Should We Read More Into Today's Yankees Starting Lineup?

Brett Gardner in center. Nick Johnson hitting 2nd. Robinson Cano hitting 5th. Nick Swisher hitting 8th. A while back we debated the Yankees starting lineup but now it seems to be coming to some sort of conclusion. As Chad Jennings of The LoHud Yankees Blog wrote, today's lineup looks like the expected Opening Day lineup:

1. Derek Jeter SS
2. Nick Johnson DH
3. Mark Teixeira 1B
4. Alex Rodriguez 3B
5. Robinson Cano 2B
6. Jorge Posada C
7. Curtis Granderson LF
8. Nick Swisher RF
9. Brett Gardner CF

Two big observations there: the Yankees have faith in Cano turning around his putrid RISP numbers from last year (and, let's all admit, it might just have been bad luck) and the Yankees have more faith in Gardner playing center than Granderson. As I've said, I don't usually put a lot of stock in what goes on in Spring Training but when Ben pointed out to me that Granderson looked awful in CF, it worried me a bit. Maybe it worried the Yankees too. Leftfield at Yankee Stadium is a hard position to man so having Granderson play there is not a large knock on his abilities. And if the small sample size we have of Brett Gardner holds, this will actually make the Yankees (marginally) better defensively.

Nick Johnson hitting in the two-hole is not a surprise. Although some feel that he will "clog up the bases", I rather a guy clog up the bases by getting on base 4 out of 10 times than one who speeds through the bases 3 out of ten times. If Johnson can stay healthy, the top 4 of that lineup is probably the best in baseball. I thought that Swisher may hit a little higher in the lineup, but I don't think his hitting 8th is truly a reflection of his ability. I think, rather, it's a reflection of how deep the Yankees lineup is. I wonder if, by season's end, the Yankees will have moved him up a bit, though.

Two caveats: one, this is a Spring Training lineup on March 16th so we have no clue if this is what we'll see on Opening Day and pretty sure it's not what we'll see on July 16th. And the second is that whatever backup outfielders make the roster will probably substitute for Gardner and play LF, moving Granderson to CF for those games. I don't know if they'll platoon either Gardner or Granderson vs. lefties, but you figure that Winn and Thames/Hoffmann would play more for Gardner than Granderson if all else holds constant.

Related articles from other places in the blogsphere:

• Joel Sherman has an interesting piece up on Robinson Cano in the 5th slot and the Yankees trust in Brett Gardner. One interesting tidbit to take away is that the Yankees tried to get Denard Span from the Twins and may have used Phil Hughes as bait had this happened. Although this seems like pure guesswork, Bronx Baseball Daily talks about the potential deal that never happened.
• Cliff Corcoran at Bronx Banter provides a great Spring Training Status Report and Joe over at River Avenue Blues fills in some other details. Both are great primers for Yankees fans to read.
• As far as the bullpen goes, NoMass says that David Robertson is the real deal, Bryan Hoch of MLB.com says that Kei Igawa was surprised he got cut so early, and Ben Shpigel of the New York Times says that Alfredo Aceves won't worry about where he'll pitch.

Picture from NJ.com