Bronx Bomber Ball

I'm going to try my best to stay grounded here because my better  judg ment  tells me to, but at the risk of jumping the gun a  bit...is  this the year Yankees' second baseman Starlin Castro finally puts it all together?   I would like to begin by reminding  everyone, myself included, that Castro did this to us last year too upon donning the pinstripes for the first time.  In his first month with the team,  Starlin  came out guns blazing, hitting at a .305 clip in April of 2016 with 12 runs batted in.  After two seasons of Brian Roberts, Dean Anna, Jose Pirela, Brendan Ryan and everyone's favorite Stephen Drew, Yankees fans could finally rejoice:  w e had a real, honest-to-goodness second baseman!     Photo Credit: Getty Images

The Yankees entered this season with a promising, but aging lineup. The acquisition of Starlin Castro entering his prime brought excitement to the Bronx, and fans were also optimistic with the productive second half of Didi Gregorius. Likewise, Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez were both coming off of 30+ home run seasons. Brian McCann had solid power production (though his batting average was lower than I would’ve liked) and Carlos Beltran was coming off a much improved season. Fans were left hoping that Jacoby Ellsbury would get back to his “normal” self, and that Brett Gardner could finally maintain a full, productive season where he wouldn’t just fall off in the second half. Lastly, we were hoping Chase Headley would improve defensively and maintain his status as a serviceable third baseman. But none of that has happened a month into 2016, and it has to come at the expense of someone’s job, and that someone is Alan Cockrell. Photo Via Carlos Osorio