Does Ben Sheets make sense for the Yankees?

I told you things were going to get screwy here once I went back to work full-time. I haven’t written in over a week, when I warned you about worshiping at the feet of Alex Rodriguez. (You don’t even know where those feet have been!)

I’m  now (once again) working alongside the esteemed Jim Green of The Yankee Scrolls. We were talking for a while after Thursday night’s loss to the Rays. You know, the one where Mariano Rivera pitched like a 39-year-old with 12+ years of being a closer on his odometer and gave up back-to-back homers to lose the game. It felt like standing on the precipice of a dark chasm whose bottom isn’t visible: Rivera was washed up, Derek Jeter looked slower than molasses at shortstop, and Jorge Posada couldn’t stay healthy. The core was about to crumble and there was nothing Alex Rodriguez could do to fix that.

So, how do you fix it? There are a lot of systemic problems that would take too long to get into during the 30 minutes I have to write this. But there are a couple of things I’ve thought about since then to try to patch this season up. I haven’t passed judgement on the Yankees yet since it’s still May, but it’s definitely not too early to see that changes are needed. Here’s a suggestion: Sign Ben Sheets.

Sheets is unsigned. He’s an overpowering strikeout artist (career 0.84 Ks/IP as a starter) with a career WHIP of 1.20 and would be great in the bullpen, where the Yanks need the most help. He won’t want a lot of money or a long-term deal, especially not in this market, so the commitment on the Yankees’ end won’t be high. Other teams may not want to commit anything more than the major-league minimum to a pitcher coming off elbow surgery who has an injury history and won’t be able to start pitching until July. Wouldn’t a one-year, $2 million deal (prorated to the time he’s in the majors) be enough to sign him?

The more I think about this, the more it makes sense. Sheets gets a chance to audition for the next offseason and collect a million bucks, and the Yankees can plug a powerful, highly talented pitcher into their bullpen for the second half of the season. Who knows? Maybe Sheets can find a new role for his career. Maybe the key for him to stay healthy is to keep his innings count under 100. I think the Yankees should take a close look at this.

The same can be said of Pedro Martinez, but I don’t think the fit is nearly as good. At the end of his time in Queens, Pedro looked nothing like the pitcher he was in Boston. He wasn’t a power pitcher anymore like Sheets might still be, so the profile doesn’t quite fit that of a reliever. He was able to get some Swedish or Norwegian batters out in the World Baseball Classic, but that doesn’t mean anything. Plus, Pedro’s had a very distinguished career and is already on his way to the Hall of Fame. He doesn’t need to prove himself and certainly doesn’t need any more money.

Brett Tomko might be able to help, but the reinforcements shouldn’t end there. Brian Cashman should think outside the box on this one and go get Sheets.

Not expecting a savior

Is he watching the ball or is there a picture of himself on the scoreboard he can't take his eyes off?

It’s Sunday morning, so I thought I would get online and start a little discussion about our lord and savior … Alex Rodriguez. (Yes, the religious right just fainted; Red Sox fans are rolling on the floor; and a third of Yankees fans are nodding in agreement, a third are shrugging their shoulders in indifference, and a third are saying, “He’s more like Satan.”)

OK, A-Rod really isn’t a savior, in a religious or baseball sense. But he and his supposed man-boobs are probably returning to the Yankees this week, which will be a big improvement over Ramiro Pena or Angel Berroa.

Just don’t expect vintage A-Rod. At least on the field. Off the field, he’s pretty much already back, what with some details about Selena Roberts’ book (they moved the drop date, again — this time up a few days — for the same reason: to get closer to Rodriguez’s return date) getting leaked and MLB deciding he needs to be investigated. Between the lines, though, don’t forget this: He had hip surgery in March, needs another one in November, and will only have a week of playing against minor-leaguers under his belt to start the season.

I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t sound like a recipe for an MVP campaign.

A-Rod probably doesn’t need to put up an MVP season, though, to help the Yankees reach the playoffs. Take a look at the Bombers right now: They’re 13-11, three games out of first to a team that is a long shot to stay there, two games behind the Red Sox despite being swept by them, and 3 1/2 games ahead of Tampa Bay. They even beat the Angels two games in a row. I count my blessings if the Yanks beat them twice in a season, let alone twice in one week. (And I don’t care how much L.A. is struggling right now because it’s never mattered before. That team stunk in the late ’90s and always beat the Yankees.)

