The Evil Empire Weekly Wrap-Up
Week 1
In an effort similar to Dean’s Red Sox series reviews, I have decided to do more coverage of the New York Yankees in a weekly fashion. My goal here is to provide a week-to-week overview of how the team is doing. Let it be known that I am not sold on the name of this new segment. Let me know if you have any good suggestions!
This is a little late, but with Opening Day, this is a weird week. The Yankees are currently 6-3 and are sitting atop the standings in the American League East.
The Yankees take on Detroit today and play a 3-game series, then head home from their Midwest road trip to face off against the best team in baseball, the 8-1 San Francisco Giants. I have preached this a bunch this offseason, but I will say it again. The Yankees need to have a hot start if they wish to be playoff-bound in 2025. Boston is much improved, Texas is going to rebound big time, Tampa’s pitching can carry them, Los Angeles is slightly interesting, Detroit and Baltimore are only getting better, Kansas City is no joke, Guardians always seem to find a way, and to top it off Houston is still Houston.
The American League does not have as many elite rosters as the National League. That being said, there is a lot of talent spread across the American League that can make the playoffs. The Yankees cannot step off the gas this season with all the injuries they have and hope to sneak into the postseason. So following 9 games, I cannot complain!
The Yankees lead the league in home runs (25) as I write this. Is this due to Torpedo Bats? A smaller stadium? All of the above? Who knows, but the bats are cooking. They are also tied 1st for most Runs with 77 and 4th in batting average with a team cumulative .282 BA. All good signs to start the season.
Bats to Highlight:
Aaron Judge —> 6 HR | .324 BA | .419 OBP | .892 SLG | 1.310 OPS
Anthony Volpe —> 4 HR | .297 BA | .366 OBP | .703 SLG | 1.069 OPS
Ben Rice —> 2 HR | .320 BA | .433 OBP | .640 SLG | 1.074 OPS
Photo Credit - AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar
The pitching, on the other hand, is lackluster. The team's ERA stands at 4.48 which puts them in the bottom half of the league. Not to mention they have given up the 9th most amount of runs in all of baseball. That is not good. Losing Cole and Gil is massive and unless they can get creative at the deadline this will be an issue all year long. I am hoping that Will Warren will be effective but this is his rookie season and there are bound to be setbacks.
Arms to Highlight:
Max Fried —> 10.1 IP | 10 K | 2.61 ERA | 3 BB
Carlos Rodon —> 11.1 IP | 12 K | 3.97 ERA | 6 BB
Brent Headrick —> 5.1 IP | 9 K | 0.00 ERA | 2 BB
All in all, there is a lot of baseball to be played and the Yankees need to capitalize against inferior teams, especially earlier in the season. If Gil and Stanton can get back sooner rather than later, this team can be much more exciting down the stretch!