The New York Yankees are off to a 21-9 start in the 2017 season. Aaron Judge has 13 homers to go along with 28 RBI and their pitching staff is 4th in ERA.
Starlin Castro is hitting .358 and Aaron Hicks has six long balls and 16 RBI. Michel Pineda has a 3.12 ERA and Jordan Montgomery has a 3.81 ERA in the five games he’s started for New York.
The bullpen has been out of this world. Where do I even begin? Adam Warren has pitched in 17.2 innings and has an ERA of 0.51 with only one earned run allowed. Aroldis Chapman has 7 saves and Dellin Betances has an ERA of 0.84 and 19 strikeouts in 10.2 innings.
New York has won 10 of its last 12 games and is currently 1st in the American League East, but is trouble on the horizon? Let’s take a look under the hood.
Schedule
The Yankees have played against some good ball clubs to begin their 2017 campaign. The Cubs, Orioles, Red Sox and Cardinals have fallen at the hands of the Yankees, but what about New York’s remaining schedule?
New York takes on Houston May 11th-14th and Baltimore May 29th-31st. Other than that it should be a relatively easy time getting wins this month.
As for the Yankees’ schedule after May, well it looks like Boston, Baltimore, Houston, Cleveland, and Detroit will be the best source of competition that New York will face the entire season. It’s possible the Yankees make the playoffs just because the American League isn’t loaded with good teams.
Areas of Weakness
I brought up the things that New York is doing right, but they must improve in a couple of areas. The starting rotation lacks depth and will need as much help as possible. It will be the main contributor to the Yankees downfall if A) a better version of Masahiro Tanaka doesn’t show up B) Michael Pineda doesn’t pitch like he has to begin this season C) if New York put a lot of its chips on young arms such as Montgomery and Luis Severino.
Their lineup has exceeded expectations and I believe it will come back down to Earth to a certain extent. Judge, Holliday and Gary Sanchez are New York’s main power guys, but I don’t expect them to run over pitchers left and right. I like how the Yanks get most of their players to chip in. Whether it’s driving in runs or hitting for average, it seems like everybody is on a mission to put their fingerprint on the 2017 season. However, as the season progresses, patience will be tested as opposing pitchers will make adjustments.
The Yankees are trying to turn themselves into a playoff team and even though they’ve been hot of late, they must make the proper adjustments to benefit themselves this year and for the future.