You know what else? A-Rod’s absence hasn’t been their biggest problem. I’d argue that the combined struggles of Chien-Ming Wang (monumental struggles) and CC Sabathia (big struggles, but only because he weighs about 325 pounds) have hurt the Yankees more. The Yanks are 2-7 in the games those two have started. Something a little better, but still not great — say, 5-4 — would give the Yankees three more wins. I don’t think A-Rod, as great as he is, would already be worth three more wins this early in the season.

But make no mistake: Whether you decide to cheer for him, boo him, or bring cutouts of this guy and his chest with you to the stadium, this lineup will get a lot better once Rodriguez is back.

Games 19-21: Better late than never

Yes, I know the next series has already started, but I have a good excuse. I started a part-time job this week and I’m adjusting to the schedule. Just wait until next week when I become employed full-time again for the first time in 4 1/2 months. I’m going to have to revise my strategy here at The Pen.

But that’s next week. This is this week. And this week the Yankees recovered from a bad start to their road trip with two encouraging wins over the Tigers.

Stock is rising

1. Starting pitching. Including the first game against the Angels, the Yanks’ starters have put up respectable — though unspectacular in a few spots — starts one whole turn through the rotation. The biggest thing is they’ve given the Yankees innings, which they weren’t getting consistently outside of Andy Pettitte. But the last time through, the starters have averaged 6.8 innings with a 3.18 ERA. And Phil Hughes showed a glimpse of why he was so highly touted two years ago.

2. Hideki Matsui. Locked in. He’s spraying line drives all over the place.

3. Nick Swisher. Three homers over two games ended that little slump he went into. He won’t hit like he did the first two weeks, but he shouldn’t keep hitting like he did the past week, either.

4. Mark Melancon. We’ve heard a lot about this kid and three shutout innings in his first two appearances make it look like Joe Girardi may have a new option coming out of the bullpen.

Stock is falling

1. Derek Jeter’s defense. This is getting  bad. Did you see that ball he let get by him up the middle in CC Sabathia’s last start? He looks considerably slower from last season, and he wasn’t looking great then.

2. Jonathan Albaladejo. Even in a seven-run game in the ninth inning, there is some value in competent relief pitching to keep the mileage down on Mariano Rivera. Albaladejo wasn’t close to competent Wednesday night, bringing Mo into the game and probably putting himself a few rungs down the bullpen hierarchy.

Notes

So, Alex Rodriguez and his new steroid-and-chest-related nickname are in the news. Apparently, he may have taken steroids while in high school and with the Yankees. In other news, I may have slept with Heidi Klum (I’ll find any excuse to watch that video) and Jennifer Aniston last night. I’ll leave it to you, dear reader, to sort out the truth. … With Jeter’s problems in the field and Johnny Damon and Matsui free agents after the year, could Ramiro Pena be auditioning for a job right now (Jeet would move to DH)? He’s not playing nearly as poorly as we would have expected. … Loving the live-game break-ins on MLB Tonight on the MLB Network. Not loving the constant analysis between the highlights and look-ins. Sometimes a bad game is a bad game and not a sign of a team’s impending collapse.

Next up: Well, actually, up now, since I’m a little behind on this entry. It’s the Angels. Yes, those Angels. Have I ever mentioned how I really feel about them?

Games 16-18: OK, three bad nights in Boston

Ugh. Was that embarassing or what? On top of losing three straight in Boston to the Sox, the Yankees had to go and make each of the games close, which meant you couldn’t turn away for any of the four-plus hours. I don’t know about you, but a 4 p.m. start time for Yankees-Red Sox completely wrecks my Saturday. And they somehow kept it under 3 1/2 hours on Sunday night — but that only means the game ends at about 11:20.

I must be getting old. On to the depressing stocks report:

Stock is rising

1. Alex Rodriguez. There’s a lot to say about the people that have been filling in for him and I’ll get to that later. The lineup hasn’t been bad, but that NL-like bottom of the order has to be addressed, and A-Rod will address it by bumping one of those jokers to the minors. At this point, Selena Roberts could reveal that he pricks voodoo dolls of sick children to make their suffering worse, and Yankee fans would be more than happy to see him back in the lineup.

2. Mark Melancon. Two good innings of relief (one in which he loaded the bases with no outs) is enough to get you on the good side of the report this weekend.

