Friday, February 19, 2016

USA Today Doesn’t Necessarily Like the Yankees Chances Either


Earlier today we took a look at just how low the expectations for the New York Yankees were on the ESPN side of things, or BSPN as I like to call them when they are being what I feel to be anti-Yankee, so now we will look at a prediction from a publication I trust, the USA Today. The USA Today is usually pretty anti-bias in their predictions and in their write-ups but they apparently aren’t too keen on the Yankees chances this season either unfortunately. Thankfully for the Yankees though is a lot can happen between today, the middle of February, and the end of September and the beginning of October. Injuries can occur, prospects can come up and make an impact, big money free agents can falter in their first years with a new club and a plethora of other reasons. That’s some of the many reasons I don’t put much stock into these rankings.

If you want to see the complete rankings head over to the USA Today and check them out but we will focus on the American League East Division here since this is a Yankees blog and all.

1.       Boston Red Sox (88-74)
2.       Toronto Blue Jays (86-76)
3.       Tampa Bay Rays (83-79)
4.       New York Yankees (83-79)
5.       Baltimore Orioles (78-84)

According to these rankings the Blue Jays would host the Texas Rangers in the Wild Card Round while the Kansas City Royals would miss the playoffs entirely. Meanwhile Boston’s win total was bumped by the Kimbrel trade, the Price acquisition and a “MVP” ceiling year for Mookie Betts. I’m not sure I would go that far but they called their predictions “semi-scientific” so who am I to argue, right? The publication may be stretching a bit on Mookie but they seem spot on in their worries about the Yankees. This is only a four win deduction from 2015 and the publication points out that the team got over 50 home runs from Alex Rodriguez, who turns 41 this year, and Carlos Beltran, who is 39-years old, and has question marks everywhere in their rotation.


Hopefully we’ll look back on these predictions and the earlier ESPN predictions in October and laugh. Either we’ll laugh because they were wrong and the team far exceeded expectations, which I truly think that they can, or we’ll laugh to keep from crying as we watch David Ortiz go for one more World Series ring before riding off into the sunset. Let’s hope for the former and not the latter…

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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)