The Yankees have a .700 winning percentage. That is the best in all of baseball. After a week of much downtime thanks to 2 rainouts (don’t get me started with the rainouts) and 2 off days, the Yankees head into KC’s Kauffman Stadium with a 28-12 record. In their last 22 games, the Bombers are 19-3 and odds-makers now have the Yankees as favorites to win the World Series at 5-1 odds. Houston is next at 11-2 odds, and then comes Boston at 13-2 odds.
We all know fortunes change quickly and we also know the Yanks will not play .700% baseball all year, but for now it is remarkable to realize that the Yankees were 9-9 and 7.5 games behind the Red Sox not that long ago.
The Offense leads the AL in runs scored per game, and also in On-Base%. Aaron Judge leads all Yankee batters in BA, HRs, RBIs and On-Base%. The good news here is that many in the line-up have not caught fire yet, so there is a good chance the regular season run production will continue, and in addition Bird and Drury are rehabbing at the minor-league level, and look to help out further.
Pitching, specifically starting pitching, was my concern going into the season, and still is. Severino leads the rotation in Wins, ERA & Strike-Outs. The concerns are for Tanaka & Gray, who have been up & down. Domingo German has replaced Montgomery in the rotation and had a magnificent 6 inn 0-hit debut, followed by an ok performance. The bullpen has been solid lately and hope to make it deeper when Kahnle & Warren return from the DL.
All-in-all there is not much to complain about at this point. From 7.5 games out, to the best record in the bigs, and they look to keep the winning ways going vs. the 13-30 KC Royals.
The most intriguing issue to me as this seasons progresses is the question .. will the Yankees trade for a top Starter ? Who will they target ? Which prospects will they offer ? Last year the Astros traded for Verlander within 1 minute of the trade deadline and he proved to be the move that put Houston over the top and propelled them to their first WS win. Can the Yanks pull off something similar this year ?
As alway,
Go NYY !!