3. Robinson Cano. He almost single-handedly kept the Yankees in Saturday’s game with two homers, a double, five RBI and two runs scored. He kept it up with two more hits Sunday.

Stock is falling

1. Brian Cashman  and/or Joe Girardi. Angel Berroa laid down a sacrifice bunt in the third inning last night with two runners on and no one out. Normally, particularly in an AL game, that is plainly stupid. But you know what? I didn’t think it was a bad move on Girardi’s part considering, you know, it was Angel Berroa at the plate. It was probably the only way to get any kind of positive result from the at-bat. The problem wasn’t the bunt, it was the player. If Berroa is so offensively inept that he has to lay down a bunt in that spot (and he is that offensively inept — there’s a reason he lost out to Cody Ransom and Ramiro Pena for a roster spot), then he’d better be able to handle the glove at third base better than someone else on the bench. As we saw last night, his total of about one inning of experience at third base doesn’t really make him a stalwart there. His two errors led to the Red Sox’ first run. So the question is why Pena wasn’t playing, since he’s supposed to have a superior glove and he knows how to bunt? That’s the fault of either the manager or the general manager, but probably both.

2. Center fielders. Another mark against the GM. Brett Gardner is a pinch-runner and defensive replacement. That’s it. He just can’t hit. He’s the prototypical Quadruple-A player. And it seems that the first couple of teams that saw Melky Cabrera bat this year forgot who he was and thought they could get him out by throwing strikes. Throw Melky pitches out of the zone. In consecutive pitches last night he swung at a pitch that bounced in the dirt and one that was at his shoulders. In completely unrelated news, Oakland — home of Matt Holliday and his expiring contract — is 7-10. Just saying.

3. A.J. Burnett. You can’t pitch like he did after the third inning on Saturday and come away unscathed.

4. Health. Johnny Damon sat last night with a sore back. And a sore knee. And a sore shoulder. Xavier Nady will be out for the year. (Yes he will. Remember how Jorge Posada was going to rehab his shoulder last season?) Brian Bruney has a mass of muscles built up in his elbow. Hideki Matsui has already had his knee drained. Cody Ransom strained a quad. Alex Rodriguez had hip surgery last month, and will need more come November. What’s happening here? If you look at that list, you can tell this isn’t an age thing. What goes on in spring training that players jump into the season and start getting hurt? Have they dropped the concept of training from spring training?

5. Angel Berroa and Cody Ransom. See the Cashman/Girardi entry above. As for Ransom, he strained a quad and they immediately put him on the 60-day DL. There’s a message for you.

There’s a reason I write these things the morning after a series ends rather than that night. It gives me time to calm down and look at the bigger picture. The Yankees are 9-9 and their No. 2/3 pitcher has been a disaster, their best player hasn’t played a game, their best pitcher has had one good game out of four starts and their second-best bullpen pitcher is on the DL. The Yankees have had worse Aprils than this with better active rosters and they are far from buried. The Sox are only three games ahead, Toronto won’t keep up their pace, and Tampa Bay is looking like Tampa Bay again.

Next up: Three with the original Tampa Bay, the Detroit Tigers. Remember that time they won the AL pennant? You know, when Kenny Rogers cheated his way through the playoffs? The next year they missed the postseason and last year they were about 20 games under .500.

One bad night in Boston

OK, so let’s count up all the fun things that happened yesterday to the Yankees against the Red Sox:

1. Mariano Rivera blew a ninth-inning, two-run, two-out lead in a game the Yanks went on to lose.

2. Brian Bruney didn’t pitch in the eighth inning. Brian Bruney wasn’t sitting in the bullpen in the eighth inning. That’s because Brian Bruney was on his way back to New York to have an MRI exam on his right elbow.

3. Damaso Marte did his best Damaso Marte impersonation, giving up the game-winning homer to freak-head.

4. Chien-Ming Wang was placed on the DL. (Actually, this is good news since it’s the only way to get Wang some time to work in the minors. Good job by the Yanks to search high and low and poke and prod and dig deep … in a medical dictionary to find a good term for Wang’s “injury.” Let’s be honest, he was placed on the DL with an ailing ERA.)

