Wishful thinking, right? The Yankees, of course, when they’re clicking, are the best team in the game, as they proved by posting the best record in baseball during the 2009 regular season, then winning the World Series. The thing about the ’09 Yanks though…they were really, really lucky. I know, I know, there’s no such thing as a “lucky” two-hundred-million-dollar team. The Steinbrenners paid handsomely for every one of those 114 wins and every one of those pretty rings which now adorn the private showrooms of their exclusive cast of aspiring billionaires. Fair enough.
What I’d like to point out, however, is that of none of the Yankees starting nine in ’09 missed a significant stretch of time. Sure, A-Rod had the whole flexible hip thing (remember that?) which cost him April, but he still got 535 plate appearances and his annual 30 HR and 100 RBI. Jorge Posada missed a couple weeks midsummer, but he still got into more than twice as many games as he did in 2008. And the remainder of the starting seven all played at least 142 games. Even more importantly, four Yankee pitchers made 30+ starts. So, I’d like you to guess, how many franchises had eight players get 500+ plate appearances and four pitchers make 30+ starts in ’09?
That’s right, one and only one: the New York Yankees.
The Red Sox, on the other hand, got basically nothing from Daisuke Matsuzaka and John Smoltz, both of whom were supposed to be big contributors to their rotation, and Tim Wakefield missed most of the second half. The lost their starting shortstop, Jed Lowrie, for basically the whole season and got a significantly reduced effort from their starting third-baseman, Mike Lowell, whose hip injury limited him to a hobbled 434 at-bats. J.D. Drew, predictably, and Kevin Youkilis, unpredictably, also missed a few weeks apiece. And the Red Sox still managed to win 95 games.
So, imagine for a moment that New York had some similarly bad luck. Say, they lost A. J. Burnett for the season and Joba Chamberlain for half the season, as well as Melky Cabrera, and A-Rod didn’t make it back until June, and even at that point, he was only half-strength. Would they have managed 95 wins? 90?
Are you willing to bet that they can repeat their clean bill of health?
See the rest of my AL East projections @ The Sporting Hippeaux
