The Bronx Stop: A Yankees Blog

How many times do you think you'll hear yourself say that this season!? I have a sneaking suspicion it will be a lot.

Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News has the words:

Cano has hit .342 and .306 in the past two seasons, but he still believes there's a lot of room for improvement.

Last season, Cano batted .274 before the All-Star break, then hit .343 in the second half. For his three-year career, he is a .295 hitter in the first half and a .334 hitter after the break, a trend he wants to break this season.

"I ended up hitting .300 last year," Cano said. "But if I can hit well at the beginning and then get hot in the end, it will be even better."

Cano also hopes to represent the American League in the All-Star Game - which is being played this July at Yankee Stadium - so a good first half would help his cause.

Cano went 3-for-3 in yesterday's 7-5 loss to the Twins, giving him seven hits in 10 at-bats so far this spring. He is doing the same work with hitting coach Kevin Long that he did last year, but he started doing extra cage work on the first day of camp after waiting until mid-March to do so last spring.

After hitting .308 through the Yankees' first 20 games last year, Cano watched his average drop to .234 thanks to a 10-for-67 skid over the next 19 games. Although he dug his way out of that hole, he would prefer not to have to face that uphill climb to .300 again.

"I knew I had to start early after what happened to me last year," Cano said. "I don't want to go through that again."