5. Brett Gardner just about sealed any chance of being an everyday player with the Yankees. He’s living proof that spring training should not be taken too seriously. If your specialty is supposed to be getting on base and using your legs, then you’d better get on base and you’d better know how to bunt. So far this season, and last night in extra innings, he showed he can’t do either. Enjoy your pinch-running career.

6. The Yanks failed to score in a bases-loaded, no-out situation for the second time this week.

Other than that, it was a fine night, though, wasn’t it?

Games 14 and 15: A little time off

Let’s all be thankful the Yankees are off today. Especially Jose Veras. He threw 3 1/3 of the 14 innings yesterday for the Bombers against Oakland. And especially me. Tonight I won’t have to feign interest in my daughters during the game and stare past them at the TV screen. Have you ever tried to read to a 4-year-old and watch a baseball game at the same time? I have, and it ain’t easy.

Time for the up-down drill:

Stock is rising

1. Hideki Matsui. He’s gone from lame to slugger in about four days. Godzilla has six hits in his last 14 at-bats, including yesterday’s dinger. I have a feeling we’re going to be on a roller-coaster with him this year. It’s going to be up to Joe Girardi to decide when it’s time to run him out there and when it’s time to sit him. So far, it looks like Joe’s called this one right.

2. Jose Veras. One run in his last 6 1/3 innings. Unfortunately, those 6 1/3 have come in just two appearances. Hopefully this means he’ll get out of Girardi’s sacrificial relief pitcher role and give Brian Bruney some help paving the Road to Rivera. He kept the game stable yesterday until …

Melk delivery.

3. Melky Cabrera. It doesn’t look like Brett Gardner’s going to get those few weeks I talked about to get his feet under him. But at this point, that’s what has to happen, at least until Matsui’s knee fills up with fluid again or Cabrera starts playing like he did last year. Cabrera, Derek Jeter and Nick Swisher are tied for the team lead with four home runs. Jeter has 63 at-bats, Swisher 49, and Cabrera 23. And none of Melky’s are the cheap, jet-stream-aided kind, either. Girardi has to find a way to get him playing time at this point.

4. Derek Jeter. Like I just said, Jeter has four home runs. His average isn’t awful, but isn’t where it usually is. If he’s he’s going to keep this up, though (he’s on pace for 43 homers, 108 RBI, 97 runs, and an .862 OPS), I won’t mind fewer hits over the course of the year.

5. Andy Pettitte. He’s like a comfortable shoe that you know isn’t going to give you any trouble. Well, except for the second half of last year. But we went to the cobbler’s, got him fixed, and now he’s good as new.

Stock is falling

1. Derek Jeter. Huh? That would be the defensive Derek Jeter, who looked real old yesterday on a couple of plays.

2. CC Sabathia. Pedro Martinez is the only superstar I can think of who has come to New York and not struggled in his first couple of months on the job. Sabathia is no Pedro Martinez. The big guy heard some boos after coming off the mound yesterday, reminiscent of the treatment Johan Santana received in his first game at Shea Stadium last year. CC will turn it around, though.

3. New stadiums. This has nothing to do with ticket prices, or tax money, or nostalgia, or jet streams, or capacity. I actually thought the Yankees should have built a new stadium. No, this has to do with morons who take up time on sports-talk radio with questions like this: “Hey, my seat at the new stadium has a piece of glass in front of it and it’s obstructing my view. What can we do about it?” This rant is for you, moron: Glass is transparent, so how can it obstruct your view? Second, I doubt the Yankees randomly chose some spot to slap a piece of glass, so it’s probably part of a railing, which is designed to keep s–heads like you from falling from one deck to another. And you know what? I don’t give a s– about what you think is a f–ing obstructed view, OK? I listen to sports-talk radio to hear what people think about sports, not stadium engineering. Why don’t you worry about what’s happening on the field and ask a question about that? You know what? Never mind. Given your apparent low IQ, it would probably be a question about what the little white squares on the dirt are for.

You could tell Mike Francesa was getting tired of this topic yesterday. We’re going to be dealing with time-wasters like that for another two months, and we’ll get to hear it all over again starting in August 2010 when the new football stadium opens in the Meadowlands.

Next up: Three in Boston to kick off a six-game trip.

The Yankees Pen ponders the Yankees’ ‘pen

Help, please.

OK, so Brian Bruney isn’t going to go the final 161 games of the year without giving up a run. But the one he gave up last night was no big deal since the Yanks were up by three. Hopefully he’ll be the pitcher we all thought he could be when he first showed up in 2006.

