Yankees fans are fed up as Carlos Rodón gives up first-pitch HR in 2nd spring outing

We're trying over here. We are REALLY trying over HERE! But it's getting harder and harder with each passing Carlos Rodón update. The New York Yankees' big-ticket expenditure last offseason had a disastrous start to his tenure in pinstripes, and his showing during spring training is telegraphing a similar Year 2.

Rodón looked solid in his first outing, but the Yankees kept him in a tad too long and he surrendered a home run to blemish his scoreless performance up until that point.

After that, Rodón was sheltered from spring training action. He threw a 50-pitch live batting practice, which featured four home runs allowed off Yankees minor-leaguers. Not the end of the world, but not good. At all.

Rodón returned to the bump for an official preseason outing on Wednesday against the Tampa Bay Rays, and it was more of the same. He has plenty of time to recover, but when is it ever a good sign giving up a first-pitch home run on a weak 93 MPH fastball?

We were told this guy was pumping 97 MPH upon his early arrival to the Yankees' facility. We have yet to see anything close to that.

Yankees fans are fed up as Carlos Rodón gives up first-pitch HR in 2nd spring outing

Nobody's asking for Rodón to hurl a complete-game shutout as a rebound effort during spring training. Fans just can't handle any further brutal clips or doomsday headlines suggesting the overreactions from his Year 1 are proving to have any truth to them.

You just can't give up a homer to the first batter you see after a 10-day layoff. Speaking of ... why did he have that long of a layoff? Why is he being shielded from game action? Shouldn't he be thrust right into the middle of it so he can get back on track faster?

It also doesn't help there will eternally be injury concerns attached to the left-hander. Last season, a forearm issue delayed the start of his season, and then a phantom back problem -- it was literally a back issue that couldn't be diagnosed -- further affected his ability to perform.

Is something afoot here? His velocity still isn't up based on the concrete evidence we have (and at this point, we're not going to believe the reports). Rodón thankfully got out of that first inning with a strikeout, but there's much more to prove before Yankees fans can exhale.