Good morning Fackers. As we try to make it through one more workday until the sweet, glorious weekend, we awake this morning with a little extra bounce in our step. The Yanks are tied for first in the AL East and for the best record in the AL, thanks to the combination of yesterday's sweep of the Twins and a Royals comeback victory (after being down four runs) over the Sawx last night.
Things are not good in Royal-land right now. They entered play yesterday with the third worst record in the AL and have had exactly one winning season (skippered by current Yankee Bench Coach Tony Pena) since the 1994 strike ended. Even longtime Royals optimists Joe Posnanski and Rany Jazayerli have apparently seen enough (h/t Rob Neyer for the links).
The Royals of course are led by former Yankee minor league manager Trey Hillman. After some early success last year, Hillman has fallen on the same tough times that did in his predecessors. But the man has a Hall of Fame cookie duster and that's gotta count for something. Not to mention a First Base Coach named Rusty Kuntz. Hopefully Hillman can keep his team rolling through the weekend and help the Yanks out.
We're now double digits into July. The All-Star break is three days away. The standings are no longer some small sample size fluke at this point; they're for real. The Yankees still have some flaws. Their record is still better than their run differential would predict. They're still 0-8 against the Sox. But despite all of that, they're still tied for the best record in their division, best in their league, and second best in baseball. So as we await tonight's late start, let that thought carry you through to quitting time. We're back in the high life again.
Friday, July 10, 2009
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Don't forget that the Yankees spotted the Rays 18 runs on that Run Differential statistic. Take out that one game and the Yankees are pushing up against the Dodgers.
ReplyDeleteFair point mos. The -18 came in the debacle against the Tribe, and they had a -10 in the game against the Rays in which Swish pitched.
ReplyDeleteBut those things happened, so they count nontheless. They had +15 game against the Mets, a +11 game against Detroit, a +10 game against Texas, and +9 games against Texas and Baltimore. At this stage in the season things start to even out. We can't throw out the bad and keep the good.
Still, having 4th best run differential in baseball isn't all that bad. I'm hoping that it gets better as the season goes on. To be outplaying their pythagorean record by two games isn't incredibly lucky. Their "luck" is ties with LAA for the second best in the AL, a game behind SEA and a game ahead of DET, BOS, and TEX