Well, so long as his arm stays attached. At the moment, he’s on pace for 92 innings over 104 appearances this year. Call me crazy, but I don’t think he’s built for that kind of workload. Clearly someone else needs to help in that role, but who?

Based on the numbers so far, Jonathan Albaladejo looks like the guy, but I wouldn’t expect Joe Girardi to turn the keys to the eighth inning over to a rookie just yet. Damaso Marte looks like a guy who is either past his prime or can’t handle pitching in the American League. So that pretty much leaves the trio of Jose Veras, Edwar Ramirez and Phil Coke. If you ask me, I say Veras and Coke are the guys that should emerge to lend a hand in that eighth-inning spot.

But then again, what do I know? I was happy the Yankees signed Marte in the offseason. He’s only around for two more years (and another $8 million) after this season ends.

Games 10-13: No big mystery

The easy thing to do right now would be to wonder why the Yankees can’t get on a good roll. Why the offense isn’t quite clicking the way we thought it would. Why the record is only 7-6.

You know why it would be easy? Because there isn’t much wondering to do. There are two reasons for all of this: Alex Rodriguez and Chien-Ming Wang. Think about how much different the lineup would be with A-Rod batting fourth. With the way everyone else is hitting at the moment, the lineup would go Jeter, Damon, Teixeira, Rodriguez, Cano, Posada/Swisher, Swisher/Posada, then 8-9. If the Wang everyone expected had shown up to start the year, the Bombers would be at least 8-5 or maybe even 9-4 right now.

So there it is. Are there other things wrong? Sure, but no one’s perfect — not even the Marlins.

On to my Jim Cramer report:

Stock is rising

1. Brian Bruney. He’s now firmly secured in the eighth-inning spot. But we’ve seen this before from him and others. It may only be a matter of time before the Yankees are trying to rebuild the ever-elusive Bridge to Mariano. For now, though, things are good.

2. Jonathan Albaladejo. How about his seventh inning yesterday? Bases loaded, no one out, and he didn’t let a run score. That’s big-time.

3. Interstates 380 and 80. Basically, this is the road to New York from Scranton, Pa. David Robertson, recalled April 16, optioned back April 17. Juan Miranda, recalled April 17, optioned back April 18. Anthony Claggett, recalled April 18, optioned back April 19. Steven Jackson recalled April 19. Don’t unpack, Steven. Think of all the gallons of gas that could have been saved if the Yankees had just kept a long reliever on the roster.

4. The Collectors. My fantasy baseball team is 2-0 and put up the second-highest one-week point total in the three-year history of the Comic Book Guy Baseball Syndicate. Orlando Hudson is leading the charge.

Stock is falling

1. Chien-Ming Wang.

2. The right-field wall. Did you see this report at Was Watching? I had wondered about the exact dimensions of the new ballpark vs. the old one. Sure, the standard points (right, left, right-center, left-center, center) are the same, but how you get from one point to the next can be a lot different. As you may have suspected, right field at the new stadium is a little different from the old one — it may be as much as 9 feet shorter in a few spots. Follow that link to see the report and a neat diagram comparing the dimensions of the two parks. (It may not be just Yankee Stadium, too. There’s growing sentiment that the ball may be juiced this year. Hmm … sagging economy + lagging ticket sales = more home runs!)

3. Nick Swisher. He wasn’t bad at all this series, but his OPS was an otherworldly 1.571 entering the weekend. Now it’s merely a stellar 1.239. If this keeps up, he may only be at .950 by Friday.

4. Hideki Matsui. The fluid buildup in his knee means his time in the outfield this year will be incredibly minimal. It probably means his contributions at the plate may not be that impressive, either.

Notes

Melky Cabrera may be get a shot or two in center field after his two homers last week. If Matsui’s knee keeps becoming an issue, getting him ABs won’t be an issue. … Speaking of outfielders, maybe we’ll be seeing Matt Holliday back in Yankee Stadium sometime this season (other than when the A’s return in late July).

In-game panic alert

Chien-Ming Wang started today’s game with an ERA of 28.93. He threw a perfect first inning, then managed to raise that ERA into the 34 area in the next third of an inning. Mr. Wang, here is your ticket to Scranton.

