Rafael Soriano

Matt Snyder of CBSSports.com reports that the New York Yankees announced Tuesday afternoon that reliever David Robertson is being placed on the DL with a strained left oblique muscle.

The New York Yankees may have left spring training with questions about their starting rotation, but the bullpen was considered a strength.

How many teams could afford to have Rafael Soriano, who saved 45 games for the Tampa Bay Rays in 2010, as their seventh-inning go-to guy?

Courtesy of Yankees 'n More

Caught this New York Post story Tuesday morning about New York Yankees setup man Rafael Soriano and his aversion to cold weather, which makes him just like every other baseball player in the history of the sport.

The New York Yankees bullpen has received limitless hype and praise early in the season, and they are already being dubbed as the best in MLB—as well as the best in NY since 1996.

While the group has accomplished nothing to this point, this does not mean that a proper nickname should not be added to the front of the hype machine.

It took mere hours for “Miami Thrice” to be created, and “The Fab Five” represents a team that never won a championship in its short time together.

This year's American League East is going to be a very hotly contested division. With all five teams easily capable of putting together .500 or above seasons, the order of finish could be dictated by just a few games.

For the Tampa Bay Rays, the new look of the franchise gives them a new set of advantages and disadvantages over their division rivals. While the other teams within the division spent big bucks this offseason, the Rays were able to cut their payroll from over $70 million to approximately $42 million without sacrificing a tremendous amount of production.

Quick, check your calender. OK it's still 2011. Yes, that was the theme of this offseason for your usual big spending, aggressive New York Yankees. I'm not sure if Hank and Hal Steinbrenner know what year it is, because they sure as hell don't know how to construct a team. If I didn't know any better I would of thought Tommy Boy was running this organization.

New York Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano has replaced his agent, Bobby Barad, with high-powered sports agent Scott Boras.

Cano finished third in AL MVP voting in 2010 and was awarded the Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards.

Now that the Cliff and Andy questions have both been answered and put to rest, the biggest immediate concern across Yankee Universe going into spring training appears to be the two big question marks in the back end of our starting rotation.

How crucial is the back end of the rotation to a successful season for us?

Not as much as some might think. Certainly not as crucial as a kevlar bullpen, which we now have.

After their offseason fire sale, the 2011 Tampa Bay Rays lost a lot of key players from their multiple playoff teams. In order to recover, they will need new players to step up to a more prominent role.

These power rankings take into consideration how much the loss hurts the Rays and if they have a viable replacement. 

The key losses to the Rays roster are mostly in their bullpen. The reason being that they do not have many proven players to fill in. In other areas they have players that have at least a year or more experience in the majors. 

This winter has exposed cracks in the New York Yankees’ organization.  What was once the proudest and most cohesive unit in baseball has reverted to the days of factions between the New York front office, headed by GM Brian Cashman, and the Tampa brain trust, led by the Brothers Steinbrenner.