Perspectives: May 13, 2022
Wow. What more can a person say?
Wow!
The Yankees are playing exceptional baseball. Almost record-setting baseball. Maybe this will be record-setting baseball.
I'm the guy who wants the Yankees to win every game. I want them to win always. But, I'm a realist. I know that's not possible. In 2022, so far at least, it actually seems somewhat possible.
This has been a very enjoyable season. It's been amazing. One can't ask for more.
Since April 19, the Yankees:
Took 2 of 3 from the Tigers
Won 3 of 3 from the Guardians
Won 3 of 3 from the Orioles
Won 3 of 3 from the Royals
Took 2 of 3 from the Blue Jays
Took 2 of 3 from the Rangers
Won 2 of 2 against the Blue Jays
Won the first game against the White Sox
That is just amazing:
I love teams that score runs and score runs in bunches. Even in a period where runs don't seem to be being scored in bunches, the Yankees seem to do this more and more. During the streak outlined above, the Yankees have scores ten or more runs in a game five times.
Aaron Judge has 11 homers on the season. Giancarlo Stanton and Anthony Rizzo have nine each. Let's, for fun, extrapolate those numbers over a full season. Stanton and Rizzo would have 47 homers for the year. Aaron Judge would have 57. Oh my!
23, 26, 28. Those are Rizzo's, Judge's, and Stanton's 2022 RBI's thus far. Over a season those become 120, 135, 146. Oh my! We have entered the land of the absurd. And it's great!
No starting player on the Yankees is hitting as high as .300. And yet they still have these totals. Wow.
The Yankees (23-8) are on pace to win 120 games.
This is too much fun.
Much of the above is probably not sustainable for the season, but this is what I have been hoping for, for years - to see the Yankees come out of the gate and win a ton of games. They are certainly doing that:
The Yankees lead the Major League in wins with 23. The closest American League teams are the Astros and the Angels who have each won 21 games.
The Mets, in the National League, have 22 wins.
The Yankees' winning percentage is .742. No other team in baseball has a winning percentage over .667 (the Mets).
The Yankees have a run differential of +60. That's off the charts good. The Angels (in the American League) are next best at +45. (Even crazier, the Dodgers, the N.L., are at +76.)
The Yankees have played 31 games. In under two weeks, they'll be at the season's 25% mark (40 games). The following teams were the best in baseball history after 40 games:
1984 Tigers (35-5) - They went on to win the World Series
1928 and 1939 Yankees (33-7) - They went on to win the World Series
1902 Pirates and 1912 Giants (32-8) - There was no World Series (yet) in 1902, the Giants lost the 1912 World Series to the Red Sox.
It seems that the Yankees have a chance to enter some very exclusive company...
Day-by-day, they just need to keep this up.
I believe pennants can be won in April and May.
Let's Go Yankees.
