March 15, 2022
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This week we asked our writers, What are you most looking forward to in the 2022 baseball season?
Here are their replies!
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James Vlietstra – First and foremost I am looking forward to baseball getting back to normal. 162 games, announcers on the road, 9 inning games and no more amateur extra inning rules.
As a Yankees fan I am excited for their run for a 28th World Series. The team has a lot of firepower in their prime. Including several key personnel playing for free agent contracts.
Severino, Taillon, Sanchez, Gallo, Green, and Judge are all in their walk year.
On the minor league side, they have a lot of high end talent that range from their first professional season to possibly contributing to the majors. Couple that with 130 players eligible for the Rule 5 Draft and I expect to see lots of moves made and a system that will be too 5.
I am always the optimist and this year is a good year to be a Yankees fan.
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Paul Semendinger – I am looking for the Yankees to hopefully return to their big spending ways and acquiring some big time stars to round out the 2022 team that will hopefully lead them to a World Series victory.
I’ll be very disappointed if the Yankees don’t spend big and go all in.
This could be a very exciting time.
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Ed Botti – Now that we actually will have a 2022 Baseball season, first and foremost I am looking forward to a full and Covid free season for the entire league and fans.
From a Yankee standpoint, seeing Aaron Judge have another injury free season, and light it up in 2022.
I am not looking forward to the annual Brian Cashman/Hal Steinbrenner year end press conference mea culpa.
Besides that, in no particular order, I am looking forward to seeing how the following unfolds or just in general looking forward to:
Finding out “Who’s on first” on April 7.
Going to the Cubs/ Braves game at Wrigley on June 18.
How Buck Showalter’s intensity impacts certain Mets.
If Gerrit Cole is a true ace without the “sticky stuff”, and can he and Donaldson co-exist.
How Corey Seager performs in Texas.
Will there be more than 14 complete games in 2022?
Can Gleyber Torres bounce back?
What does Luis Severino have left after missing so much time?
How many games do they allow Giancarlo Stanton to play in the field?
How the Randy Arozarena/Wander Franco duo performs with a full season together?
Will any player use the shift to their advantage?
Bob Melvin’s impact on the Padres.
Negative fan reaction to all Astro cheater players.
How the new playoff format impacts the division races.
Can Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis get along?
Does any team take a chance and trade for Trevor Bauer?
Seeing if Adley Rutschman can make the Orioles’ opening day roster.
The impact of the DH in the National League.
Not watching 7 inning double headers.
No ”Manfred man” on 2nd in extra innings
John and Suzyn on the radio.
Watching “Homegrown: the path to pinstripes” on YES.
But most of all, enjoying the game of baseball on a daily basis!
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Cary Greene – I’m most looking forward to following the Minor League players as they develop. The Yankees pretty much have the same cast of characters year in and year out and they haven’t made any changes at all that excite me. That said, I consider Nestor Cortes Jr. starts to be must watch games. I love the way Nasty Nestor goes about things on the mound and I really think he’s going to continue to surprise people.
Meanwhile, Oswald Peraza and Anthony Volpe are my two favorite prospects and I’m also very interested in most of the Yankees top prospects. As the Yankees give opportunities to the minor league players, I become much more interested in watching. I also jump all over Luis Gil’s big league starts and really get excited about the prospects getting their opportunities. I’d love to see some Yankee minor leaguers catch on in the Yankee bullpen. If Stanton played the field more, I’d be a lot more interested also and a blanched lineup would be highly appealing as well.
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Andy Singer – As a Star Wars geek, it’s generally understood that most fans like one of either “The Empire Strikes Back” or “Return of the Jedi” best among the original Star Wars Trilogy. I mention this because I hope that either title (depending on perspective) will be the theme for the Yankees’ 2022 season. I fully expect the Yankees’ offense to return with force in 2022 after their struggles in 2021, and hope a revamped offense will decimate other teams’ pitching staffs. I love baseball, and I was prepared to watch it in other forms for a significant chunk of the spring and early summer, but now that Major League Baseball has returned, I’m ready to watch our friends in pinstripes make their comeback.
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Chris O’Connor – I am most looking forward to seeing if the Yankees pitching development can sustain the success that they had in 2021. Under Matt Blake, the pitching staff was incredible last season and consistently bailed out the under-performance offense. I can’t wait to see if guys like Nestor Cortes, Jonathan Loaisiga, and Clay Holmes can deliver repeat performances. The Yankees seem to unearth gems out of their bullpen every year, so I am also looking forward to seeing if young arms like Luis Gil and Albert Abreu can be this season’s Loaisiga. If the starting rotation can hold up behind Gerrit Cole, the bullpen will not be as taxed as last season, when it tired down the stretch. The full-time return of Luis Severino, the player that I am most looking forward to watching in 2022, is hopefully going to be a huge part of that.
