I bet Yankees vs Cubs for the World Series before the season. Hope I am wrong, but the Yankees only being one game behind the Astros in the loss column with Judge, Stanton, Didi, Severino, Betances, Paxton, Tulowitzki, and Andujar all on the DL and expected to return (except for Andujar) is kind of scary. Plus, Domingo German has become a Cy Young candidate.
Stros haven't even traded for their 3rd Ace yet. Or their 3rd bullpen hammer. Or called up their.....
I don't have the numbers in front of me but I also thought the Yankees have played a very easy schedule to start the year. I know they have played Baltimore several times, Kansas City, and other sub .500 teams. Don't get me wrong, i agree they look very dangerous keeping a solid record with all their injuries.
They've had so many, ridiculously many, injuries so far that it's impossible to judge them. Who knows what they'll be like in September? Buuuut...the only "playoff" teams they've played are Hou/Bos/TB/Min/Az and they're 8-8. 21-9 against the rest. 7-2 against Baltimore so far.
My only concern with them is the trading deadline. I get the sense both Hou and NY will be looking at a SP.
Their lineup will be ridiculous if healthy. Do the have, can they get, the pitching? They are scary at full-strength.
Just doing a little more research on the remaining schedule and all i can say is wow... if this team can stay healthy and can avoid major injuries, they are set for home field imo. The last two months of the season, they play 53 games. Of those 53 games, 6 games will be against teams with a winning record. 29 games still in the division with the majority of those in the last month. I counted Texas as having a losing record but they currently sit at .500. I
According to FanGraphs, Astros should lose the division once every 125 times with a team this good. Pessimists gotta have something to root. I am loving the 0.0% for Arlington.
I saw on yahoo that the Yanks and Rays are expecting to negotiate with Keuchel after the June 2nd deadline.
Ok, so I was talking about a world where the Astros blew a 7 game lead in May and didn't win the division and what that would have to look like: All the guys on the DL don't come back or aren't right, while Correa joins them, as well as maybe 1 of Bregman and Brantley, then top that off with an injury to JV or Cole, while Tucker and Alvarez both bust, as well as other guys that are interesting like Toro, and Whitley remains broken, James can't get stretched out and still, I'd have to assume "other stuff" beyond that would have to happen before I'd entertain the idea of the Astros not winning the division. It puts into perspective the amazing job that the FO has done in building this roster, both at the ML level and in the minors. I'd just as soon see Altuve take the whole month of June off, welcome Springer back August 1st, put Correa on the shelf for another 8 days at least, and after he says he's healthy (and I don't think hes the flaming vagina some in the fan base think he is, but he's also lets just say more Jaguar than Ford Taurus from a reliability standpoint) give him 3 more on top of that. None of it matters. Yes, It would have been nice to see an all time team (which this team definitely had the potential to be if everything broke right), but I can have satisfaction with little things in life like watching the team go 15-13 or something like that in June, with 5 of their top 10 players hurt or something silly like that, if it means health from about September 10th on. If we go into October with 2 or 3 of our top 6 or 7 guys basically unplayable like we did last year that's where I haz a sad.