Why the New York Yankees’ Season Will End on Oct. 3 Against Boston
May 25, 2012 · Harold Friend · Jump to comments
Article Source: Bleacher Report - New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are in dire straits.
The Baltimore Orioles will not go away. After 45 games, the Birds are averaging 4.62 runs a game. Surprise, surprise folks. They lead the league with 69 home runs.
Adam Jones, who heads the offense, has become an excellent player. He is hitting .311/.357/.601 with 14 home runs. Jones is a Curtis Granderson that hits for average.
Orioles pitchers have a 3.58 ERA and a 113 ERA-plus. Jim Johnson leads the league with 16 saves. He has allowed only 12 hits in 20.2 innings of work and has a Mariano Rivera-like 0.87 ERA.
Buck Showalter is no Joe Girardi, which is excellent if one is an Orioles fan. Baltimore is 28-17, which is the best record in the league. Their Pythagorean win-loss is 24-21.
The Tampa Bay Rays are offensively challenged on paper, yet they still average 4.38 runs a game. Led by James Shields, Jeremy Hellickson and David Price, they are a real threat to win the division.
The Yankees are virtually tied with the Toronto Blue Jays for third place and figure to beat them out, but the Boston Red Sox remain one of the wild cards. No, not one of the Wild Cards that qualifies for a one-game playoff.
It is impossible to predict what the Red Sox will do this season, especially with a manager who once disguised himself while sitting in his team’s dugout.
The Yankees’ problem is that they are in an extremely competitive division.
Now that there are two Wild Cards, it would seem that even if they finished third, they would still make the playoffs. That may prove to be false.
The Cleveland Indians had a great first half of 2011 season. They now find themselves at 26-18, which is good enough for a three-and-one-half-game lead over the second-place Chicago White Sox. They may not fade away this year.
The Detroit Tigers are a threat to make the playoffs. Last May 25, the Detroit Tigers were in second place, six games behind the first-place Indians. We all know how that race finished.
In the AL West, the Texas Rangers are doing what they are supposed to do. The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim are not, but they are playing better recently. Albert Pujols seems to regaining some his skills and their pitching staff is solid.
The Rangers and Angels still figure to finish first and second in their division. The Indians, Tigers and possibly the White Sox will fight for their division title. The Rays, Orioles and maybe even the Red Sox are threats for the playoffs.
The Yankees miss the playoffs? It could happen, perhaps more easily than we would like to believe.
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