Three Predictions For The New York Yankees’ May

Much to the surprise of the baseball world, the New York Yankees were able to exceed expectations in the month of April. Injuries ravaged the team, yet they were able to finish the month with a record above .500. The month of May looks promising for the team as some reinforcements are bound to return from injury. Here are three things that I think will happen to the Yankees over the course of the next month.

• Curtis Granderson will return and hit at least five home runs

Kelley probably wont be a Yankee for long. (Image: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports)

When Granderson went down with a fractured forearm in the Yankees’ first game of the spring, people began to worry about what would happen to the team’s offense. Granderson, who has been a home run machine over the past few seasons, was going to be a big part of the team’s power this year. Luckily, the Yankees have done just fine in that department without him, but his return will be welcomed in the middle of the lineup. Granderson will be starting his rehab assignments shortly, and should probably rejoin the team around May 11th. In that time, Granderson will hit around five long-balls, thus showing that he is perfectly healthy. Don’t get excited though, Granderson will most likely be back to his sub-.250 hitting ways.

• Chien-Ming Wang, Mark Montgomery, or both will be called up.

Throughout the month of April, the Yankees’ pitching has had it’s highs and lows. On any given night, the pitching can be excellent, or it can be sub-par. However, in the month of May, I think the pitching will begin to tail-off for the Yankees, at least in the bullpen anyway. I foresee the only real weak link being Shawn Kelley. Thus far, he has pitched to the tune of a 7.84 ERA, and I fear that he will only get worse. Therefore, I think the Yankees ditch Kelley sometime in the middle of the month, and call up Wang or Montgomery. Both pitchers have pitched exceptionally well in Triple-A Scranton, and are showing why they belong up at the major league level. Perhaps Montgomery being called up would be a little more likely than Wang, simply because Montgomery belongs in the bullpen, but we shouldn’t count out the Yankees’ former ace.

• The Yankees winning percentage will be better than it was in April.

Calm down now, I’m not saying that the Yankees are going to win 95% of their games this month, but I do think that they will exceed their April winning percentage of .615 by a little bit. The schedule for May, while it looks threatening, will provide a nice challenge for the team, this really showing their full potential. This month, they will play teams like the Oakland Athletics, Colorado Rockies, New York Mets, and usual AL East foes, among others. This all adds up to a total of 29 games in the month of May, compared to just 26 in April. In order for the team to exceed April’s percentage, the Yankees will need to go at least 18-11. With the way they have been playing, I don’t think that’s so farfetched.

The Yankees will look like a different team by the end of the month than they do right now. A combination of returning players, and possible new comers, along with the guys who have gotten the job done so far will help propel the Yankees through the month. They may not have the best May in baseball, but they will probably have a good one.