Introduction
The New York Yankees have Aaron Judge and honestly it’s not fair. Sure, they didn’t get past the Astros but then again who can? I thought the Yankees would be more active in the free agent market. I do like their acquisition of Carlos Rodon. I think that bringing back Judge was just necessary if not required. The insane part is how much Judge carried their offense. The Yankees overall were still a very good team. But when you see their lineup and then look at the ranks in offense categories you realize it’s all mostly Judge. I don’t expect a step back from the team. I think what represents a good picture of the Yankees last season is their streaky nature. When the Yankees got hot early on in the season, it really carried them through that dreadful August as you can see from the game result chart below. The Yankees went 99-63 in 2022, winning the vaunted AL East. The boogeyman Astros still loom large. The only team the Yankees need to beat convincingly is the Astros. On that note, the MGM Power Rankings ranks them 2nd (above the Astros 4th) with an odds of +650.
Batting Lineup
The story of the Yankees lineup is of two halves. On one half you have those players that maybe struggled or are young. In the other half, you have the real star power. The star power is obviously Judge who hit 62 homeruns and carried the whole team. Then you have Rizzo and Stanton who hit just slightly more homeruns combined than Judge. This is a top 5 middle of the lineup. When it comes to Donaldson, Bader, Hicks and Trevino you just want to see some improvement or a bounce back. Although in fairness to Bader, he is a defensive outfielder. My standout is Oswald Peraza who fangraphs think will get the nod at starting shortstop. Peraza showed promise in his cup of coffee of time in the Majors. Obviously any Yankees shortstop has big, hall of fame steps to fill. (Derek Jeter is a legend) Overall, I like this lineup but it can’t just be Aaron Judge carrying the team. (Astros got 9 good players, just saying)
Starting Rotation
The Yankees starting rotation is one of the areas that was improved by free agency. I love the addition of Carlos Rodon. I think he’s one of the better lefty pitchers in the league. I have another post specifically on him and his fastball is very good with a lot of movement and spin. The rest of the rotation isn’t bad, all solid performances. However, my standout is Gerrit Cole. (I don’t like his name spelling, it’s spelled Garrett) Cole had an relatively underwhelming season despite his very high number of strikeouts. Overall, I think rotation is a plus and should be easily top 5.
Bullpen
The Yankees bullpen was actually very good but riddled with injuries. I think when those injured pitchers (below) come back, the bullpen looks remarkably better. As for the guys who will start the season, I think the back end is solid. Obviously Clay Holmes will need to stay more consistent. The Yankees did manage to bolster their bullpen with the addition of Tommy Kahnle. My standout is the injured Michael King. Before he got hurt, he was having a season to remember. Just check out his stat line:
There aren’t many pitchers that were as effective as he was. His ability to not allow baserunners and ability to strike people out is why he was so good. Overall, with the injured guys coming back, I would give this bullpen a top 10 rating.
My Prediction
The Yankees play in a tough division with good teams. I believe they can survive their divisional opponents. I think a balanced schedule helps them. The question: can they finally make the leap past the Astros? That’s a question that can only be answered by the season playing out. I’m not sure if the Yankees improved enough to give a big advantage. I think there’s a good shot they win the division again and probably advance to the ALCS for another rematch. My prediction is a worst record of 100-62 and a best record of 106-56. The floor and ceiling is 1st place in the AL East. I’m genuinely curious to see if the Yankees can get past the Astros because that’s been the only thing.
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Thanks to Baseball Reference and Fangraphs for the charts and statistics!
Technically Analytics 
Hi. How are you doing? I really like your article about the Yankees. I can’t wait to see them during the season. Can you please read, follow, and subscribe to my blog? I am following you. Here is the link to my blog: https://sophiakd4.wordpress.com. I would appreciate it if you could read, follow, and subscribe to my blog. It would help grow my audience. So far I have 10 subscribers but with you being one more it could be 11 which would expand my audience. I would also appreciate it because I took the time to read your work and follow you. Thank you so much!!!!
Thanks for the interaction, I am doing good. I’m a long time Mets fan. My blog is focused on all 30 teams tho. My goal is to introduce people to and talk about analytics or statistics in baseball.
Thats a start. I recommend going to baseballreference.com, go to your favorite team or player and look at their stats. Each stat category is clickable and will give you an explanation. Or theres also a glossary. For example: OPS is OPS is on base percentage plus slugging percentage. OPS+ adjusts that number based on ballpark factors. You use OPS+ to measure how good overall a hitter is. On the pitching side, an example is FIP, fielding independent pitching which is formula calculating how good a pitcher is at preventing HR, BB, HBP and causing strikeouts. FIP can measure how effective a pitcher is with their pitches and it can measure how good the defense behind them is. I’ve been watching and practically studying baseball and statistics for 20 years but its not hard if you understand the game.
I really like that you are trying to introduce people to baseball statistics. All of those stats can be a lot to learn all at once. I am still learning all of the stats. I know stats are very important. Right now I do basic scorekeeping until I can do all of the analytics and statistics. I know K is a strikeout, I know BB is a walk, I know 1B is a single, I know 2B is a double, I know 3B is a triple, I know HBP is Hit By Pitch, and I know a backward K is a strikeout but looking. I also know that ERA is Earned Run Average. These are the basic stats I know. Are there any other important stats I should know? If you think there are more stats I should know please let me know so I can learn those. I LOVE baseball!!!!!
Thank you so much for that advice. Have you ever sent baseball cards to baseball players to sign and return back to you? The reason why I am asking is because last year during the season I mailed baseball players cards. I also attached a little note asking them if they could please sign it for me and return it back to me. I even provided them with a return envelope. Sadly only one player got back to me and that was Hayden Wesneski on the Chicago Cubs. I thought that I would get them back signed in the off-season so I waited and waited and nothing ever came. After all that hard work I put into it, I only get rewarded with one signed baseball card. I wish more players would have signed baseball cards for me. I even told them I would like to start a collection of signed baseball cards but they didn’t help me.
Sorry to hear that, I haven’t any experience with that. Its probably better to go to games and ask players pre-game to sign.
If you have been to any baseball games, how many have you been to? Are you going to any baseball games this season?
Ive been to upwards of 40 MLB games. Ive hit like 15 or 16 different stadiums. I go to a game every year just about. I will likely go to a game not sure when. In my opinion being at the game is superior to any other form of watching/listening
Wow!! That’s cool!! What stadiums have you been to so far? The only 2 stadiums I have been to is Citizens Bank Park and Yankee Stadium. How is it going to all of the different stadiums?
Its a long list: Old Yankee stadium multiple times, Citi Field multiple times, Citizens Bank, Baltimore multiple times, Toronto, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Seattle, Old Milwaukee stadium, San Francisco, Houston, Washington DC and Detriot. I really enjoy it.
That’s really cool that you got to see all of those stadiums.