Yankees: Four Reasons Why They’ll Make The Playoffs In 2017

The Yankees are having one helluva Spring Training. It’s hard to find a dark spot and the bright spots are everywhere. It’s no longer a stretch to say that this team is bound for the Playoffs in 2017. And here’s why.

The Yankees are digging a hole for themselves that, with each passing Preseason game, is getting deeper and deeper. Yesterday they threw some icing on the cake when three pitchers combined to no-hit the Tigers and you just have to wonder – what’s next?

What’s next for the naysayers is the Playoffs in October. And it’s not just braggadocios to say that because the proof is at Steinbrenner Field and on display every day.

And some of the other proof has already been shipped off to New Jersey and Pennsylvania because this team has no space for them at the moment.

Even the locked and loaded Boston Red Sox are noticing the Yankees as seen by their GM, Dave Dombrowski, referring to the team in the Bronx as “legitimate contenders.” Whether he means it or he’s just making noise and making a backhanded compliment to his arch-rivals in the AL East is unknown.

But whether the Red Sox put their stamp on it or not, this Yankees team will be a legitimate contender this year and for several years to come.

Nearly all of the prognosticators who do this kind of a thing for a living predicted that the Yankees would be fortunate to finish as a .500 team in 2017. A few extended themselves and said that, with a little luck, the team could finish five-over as they did in 2016.

Do The Math; It’s Not Out Of The Question

With 83 wins last season, it’s only a modest jump to 90 wins and a small leap to 94-95 wins that would put them in a position to win the division, unless, of course, the Red Sox win 100 games and then all bets are off.

But the math says the Yankees can do this with the team they are showing this spring. Think of it this way. The season is six months long. The difference between 95 wins and the 83 they had last season when they qualified for the one-game playoff shootout is only 12 more wins. Which, in turn, means winning only two more games a month. It can be accomplished.

Joe Torre used to say that you count ’em in fives. And what he meant is that your first goal is to get five over, then ten over, fifteen over and so on. The key to everything is winning series, and especially the series against teams that you are “supposed to beat.” Splitting a series with the Blue Jays isn’t a crime but going 1-3 in a four-game set against the Twins is a disaster.

So, with that in mind, let’s take a look at the construction of this Yankees team and break down the reasons why the Yankees will be playing in October.

This Team Has Multi-Tiered Levels Of Depth

The Yankees organization is filled with rising stars almost to the point of it being a problem because they don’t know what to do with half the talent they have in their minor league system.

But over the course of a six-month season, that dirge of talent becomes a huge plus, and the Yankees are poised to take full advantage using the real “Wild Card” in this year’s pennant race.

Injuries will occur, except that the Yankees are stocked full with replacements wherever and whenever they happen. Options are and will continue to be a consideration when a player needs to be called up, and occasionally a player with fewer options will be left behind.

But from the team’s perspective, that’s the beauty of it because if it means calling up Dustin Fowler instead of Aaron Judge and his 20 home runs to date, the Yankees lose little in the transaction because they are also getting quality with Fowler.

The Yankees burned up the Transaction Wire last year, but we ain’t seen nothing yet once the season gets underway. It might be wise even for the Yankees to have a charter airplane sitting on the runway in Scranton and one in Westchester County to run players back and forth.

The team can also take full advantage of the disabled list to give struggling players a few days to sort things out while bringing in fresh talent from the farm. When for instance, Jacoby Ellsbury hits a skid, the Yankees can put him on the short-term disabled list with a “strained right calf, ” and no one would notice, especially since it’s an injury that’s almost impossible to diagnose. Every team does it, and you can be sure the Yankees will as well.

The Yankees will want to run the shuttle as often as they can for another reason as well. And that’s to allow the players in the minors, many of whom will probably arrive there at least disappointed and in a few cases disillusioned. Having a cup of coffee with the big team can go a long way to satisfy their taste of “The Show”, especially if the team happens to be on a road trip to California.

Next, we turn to what every winning team must have,

Contributions Are Coming From Everywhere

There should be no mystery as to why or how Joe Maddon‘s Cubs won a World Championship and Terry Francona‘s Indians came close to beating the Cubs in the World Series.

No matter the professional team sport in question, confidence, and cohesiveness play a vital role in a team’s success, or failure for that matter if either or both of these ingredients are missing.

These are intangibles and they can’t be measured. And it’s like when a Supreme Court Justice was asked to define pornography and he just shook his head, “I don’t know, but I know it when I see it.”

And so it is with the feeling you get when a team is on the cusp of gelling together and they become a steamroller with no chance of stopping them.

The Yankees have been that way this spring. Every day, it seems like someone else is stepping up the plate to carry the team to a win. Sure, there are some like Gary Sanchez and Gleyber Torres who have risen above the rest to make contributions almost on a daily basis. But for the most part, the parts have been interchangeable.

Jordan Montgomery stepped in out of nowhere and threw four perfect innings in a no-hit victory over the Tigers. On the same day before it was Rob Refsnyder and Torres and not Sanchez or Greg Bird that provided the offense with two seeing eye ground balls through the infield leading to Yankees runs.

And more than anything, the guys are having fun. There can nothing worse for a player like, for instance, a Joey Votto, who comes to work 162 times a year knowing that his team, the Cincinnati Reds, are destined to lose two of the three games he’s playing in that weekend.

They say that hitting breeds hitting and when two or three players get hits in an inning, two or three more are sure to follow. The same thing can be said about winning.

The only hole is this argument, though, is that half the team we’re seeing now in Spring Training will be gone by Opening Day. Gleyber Torres and Aaron Judge, he of the 525 ft.home run a few weeks ago, will be in the minors honing their skills waiting for a call-up that is not guaranteed to come.

Which means that there will be a slight adjustment necessary for the 25 players who do make the team. But the core of cohesiveness will remain and that’s all that matters.

Yankees Fans Are Excited About 2017

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A team can’t manufacture excitement, although the Yankees are making a valiant effort to do so in their efforts to propagandize “Derek Jeter Day” on Mother’s Day this year. Excitement is like winning in that it breeds more excitement.

And when the Yankees take the field on a day when 55,000 fans are packed into Yankee Stadium, the Yankees themselves are struck by what they see and hear. And don’t let them tell you differently.

When the Roll Call begins from the bleachers and the players take their turn responding when their name is “called”, there is a bonding that takes place between the player and the fan. And don’t let anyone tell you differently. It’s high school stuff, but it still matters even at this level.

And when the comments to articles that appear in Yanks Go Yard begin to swell and those same comments become more emotional and filled with thought, we’ll know here at YGY too that something special is going on that we need to pay attention to.

Yankees fans are not fickle. And it’s rare that a fan of this team would defect or abandon the team when it’s down. And with that comes the knowledge that there are going to be ups and downs over the course of 162 games.

But like the players, Yankees fans are sophisticated enough to know let the highs get too high nor the lows too low. That being said, writers like myself will occasionally send out a “wake-up call” to the team when it’s needed.

But even if it sounds negative, it’s not intended to be so. Because as fans, that’s our job in keeping the team honest and on point. And in that way, we are sort of like mini-managers who watch closely and then we make our own judgments. Some right and some wrong, just like Girardi.

The Yankees Twenty-Five Most Memorable Home Runs

In the Yankees storied history, twenty-five of their home runs stand out as moments in time never to be forgotten and always treasured by baseball fans.

But that’s the fun of a baseball season and, in particular, this baseball season for the New York Yankees. So, hop on board and enjoy the ride as the Yankees begin their march to playing baseball in October.