After a brief weekend stay in Myrtle Beach and out of touch with baseball, the Yankees announced their roster for the 2008 season, which starts tomorrow afternoon. The additions of Traber, Bruney, Albaladejo, Ohlendorf, and Ensberg were the only real surprises.
I was really impressed with Albaladejo in spring training and I am glad to see he made the roster. Ohlendorf has a lot of talent and could be very dominant as a middle reliever. Bruney lost a lot of weight in the offseason and I just hope that he pitches well as he will be on a short leash, I would imagine. Ensberg is probably the biggest surprise to me. It was said that Ensberg was making the team, but I don’t know if the Yankees really need him. The Yankees already have Betemit and Duncan ( OF too) to man the infield. I wouldn’t trust Duncan in the outfield. Girardi probably wanted a major league bat off the bench if he needed one late in the game. I probably would have substituted another pitcher for him. Or I would have gone with another outfielder for the bench…particularly Brett Gardner as a defensive replacement or pinch runner. (check out my previous 25-man roster prediction) Billy Traber will be the lefty out of the pen for Girardi. I don’t know how long he will last as the only reliable lefty, but he had a good spring training. I just don’t expect him to be there all season. You don’t need a lefty just to have a lefty in the bullpen. You need your best arms on the roster at all times. However, I do expect the bullpen to be better this season.
The final roster looks like this:
Lineup- TBD
Johnny Damon LF
Derek Jeter SS
Bobby Abreu RF
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Jason Giambi 1B
Jorge Posada C
Hideki Matsui DH
Robinson Cano 2B
Melky Cabrera CF
Bench
Jose Molina, Shelley Duncan, Morgan Ensberg, Wilson Betemit
Rotation Chien-Ming Wang, Mike Mussina, Phil Hughes, Ian Kennedy
Bullpen
Mariano Rivera, Joba Chamberlain, LaTroy Hawkins, Kyle Farnsworth, Billy Traber, Ross Ohlendorf, Brian Bruney, Jon Albaladejo
Pettitte is on the DL, but he will be back with the team shortly. This means that probably Bruney will be sent down, or maybe Ensberg.
Posted by cmarms 
