–noun
then no, the Yankees are not underdogs. PECOTA, the Baseball Prospectus system of projecting player and team performance through advanced metrics, has the Yanks winning 91 games- enough to win the wild card but 1 game worse than the Red Sox for the division. Of course, PECOTA isn't the be all and end all of baseball and, really, predicting how a division will ultimately fare is pretty impossible considering all of the different variables that will affect teams (injuries, trades, under/over performance of players, etc.). But because it's fun to predict (as I'll be doing here shortly) we fans do it, and I doubt you'll find a prediction that has the Yankees finishing outside of wild card contention. Is this a strong Yankee team compared to previous seasons? No, their pitching staff has holes so big not even Bartolo Colon's fat ass can fill them, and they're old. That being said, they're still going to score runs (they led the league in runs scored last year with 7 of their 9 main hitters under-performing) and, optimistically, the bullpen may shorten enough games to the point that you only need a mediocre performance from a starter that only lasts 5 innings for a win.
The AL East may be more wide open than usual this year, unless the Red Sox run away with things, which is a possibility. If you want to topple the mighty Yankees, this is the year to do it. Too bad the Orioles and Jays are still a few years away. The Rays lost Carl Crawford, but have enough organizational depth to make life difficult for both Boston and New York. I have no problem calling a team other than the Yankees the favorites, but it's a stretch to call them underdogs.
More Baseball
Adam Wainwright may have a significant elbow injury. Huge, gigantic blow to the Cardinals. Wainwright has become one of the best starters in baseball the last couple of seasons, with very good K/BB ratio's, sterling ERA's and a WAR of 5.7 or better. This could reshape the entire division.
ChiSox GM Kenny Williams says $30 million annually for 1 player is 'asinine.' There are some stats out there that are able to affix exact dollar amounts to player performance that I'm not well versed in, so without that knowledge I can't definitively say if he's right or wrong. That being said, I think he's probably right, at least to a certain degree. Albert Pujols' performance may be worth $30 million dollars annually, but is it worth it for the Pirates to pay that price?
I've read a lot of articles saying the Jose Bautista deal was good for both the player and the Blue Jays, but I'm still skeptical. None of the articles seem overly concerned with the fact that Bautista is on the down side of 30, and they all seem happy to gloss over the lack of a track record or the fact that every Blue Jay regular had a surge in power last season.
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