A Yankees Rorschach Test
Posted by Steve L. on August 22nd, 2009 · Comments (5)
O.K, what do you see here?
Opp W L Opp W L CHW 1 3 BOS 5 9 FLA 1 2 CHW 1 3 PHI 1 2 FLA 1 2 WSN 1 2 LAA 2 4 ATL 2 1 PHI 1 2 KCR 2 1 WSN 1 2 8 11 11 22 Opp W L Opp W L BOS 5 9 ATL 2 1 LAA 2 4 BAL 9 3 BAL 9 3 CLE 5 3 CLE 5 3 DET 5 1 DET 5 1 KCR 2 1 MIN 7 0 MIN 7 0 NYM 5 1 NYM 5 1 OAK 7 2 OAK 7 2 SEA 5 2 SEA 5 2 TBR 6 5 TBR 6 5 TEX 4 2 TEX 4 2 TOR 9 3 TOR 9 3 69 35 66 24 TOTAL 77 46 TOTAL 77 46
And, don’t you dare say “A pretty butterfly.” 
Me? I see that the Yankees are 31 games over .500 as of the close of buisness today. And, I see that the Yankees are 37-9, so far this season, when playing the Orioles, Twins, Mets, A’s and Blue Jays – which is 28 games over .500 (against those five teams). Twenty-eight and thirty-one are pretty close, no?
In 1962 the Yankees were 96-66 (30 games over .500). Their record against the 3 worst teams in the league was 40-14 (26 games over .500). Twenty-six and and thirty are pretty close, too.
Yeah, but, the ’62 Yanks didn’t have to play a 5 game LDS and a 7 game LCS to get to the World Series.
No, but the 2000 Yankees did. And they were 18-4 aganst the Rangers (71-91) and Royals (77-85) and 69-70 against everybody else.
I see the same thing I always see when you do one these: The Yankees have beaten the teams that they’ve beaten, and lost to the teams that they’ve lost to.
Just about every winning team piles up a big margin of wins against weaker competition, World Series winners do this too: some, more than others.
Doesn’t mean the Yanks will win it all; doesn’t mean they can’t, either.
The Yanks are 32-31 against teams that are over .500, to this point of the season.