Former Yankees fan favorite has bold (good) prediction for MLB season

It’s easy to get disillusioned with the state of Major League Baseball these days. Owners hate the players. Players hate the owners. Umpires hate the owners. Announcers hate the owners. All my best friends hate the owners.

Oh, and the New York Yankees haven’t won the World Series since 2009, a streak that’s only growing with every second wasted by these protracted negotiations.

So, why do we care? Because we’re fans. We don’t want to be lied to, but we want to be told we have a chance. We might not believe in our team as presently constructed whatsoever, but add a single star to the roster and we’ll be purchasing parking spots on the parade route.

That’s why Tuesday was the perfect time for ex-Yankees right-hander Phil Hughes to show up and declare that not only are we not foolish for believing in baseball, but that we should put that blind faith in our squad, too.

Or, as the Yankees liked to say last season, Whole Squad Ready.

Was Hughes being facetious when he declared that a delayed season would still be happening and the Yankees would still be winning the World Series, no matter how bad things look right now? Sure, maybe a little.

Still, it’s the energy I needed to get out of bed tomorrow, and who are you to tell me I can’t believe in it?

World Champion Phil Hughes says the Yankees are winning the World Series, and who are we to disagree?

Hughes finished his big-league career with an 88-79 record, but that’s got to be a typo, because all the man does is win.

Are the New York Yankees currently the World Series favorites? Survey says: No. They didn’t pursue top shortstop talent before the lockout, didn’t reinforce their rotation, and don’t have a first baseman, center fielder, or catcher anyone trusts.

But there’s no sense in ruling them out before they’ve finished their business after the lockout, and you’d be pessimistically foolish to throw in the towel on the preseason 2021 AL favorites just because you’re frustrated.

Wait, do you want to laugh so hard, though? Because Ben Yoel has an amazing joke.

Ben’s a “self-proclaimed baseball expert,” according to his bio, so he might’ve forgotten to study the chapters that cover how the FanGraphs ZIPS projections have the Yankees ahead of the AL East pack, even though they currently sport a woefully incomplete roster.

He might’ve also missed the section where they cover how adding Mark Canha and Eduardo Escobar never turned an under-.500 offense around to juggernaut level.

If the Yankees go from 92 wins and a Wild Card berth in 2021 to the World Series after remaking their roster in February and March, they certainly wouldn’t be the first team to do so. Perhaps it’s the Yanks that rise out of the rubble and pull a Red Sox-style run out of nowhere like Boston did in 2013, 2018 and 2021.

Why not us? Why not us? Why not us?!

There’s nothing Mets fans hate more than when the Yankees pretend they’re underdogs, so we had to pepper that in here for good measure. Get behind Phil Hughes. We ride at dawn … in June, when the lockout resolves.

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