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Yankees News: Can the Yankees offense improve?

By Caleb Gebrewold

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633.

That’s how many runs the New York Yankees scored last year, their lowest total since 1990.  Although most of the talk has regarded the health of the pitching staff, if the team wants to be competitive in 2015, they will need to score more runs.

After a down year, Brian McCann will need to rebound.  So too will Mark Teixeira and Carlos Beltran.  Beltran and Teixeira both say that they are healthier than they were a year ago, but only time will tell if that is truly the case.

They will need Alex Rodriguez to stay out of the spotlight, while serving as one of the anchors of the lineup.  Having the 1-2 punch of Brett Gardner and Jacoby Ellsbury at the top of the lineup will help. 

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Manager Joe Girardi expects the middle of his lineup to carry the offense, something they could not do a year ago:

"Let’s face it, the key to any order, a lot of times, is the middle of the order and how they produce, and that’s where we need to keep those guys healthy and get the production we expect out of them.  I think this team has a chance to be really good.  We need to do a better job of staying healthy than we’ve done the last two years, but I think we have a chance to be really good."

In 2014, the Yankees entered the season considered the middle of their lineup to be a major strength, yet ended up getting hardly any production from their big bats.  New hitting coach agrees that with many veterans in the lineup, it will be on the players to improve:

"I’m only a good hitting coach if we have good players.  I’m not a fool thinking I’m better than the players.  It takes talent.  I can give them a little bit of direction, and a lot of times you stay out of their way.  My biggest job is trying to keep the slumps and the bad times to a minimal, and sometimes you don’t always have the answers."

A year ago, the Yankees did not have a qualified hitter bat over .300 for the first time since 2004 (Hideki Matsui hit .298).  Unlike 2004, nobody on the team was even close, as Ellsbury led the way hitting .271.  In fact, that was the lowest total for a team leader since 1968 when Roy White .267.

Teixeira feels that the lineup is capable of making noise, as long as they are to remain healthy:

"We have the talent in here.  There’s a lot of teams that would love to have our roster right now.  It takes talent, it takes health, it takes execution.  We have the talent, so it’s the health and execution that are the ones we’re going to work on this year.  I think we all believe in each other here."

Beltran expressed similar thoughts as Teixeira, and feels that the lineup should be vastly improved from a year ago:

"I think we’re going to be better than last year, no doubt about it.  What happened to me, Tex was dealing with his wrist still last year, McCann’s first year in the league; he’ll be more comfortable, second year.  I think it’s going to be better.  There’s no reason why it shouldn’t be better if the health is there."

Optimism is common around Yankees camp, but it always come with restraints, as the health of the roster is a major concern.  The health of the team will go a long way to determining how the season turns out.  A healthy roster should be one of the best in the American League.  If the injury bug hits the way it has the past two seasons, then fans can expect a similar outcome.

Next: Who Wants the Last Rotation Spot?

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