All things considered, a 5-5 start to the season isn’t bad. The injury bug has struck, Giancarlo Stanton and Gary Sanchez aren’t hitting, the bullpen has been shaky, and yet the team is .500. No reason to worry this early on, and if anything, it’s nice to see the Yankees treading water when a lot of breaks haven’t gone the team’s way.
I’m really looking forward to getting Aaron Hicks back in the lineup, which will allow Stanton to revert back to the designated hitter role. Stanton’s actually looked good in left field, better than spring training for sure, but I have a feeling that he’s going to be more comfortable in a hitting only role. I wonder if the adjustment to playing a new position, let alone playing for a brand new team, has contributed to his struggles.
The Red Sox are off to an 8-1 start and are 3.5 games ahead of the Yankees. The standings are the least of my concern right now, but it sure would be nice to put a licking on them this week at Fenway. Boston has played all of their games against the Rays and Marlins, two of the league’s expected doormats in 2018, so you can’t blame them for beating teams they are supposed to beat, but it sure would be nice to put an end to their fun.
Here’s what I’ve written for BP Bronx lately:
I started a game where I run the Yankees in OOTP 19, which I just reviewed here. I’ll be tracking how the alternate universe Yankees do in comparison to the real life team on a weekly basis for BP Bronx. Follow along here.
I explained why I don’t like Didi Gregorius splitting up the Aaron Judge-Giancarlo Stanton-Gary Sanchez triumvirate. Of course, I wrote that before Didi’s two homer and eight RBI game.
