The starting rotation has, probably, been less than the Yankees wanted it to be in April. And it has lost one very notable player through injury. However, it has been bolstered by a stellar bullpen which has done very little wrong.
Let’s look over the pros and cons in the second half of our monthly survey…
The Yankees have got off to a surprisingly good start to the season with a 14-8 record in April. This becomes doubly surprising when we consider that they got off to a 3-6 run in their first nine games. Both the bullpen and large sections of the offensive line-up have done better than we had any reason to expect and whilst there are more than a few weak links, there is good reason to think they can at least stay with the pace of a division which doesn’t have a clearly outstanding team.
Let’s survey who is doing well and not so well…
Well, in our last two part article, I made my predictions (just a few days before the start of the season) about the Yankees’ opening day roster and their performance in the 2015 season.
Wouldn’t you know that there would be an injury that would change quite a few things before we even got to that first game!
We continue our survey of the Yankees who have done well and not so well in Spring Training:
The Yankees have had a pretty good Spring Training with a 15-12 record at the point I am writing this article which ranks them 4th in the American League and 4th in the Grapefruit League.
In this article, we will survey the players who are possibles to make the opening day roster and check out what they have done in the Spring games…
Well, the New York Yankees have had a weird off-season and it just keeps getting weirder. As we walk through the trades the Yankees made in January, I just keep hearing warning bells ringing that tell me that unless almost everyone who had an injury or a downturn in their career last year encounters a significant upward surge than this team looks worse on paper then the one which won 84 games last season and missed out on the post-season. Unless they give their manager Joe Girardi the right tools to work with, he doesn’t have a hope of turning this team into a winner.
The second part of our update will look briefly at one change to the infield group and then moves on to survey the outfield and designated hitters. Since our last report, both the Boston Red Sox and the Toronto Blue Jays have made upgrades to their roster whilst the Yankees have been slow to make moves. The outfield looks like one of the few areas that is reasonably well set.
Well, here we are in November. The San Francisco Giants deservedly won the World Series and the Kansas City Royals made a very creditable run from a wildcard slot to fall at the last hurdle. It was a great season and a fascinating season to follow and write about the Yankees who overcame adversity to finish with a reasonable record.
The question now is, can they turn those problems and strengths into a team that can challenge for the post season in 2015? Let’s take an overview of their roster at this moment in time and see where it looks like they’re going.
As we move on to the second half of our survey of the Yankees’ performance in September, we find a fairly surprising picture amongst the pitchers. Whilst the team averaged giving up between 3 and 4 runs a game which is pretty competitive, more surprising was that those who had been successful prior to September struggled and some new faces were successful.
September was never going to be an easy month for the Yankees. On one hand, they had to contend with the grand parade that was associated with the retirement of the Captain, Derek Jeter. On the other, they had to make up sufficient games to challenge for a wildcard. It would have proved too much for most teams but for the Yankees who were already over-performing given the weakness of their batting lineup, it seemed impossible. And so it was, they achieved a 14-13 record on the month whilst giving Jeter the send-off he deserved. One target achieved, the other not. But perhaps this was for the best – they would have probably embarrassed themselves in the post-season. Let’s look at who did what:
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