No, seriously. This kind of atrocious pitching requires about three weeks of heavy-duty mechanics work in the minors. If it wasn’t plainly obvious that Wang’s pitches are drifting too high in the strike zone, I would suspect he’s been tipping his pitches. If Wang can’t get this figured out (it’s really possible he could get straightened out — see Trachsel, Steve and Myers, Brett), the Yankees may not have what it takes to win the division or make the playoffs.

Oh, and it’s good to see that Brian Cashman and Joe Girardi still haven’t figured out you need to have a long reliever. When asked about it by Mike Francesa yesterday, Girardi said they didn’t anticipate needing one. You see, though, that’s the point of having a long reliever. He’s there for when you’re not expecting to use him. Do you think any major-league team expects their starter to give up eight runs in 1 1/3 innings? “Well, Pitcher X is going today, so make sure the long reliever is ready to go in the second.” Of course not, but most of those teams realize it’s going to happen three, four or five times a year and having someone ready to soak up those innings saves your bullpen for the next few days.

At least Spike is showing the “Star Wars” saga so there’s something to watch the rest of the day.

UPDATE, 11:06 p.m.: OK, ignore all the stuff about sending Wang to the minors. It’s what he needs to do, but in the situation he’s in, that could only happen if he clears waivers, which he would probably never do.

Games 7-9: The bottom line

A fantastic, fun win for the Yankees yesterday afternoon to cap their season-opening, nine-game road trip. Let’s talk about the last three games with the Rays.

Stock is rising

1. W-L record. The Yankees started the year 0-2 and have gone 5-2 since then. If the Bombers went 5-4 on a nine-game road trip spanning June and July, we’d be happy. So be happy now. It may not have gone the way we wanted it to, but it was still good for the bottom line.

2. Nick Swisher. Guess he’s an everyday player now. He would have been anyway with the injury to Xavier Nady (more on him later), but he had already started the six games before that. He’s pitching better than Chien-Ming Wang right now and he seems to do something every game to help the Yanks put some runs on the board. (He also tends to help the other team score some runs about every third or fourth game, but we’ll ignore that … for now.)

3. A.J. Burnett. This isn’t good. Burnett has twice put an end to two-game losing streaks for the Yanks, and his game Tuesday was helpful in two ways: It stopped a skid and it saved a bullpen which had to pitch six innings the day before. So why isn’t this good? I’m really starting to enjoy having him on the team, which will make it all the more painful when he misses July and August with some kind of arm injury.

4. Alex Rodriguez. It’s pretty obvious the offense could use him, isn’t it?

Stock is falling

1. Chien-Ming Wang. I don’t need to document his troubles, do I? If you’re not satisfied, scroll down to my previous post. He’s earned a chance, though, to work his way through it for a few more starts.

2. Cody Ransom. I know, I said I wasn’t going to put him here since he was only a bench player who was thrust into the starting role, but now it looks like he may not have that bench role once Alex Rodriguez gets back. Ramiro Pena may hold onto his roster spot once that happens. Ransom had a big hit yesterday, though, and scored the go-ahead run, so he’ll probably get another chance, starting today, to get it going again.

3. Hideki Matsui. We know his body hasn’t been holding up well the past two years, and now he’s been on the bench for three of the first nine games. Some of that is Joe Girardi’s over-tinkering with the lineup, but Matsui hasn’t done much to give Girardi a reason to put him in the game.

Notes

I don’t have any problems with Girardi sitting Jorge Posada the last two days. The Rays ran all over the Yankees on Monday and Girardi decided to protect Jorge. In my mind it’s worth it, not so much to protect the basepaths, but to keep Posada from constantly putting stress on that arm, whether he’s throwing the runners out or not. If Posada stays healthy, Girardi won’t have to do this as much later in the year. … We don’t learn, do we? A lot of people were clamoring for Brian Cashman to trade either Nady or Swisher in the offseason, saying he had too many outfielders. This sort of thing happens every year for the Yankees at some position, whether it’s the bullpen, the rotation or the infield. And they always work themselves out. Now, I would prefer to have Nady around for the rest of the year as a bench player and spot starter in the outfield, but it looks like Cashman made the right call and that Swisher will get plenty of ABs.

Next up: Today is Groundhog Day as the Yankees experience opening day for the fourth time already this season. This one will be a little different, as it is their opening day in the new Yankee Stadium, the start a four-game set with the Indians.