3 key takeaways from today's first ST game:

1 - Severino lost the plate in that 2nd inning but the stuff looked good. He'll get there. They're saying no innings limit--he can go 200 innings+. We'll probably need that out of him...I'd like to see him come up with a slower breaking ball to complement his fastball/slider/power change mix. Like a hard curveball in the low-80s to show once in a while. Take a little off that slider of his--something like that. I think that would help him.

2 - Castro with 2 hits and solid defense. What a great trade by Cash. Dying to see him at 3rd and Refsnyder at 2nd (or vice versa). That's our best offensive infield right there--sorry Headley. Might wind up being our best defense infield alignment as well.

3 - Damn, was Johnny Barbato impressive or what?!? WOW. Another great trade by Cashman. This dude's already a better pitcher than Shawn Kelley. He's gotta be very much in the mix for a bullpen spot from the 5th inning on, right there with fellow power righties Pinder, Rumbelow and Mitchell. Looks like he's a cut above these other guys to be honest (although I'm still a big Bryan Mitchell fan). Mitchell's more suited for long relief/spot starting anyway--I'd like to see him stretched out. Nova too. Probably Nova in the 6th starter/long man role at the ML level; Mitchell performing the same role at AAA if I had to guess. Barbato looks like he could be a real effective short man, though. 95-96, awesome curveball and slider with good variation. Very impressive.

A lot of people are handing this division to the Blue Jays and the Red Sox already -- I say not so fast. Let's let this thing play out here...I love Cashman -- no idea how anyone's ever had a problem with him. The man just knows what he wants, knows what holes need to be plugged at any given time, knows when to hold onto the kids (knew the importance of building up the minor league system in the 1st place--now we're seeing the benefits), etc...The guy is just on point, knows exactly what he's doing. I love how everything's set up the next couple of years -- Tex and Beltran are set to come off the books at the end of the year, then A-Rod and CC the following year. We further integrate more of our own standout young talent coming up and then sit tight for 2018/19 free agency: Bryce Harper, Josh Donaldson, Andrew McCutchen, David Price, Jose Fernandez, Manny Machado, Jason Heyward, Dallas Keuchel, Clayton Kershaw, Matt Harvey...I mean those are all HUGE difference makers and I fully expect us to be in on all of those guys. We're set up to be HUGE players in FA that offseason. In the meantime though, yeah, better team than last year without question. Very well put together. Not cobbled together like the Knicks are continually year after year. And unlike the Knicks, there's actually a gameplan here, A GOOD ONE!! Very bright future on several fronts.

Anybody keeping track if Judge is doing okay in the minors? Reyfsnyder?

Finestrg wrote:Wow, when have you seen Dellin Betances get beat like that in two consecutive games? We either get decent enough pitching and don't hit and then on those rarer occasions, we actually hit enough but then don't get the pitching. This team has lost it's way big-time. Thank God it's still early--about the only good thing you can say right now. There are some good signs. For one thing, there's talent here and we're obviously not this bad. Castro's been productive (I'd think about hitting him 3rd and pushing everyone else down a spot), A-Rod has bounced back nicely the last couple of games after Joe gave him a game off and throughout the whole team, pitching and the regulars, you know just about every guy is capable of doing more. Hopefully it starts clicking soon.

jrodmc wrote:

Finestrg wrote:Wow, when have you seen Dellin Betances get beat like that in two consecutive games? We either get decent enough pitching and don't hit and then on those rarer occasions, we actually hit enough but then don't get the pitching. This team has lost it's way big-time. Thank God it's still early--about the only good thing you can say right now. There are some good signs. For one thing, there's talent here and we're obviously not this bad. Castro's been productive (I'd think about hitting him 3rd and pushing everyone else down a spot), A-Rod has bounced back nicely the last couple of games after Joe gave him a game off and throughout the whole team, pitching and the regulars, you know just about every guy is capable of doing more. Hopefully it starts clicking soon.

Maybe Chapman pushes Betances a bit when he comes on board...?

I watched the whole game Friday night. The hitting, except for Arod, is absolutely atrocious. So many callers into WFAN keep asking Francessa when Girardi is going to concede the season. 23 games in, 6 games back and the season's over already for some... SMH

This team has got to turn it around.

No, it was over zero games in (at least if the goal is contending). Look at the roster.

Finestrg wrote:

Bonn1997 wrote:

jrodmc wrote:

Finestrg wrote:Wow, when have you seen Dellin Betances get beat like that in two consecutive games? We either get decent enough pitching and don't hit and then on those rarer occasions, we actually hit enough but then don't get the pitching. This team has lost it's way big-time. Thank God it's still early--about the only good thing you can say right now. There are some good signs. For one thing, there's talent here and we're obviously not this bad. Castro's been productive (I'd think about hitting him 3rd and pushing everyone else down a spot), A-Rod has bounced back nicely the last couple of games after Joe gave him a game off and throughout the whole team, pitching and the regulars, you know just about every guy is capable of doing more. Hopefully it starts clicking soon.

Maybe Chapman pushes Betances a bit when he comes on board...?

I watched the whole game Friday night. The hitting, except for Arod, is absolutely atrocious. So many callers into WFAN keep asking Francessa when Girardi is going to concede the season. 23 games in, 6 games back and the season's over already for some... SMH

This team has got to turn it around.

No, it was over zero games in (at least if the goal is contending). Look at the roster.

Do you really believe that? I don't. Last year's team was a playoff team. We lost the WC game but still technically made the playoffs, right? I feel this team is better than last year's club--maybe not championship caliber but still, on paper anyway, better. Things just aren't going right for some reason. Everything seems to be going wrong at once here in fact. Better to struggle now ironing out the kinks than to stumble at the end though, right? I still think there's plenty to like and be optimistic about with this team. Look at the roster top to bottom -- you don't think it's better than last year's club? And we did it smartly without any wild overspending (maybe except for Headley but we reupped him last year I think, right?). I don't even think we signed 1 FA. I think the plan was to continue tapping our youth, make some smart trades and clear a ton of salary space over the next 2 years. I like that plan. We've got Severino full-time this year--he's struggled but I feel he's too good an arm not to turn it around soon. Bird going down hurts our depth but so far, so good with Tex---keeping my fingers crossed and I like the move for Swisher for 1B depth btw. He's been good at AAA so far...Johnny Barbato has been very good until just recently (excellent trade--younger with better stuff and upside than Shawn Kelley). We stole Chapman away from the Reds whether you like him as a person or not and I think we stole Starlin Castro away from the Cubs too (this dude is a huge upgrade for us at 2B--I think he's had more total hits and more extra base hits than Derek Jeter and Joe DiMaggio at the same point in their careers thus far--think about how crazy that is. Very bright future. I think he should be hitting 3rd), and we actually picked up a real solid utility infielder in Ron Torreyes (I think you can make a legit case that this dude needs to see more time at either SS or 3B). Tanaka looks healthy and his velocity has returned, CC hasn't really killed us--looks like he's still capable of chewing up innings, looks like A-Rod's out of his funk and is starting to drive the ball again. Over the long haul, I think Ellsbury will be better than last year. Gardner will produce too and play a good LF. Aaron Hicks was a nice pickup--younger than Chris Young, better fielder with more upside. I actually liked what we did this offseason and like the whole approach to things. I think within 2-3 years, the plan will be to pump a lot of money back into the team (Bryce Harper, Jose Fernandez?). Until then, they're biding their time yet still looking to improve and I think they've done that.. Like Jrod says, only 23 games into a 162 marathon season. Nobody's more bummed out about the way we've been playing than me, trust me. I'm not ready to throw the towel in yet, though. No way.