Some Thoughts on Sunday’s Lineup and the First 1/8 of the Season

After looking at Sunday’s lineup, I decided to look at the 2019 lineup if everyone were healthy and compare it to who is playing:

C Gary Sanchez (Injured) – Austin Romine

1B Greg Bird (Injured) – Mike Ford

2B Gleyber Torres (day off) – DJ LeMahieu

SS Didi Gregorius (Injured as is his backup Troy Tulowitzki) – Tyler Wade

3B Miguel Andujar (Injured) – Gio Urshela

LF Brett Gardner (in Center) – Mike Tauchman

CF Aaron Hicks (Injured) – Brett Gardner

RF Aaron Judge (Injured) – Clint Frazier

DH Giancarlo Stanton (Injured) – Luke Voit

So we had one player (Brett Gardner) start who was supposed to start this season. A second (Gleyber Torres) didn’t start, but pinch hit later. If they ever decide to do a sequel to The Gods Must Be Crazy, the 2019 story of the Yankees would make for a good plot line.

What is even more amazing is that the Yankees’ run production is roughly the same through 21 games as it was last year (5.19 versus 5.25) at the same point in the season. Even more amazing is the fact that their run differential of 1.28 is actually better than last year (1.12). Given their run differential, the Yankees should actually be 13-8.

Do I think that this is sustainable? Heck no. The Yankees have gotten some great (and likely unsustainable) production out of Mike Tauchman, Gio Urshela and Clint Frazier.

Fortunately, Gary Sanchez and Giancarlo Stanton should be back this week and Aaron Hicks is supposedly not far behind. When you combine them with Frazier (who is good even if he’s not quite this good) and Gleyber Torres, that’s still a solid core of a very good lineup. Didi should be back at some point.

In addition, the Red Sox have been awful. Still, we suspect that when all is said and done, the Sox will be fighting the Yankees for the division crown.

To this point, Brian Cashman and Aaron Boone have done a remarkable job of piecing together a lineup in the middle of all of this chaos. They are to be commended.

It’s a long season – let’s hope the Yankees’ bad luck doesn’t last all year.