ICYMI: Early Team Leaders

By Bryan Van Dusen:

While I was aware of some of the following things, I decided to look a little further into Yankees statistics, and here's what I FOUND...

The three men that are tied for the team lead in home runs are Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixiera, and Stephen Drew. While Tex isn't a big surprise, who thought ARod would be hitting like this? A .411 OBP? An OPS of .600? Oh, and Stephen freakin Drew? Seriously? Plenty of fans didn't even want two of these three guys on the team (possibly all three if you include those that would rather see Greg Bird than Teixiera at first).

"Can you get off my back, ALREADY?"

Only two Yankees have hit triples this year. Would that be Brett Gardner and Jacoby Ellsbury? No. Well, one of them is Brett or Jacoby, right? Nope. One of those guys is Brian McCann, a man not known for being "fleet of foot", while the other player with a triple has only appeared in 7 of the team's 14 games... Garrett Jones.

Chris Young, the same guy that hit .200 for the Oakland Athletics last season, currently leads the Yankees in batting average at .344.

So what Yankees starter has the best ERA this season? Would it be the #1 starter Masahiro Tanaka? Their #2 starter Michael Pineda? CC Sabathia? No, no, and no. Nathan Eovaldi has the best ERA out of the five starters with a mark of 3.12.

Why stop with the Yankees? Let's look across MLB...

While Adrian Gonzalez leads MLB in batting average, I'm willing to bet that very few people outside of Coors Field have heard of the man with the next highest batting average in the league... DJ LeMauhieu.

Alongside the aforementioned Adrian Gonzalez, Adam Jones, Joey Votto, Paul Goldschmidt, Hanley Ramirez, and JD Martinez, the man tied for second in home runs in MLB is Luis Valbruena of the Houston Astros.

The MLB leader in ERA finished last season at 4.55. but has yet to give up a run in his first two starts this season. That man is the Texas Rangers' Nick Martinez.

Am I saying that Chris Young will be the Yankees best hitter by season's end? Will Nathan Eovaldi be the team's best starter? No... I'm not saying that at all. Just like I'd never say that DJ LeMauhieu will finish 2015 with the highest batting average in the league. Nor would I say that Luis Valbuena will be in the top three of home run hitters across MLB.

"Not even I believe that. Hell, I bet you didn't even know who I was."

Guys... it's been 14 games. That means that over 90% of regular season games remain to be played. Chances are Didi Gregorius will not have an OBP of .233. And before any of you start falling in love with Stephen Drew, you should realize that he's probably not going to be among the team's top home run hitters. Just like how Michael Pineda should finish the season with a sub-5.00 ERA.

I don't know about you, but the way this team started the season, I'm kinda psyched that they are 7-7. Not to mention that one of those wins came at the hands of a team tied with the most wins in MLB... the Tigers. And the Yankees are scoring runs! Who would have thought that would happen?

I'm saving my judgments for a little while longer. Perhaps you should too.