New Year's resolutions for Yankees

HAPPY NEW YEAR FOLKS! Hope all your wishes for 2010 come true. I've made a few New Year's resolutions myself and will do my best to stick to them. In the spirit of the New Year, here are a couple of resolutions I'd like to see the New York Yankees commit to in 2010.

* Avoid a Joba Rules repeat with Hughes: The Yankees badly mishandled a noble attempt to protect young Joba Chamberlain from burning out his arm. With Joba likely to head back to the bullpen because he has shown he has the goods to be Mariano Rivera's eventual successor as closer, Phil Hughes will compete for the fifth starter job. But given that he only pitched 86 innings last season, the team is sure to implement a rigid innings limitation. Rather than trying to curtail his workload later in the year, they should adopt an extended spring training approach where they limit his innings in April and May and gradually increase it during the season.

* Do what you can to make Javier Vazquez comfortable: I wasn't crazy about this trade, but now that the Yankees are committed to him as the 4th starter, they will have to do whatever they can to create an environment where he can thrive. Part of that will be constant assurance that he doesn't need to be the guy for the Yanks (that's why they pay CC Sabathia the big bucks). But if he starts the year with a couple of rough outings, Yankee fans will be all over him, which makes it imperative for Joe Girardi and staff to keep his confidence from disappearing.

* Give Brett Gardner a real shot in left field: Even the Yankees don't need a star at every position. And with Derek Jeter and Nick Johnson constantly on base waiting for Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez and Curtis Granderson to drive them in, the team can live with a speedster like Gardner in the 9th spot. Plus, I'm sure the Yankee pitchers will appreciate Gardner tracking down balls that Johnny Damon couldn't get to.

* Don't let Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter reach free agency: With both players wanting to end their Hall of Fame careers in pinstripes, the last thing Yankee fans want to see are contentious contract negotiations with their marquee, home-grown players. The Yankees don't want that either because they will lose that PR battle. Make strong, fair offers before they hit the open market.

Thanks to Keith Allison via Wikipedia for the photo.