New York Yankees Editorial: Yankees Playoff Chances Growing With Each Win

By Caleb Gebrewold | Jul 25, 2015

The New York Yankees entered the 2015 season with high expectations for themselves, but many experts predicted differently, some even projecting the team to finish last in a mediocre AL East. Entering play Friday, the Yankees have done just the opposite, with a five and a half game lead over the Toronto Blue Jays entering play.

While the Yankees are 12 games over .500 after a three game sweep of the Baltimore Orioles, the Blue Jays are the only other AL East team over .500, and they are a mediocre 49-48. Baseball Prospectus currently has the Yankees chances of playing playoff baseball at 84.3 percent, and even more impressive, they have given the Yankees an 11 percent chance of winning it all, the fourth-highest mark in the game, with the Los Angeles Dodgers pacing the field at 16.7 percent.

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Although there is still a week for teams to make improvements, if the Yankees can continue to play the way they have for the first portion of the season, they likely will reach the postseason for the first time since 2012. The Yankees have 68 games left on their schedule, and none come against current division leaders, though they do face the two AL Wild Card leaders a combined nine times.

They also face AL East teams a combined 35 times, and a 43 of the remaining 68 games come against teams under .500. Of the 25 games against teams over .500, thirteen come against the Blue Jays, who are only one game over .500, and three come against the New York Mets, who are two games over .500.

Entering the ten-game road trip, Yankees manager Joe Girardi stated that the teams recovering health has played a big part in the recent hot streak:

"I think we have all our pieces back and that’s helping us out. Jacoby [Ellsbury] and Andrew [Miller] back, and then you get Carlos [Beltran] back, and your lineup is longer, so I think that’s helped, but our team is just playing well. This is a long road trip and we need to continue to play well."

With an offensive that has produced the second most runs in baseball (434) and the third most home runs (123), and a pitching staff that, since the All-Star break, has the sixth-lowest ERA (2.67), and second-lowest BAA (.189) and WHIP (0.93), the Yankees chances of reaching October continue to grow every day, and those chances are looking better than they have all season.

Next: New York Yankees Editorial: Joe Girardi's Trade Deadline Message To Yankees

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