New York Yankees Editorial: Expectations To Win The AL East

The New York Yankees spent the weekend in Oakland facing the Athletics. They lost three of four to the A’s, who are thirteen games below .500, and did not look like the Yankees who swept the Kansas City Royals just the series before. Despite losing three games in Oakland, the Yankees were still tied for first place after the series. After winning the first two games of their series in Seattle, the Yankees are now three games over .500, but how is it that the Yankees are still in first place?

Not to say the Yanks don’t deserve to be there. They’ve clearly been the best team in the AL East, despite the 1-10 stretch. After those 11 games they only found themselves behind the Rays for two games. Why is that exactly? And what separates the Yankees from the AL East this year?

Remember in Spring Training when the main thing surrounding the Yankees were the questions and possibilities of things either going horribly right or wrong? It turns out so far things have been heading more towards the right direction. The biggest worry right now is with the rotation and their injuries. Some could be said about the bullpen and certain players performances, but it wouldn’t be the biggest factor in losses. The next worry would be the lack of hitting the team gets from the lower half of the lineup, but the team is still in the waiting process for that to wake up. The point of all of this is that while it could stop at almost any game (just like the 1-10 stretch), it could also all click at once, like what came before those terrible 11 games.

The fact is that the Yankees have the best chance to win the AL East despite the power of teams like the Baltimore Orioles and Toronto Blue Jays, and even what the Boston Red Sox were supposed to be this season, they all lack the upside of pitching, and none are anywhere close to the Yankees bullpen. So as the season heads into June, the two teams who were predicted to be on the bottom of the AL East (Yankees and Rays), are on top of the division. The AL East (much like the NFC East in the NFL), is as unpredictable as ever. However, now that it’s getting more and more clear what the teams are going to be like this year, it’s also safe to say the Yankees should be on top. The Rays are making a valiant effort to stay near the top, however the injuries they’ve sustained this year will hurt more once they get further into the season. Injuries are always a wild card for any team, so the expectation to win the AL East is obviously with the mindset that the team will (for the most part) stay healthy.

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