{"id":633,"date":"2010-04-04T09:00:13","date_gmt":"2010-04-04T14:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/?p=633"},"modified":"2010-04-02T17:26:33","modified_gmt":"2010-04-02T22:26:33","slug":"letters-to-the-nl-east-part-05","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/2010\/04\/04\/letters-to-the-nl-east-part-05\/","title":{"rendered":"Letters to the NL East, Part 0\/5"},"content":{"rendered":"

(To read past year\u2019s letters, click here<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Letters to the NL East, Part 0 of 5. (part 1<\/a>, part 2<\/a>, part 3<\/a>, part 4<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"yankeeslogo\"<\/p>\n

Dear New York Yankees, (Because while they are not part of the division, are still are rivals in a way)<\/p>\n

Ugh.\u00a0 You purchased your 27th World Series last year.\u00a0 You made the team better by acquiring Javier Vasquez from the Braves, even if he’s struggled as a Yankee before.\u00a0 But this doesn\u2019t exactly guarantee the same success in 2010.<\/p>\n

Your team looked old and over the hill last April but was able to bounce back.\u00a0 Eventually the age on the team won’t be able to do that, although Jeter and Rivera will certainly be trying so they can get that extra bit out of you in contract negotiations.<\/p>\n

However, just about everything went right for you last season, and it’s not likely to go that way again.\u00a0 Will guys like Nick Johnson and AJ Burnett stay healthy?\u00a0 Will Granderson hit lefties?\u00a0 How many games can Posada play behind the plate?\u00a0\u00a0 As I write this, Nick Johnson and Posada have both already been scratched from spring games this week.<\/p>\n

It’s fair to say that the Yankees don’t have a ton of holes, but you do have two talented teams in your division that can exploit even the smallest problem in your game.\u00a0 The success of last year does mask a lot of possible problems that could open up and devour the team though.\u00a0 The handling of the bullpen, Joba and Hughes.\u00a0 The range and age of your shortstop.\u00a0 A-Rod’s hip, which was supposedly going to need more surgery but somehow didn’t.\u00a0 Are the Feds coming for A-Rod and why is he dodging them?\u00a0 Will Yankee Stadium in 2010 become the setting of some sort of Bourne film with A-Rod dashing through the stands with Matt Damon chasing him?\u00a0 It’s probably a safe bet that they all the holes won’t all open at once, and that the Yankees could overcome some of them, but that’s why we play the games. When the dust clears you may find yourselves in third place and playing golf in October.<\/p>\n

Your cross-town rival,<\/p>\n

Optimistic Mets Fan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(To read past year\u2019s letters, click here) Letters to the NL East, Part 0 of 5. (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4) Dear New York Yankees, (Because while they are not part of the division, are still are rivals in a way) Ugh.\u00a0 You purchased your 27th World Series last year.\u00a0 You made … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Letters to the NL East, Part 0\/5”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[809,19,3],"tags":[36,947,945,2968,950,850,946,94,952,951,948,368,294,953,2964,76,949,133,855],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=633"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":638,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633\/revisions\/638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ceetar.com\/optimisticmetsfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}