The New York Yankees have won 7 games in a row, have experienced an incredible week of Aaron Judge performances, and re-took 1st place in a division that's still extremely competitive. They have a 2.83 staff ERA, three guys with over 10 homers, and a closer that hasn't given up an earned run yet. Suffice to say, things are going well.
The best thing you can say about this team is that some of its best attributes were achieved without trying especially hard. Clay Holmes came over a couple years ago in a trade for a guy who hasn't done anything in the majors, and since joining the Yankees he's gone from a really strong relief piece to a pretty impressive closer. So far this season he's notched 13 saves, struck out 23, and allowed 0 earned runs. All I'm saying is that's one way to spend your last contracted season. I don't know if we're re-signing him next year, but whoever does is gonna be spending a lot more money than they probably should. Not that Holmes isn't worth it, per se. I just don't know if he's gonna get any better than he is right now, regardless of what his agent might think.
But so many of the best pieces of this team have been 'eh, why not' guys. Jose Trevino's hitting .284 with 17 RBIs and 5 homers. Luis Gil, years after his come-up, has become one of our best pitchers, and struck out 14 yesterday, meaning we have a guy with 62 strikeouts in May and his name isn't Gerrit Cole. Clarke Schmidt's 5-1 with a 2.49 ERA, he's finally comfortable in a starting role. Alex Verdugo's got 21 RBIs and 39 hits, and the fans love him. Even Jon Berti had a 3-run homer today. Berti's a guy that can do just about anything, play any position, steal bases and his for contact. Even with Oswaldo Cabrera still doing his thing, having Berti surging and reliable is an extremely good thing, and gives us a lot more bang for our buck than Josh Donaldson.
I do worry about a few things with this team. Overflow is definitely one of them, this team could be getting Cole and Dominguez back soon and I have no idea who I'd move to get any of them back in their regular spots. I guess Marcus Stroman's the weakest starter? But you can't have him as your long-man, not after everything. And then Dugie would need to move somewhere in order to accommodate Jasson, but...where?? The other fear I have is that they're peaking too early, and that this is all just a setup to poor play down the line, or with tougher teams. They play the Mariners this week, and, as discussed, I will be at one of those games, and this is a team that could stifle them to like 1 run. They need to overcome that before we get 10 games of that in August.
This is a team that looks so good that I'm afraid to get too attached. I've loved other Yankee teams in the last 15 years, and look where that's gotten me.
Coming Tomorrow- A power-hitting third baseman who must be surprised things aren't going better so far.
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