
KC: Angel Berroa. This guy is good, and although he's not historically a Yankee killer, I've got some bad memories i.e. gap doubles and short right field HR's. I don't even know where I got those memories. Whatever. Also, keep your eyes on Denny Bautista. He was masterful against the champs, pitching six and giving up one run on one hit. He's the kinda no-name pitcher that could potentially give us fits.

NYY: Jason Giambi. He's been quiet to start off, but against a lot of shaky starting (and relief) pitching, look for J-Giam to blast 2 HR/4 or 5 RBI this series. Also, he might set a record for walking 13 times in 11 at bats. Good stuff. Wang (Wo-ng). He's got the stuff, and when he's at his best, (usually against bad teams), the guy is really tough to hit.

Player of the Series: Jason Giambi (i'm gonna regret this one, I can feel it)

Picks: I'll say we come home and grab an easy two behind strong outings from Wang and Chacon, but Bautista, combined with some erratic pitching from Randy and a shaky bullpen, results in a close win for the bad guys.

Nicks and Notes:
Posada was brilliant in Sunday's rout of the Angels. Here's hoping we get a productive season out of him.
With Small and Dotel on the DL, the bullpen is really bothering me, even though they've been decent up till now.
The Yanks 2 and 4 start is nothing to worry about. Obvious maybe, but I've been hearing some really early criticism that we're "not a cohesive unit". C'mon. We're two series in, we were playing two of the best teams in the league with some new pieces that are gonna take some getting used to. Give it some time to gel, etc., we've got an 100 game winner on our hands.
Jaret Wright will not start in this series, but is expected to start the middle game in our next series against the Twins. Godspeed Jaret, godspeed.