New York Yankees Season Win Total Odds 94.5 Wins (-110 over / 110 under)
How are the Yankees supposed to lose games, when they have THE best bullpen ever, and the two best power hitters in the Major Leagues.
Much to the chagrin of those who still hate the Bronx Bombers, they are a top contender to win the World Series.
Last year’s run to Game 7 of the American League Championship series against the eventual champion Houston Astros came after falling behind 2-0 to the Cleveland Indians in the American League Division series.
We don’t know if the Yankees could have beaten the Dodgers, but we might find that out in 2018.
In 2016, New York needed to infuse its minor league system with talent and maximize Aroldis Chapman and Andrew Miller in the best buyer’s market for relief pitchers that we have ever seen. They did that.
As fate would have it, Chapman came back, so the Yankees netted Gleyber Torres and Starlin Castro for two months and a playoff run of Chapman. The Chicago Cubs obviously got their value out of it by winning the World Series, but the Yankees certainly made out well in that deal.
Not only did the Yankees rebuild the farm system in short order, but last year they were relevant deep into September. Now, armed with some solid prospects and a terrific Major League roster, they’re ready for a run at their 28th World Series title.
The hype is certainly justified. Even without the Giancarlo Stanton addition, this is a Yankees team that went 91-71 last year, but had a Pythagorean Win-Loss record of 100-62 and a BaseRuns record of 102-60, so they technically underachieved in 2017.
Joe Girardi won’t return as manager. Girardi seemed to be at odds with some players and with the front office. Girardi will be at the MLB Network instead of in the Yankees dugout, and Ironically,
former Baseball Tonight analyst Aaron Boone is the new Yankees skipper. We’ll see how he does with the bullpen, but a drunk chimpanzee could figure that out for this team.
Hopes are high for New York and they should be. Without a doubt it’s time to make a commitment to value bullpens more, and you won’t find one better than the Yankees.
Other than the big news of the Giancarlo Stanton acquisition, one name stands out among the Yankess other additions and losses, and that’s Jaime Garcia, that will be a huge loss for the Yankees, as they scrounge to find starting pitching depth.
Pick & Prediction Over 94.5 Wins -110 over
We really tried to find reasons to go against the Yankees. You could say that with so many individual offensive breakouts, it may not seem wholly sustainable, but this bullpen is the best we’ve ever seen.
The bullpen has a projected fWAR per Depth Charts of 7.2, which is 1.6 wins better than any other bullpen in baseball (Houston is second, Cleveland is third, and those are your three division winners).
This team is going to post a stupid record in one-run games, if they even bother to win games by one run with 400 home runs coming from Stanton, Judge, and Sanchez.
The starting rotation honestly has a decent amount of upside and Jordan Montgomery is the guy we’re expecting a breakout from, to really deepen the rotation.
That being said, best bullpen ever or not, 95 wins is a lot, especially with some concerns about individual players,
Some bettors are looking to play back at the under when public perception and PECOTA investment (projected for 99 wins) hits the board. That number is a lot of wins, so if we have to make a pick, we’ll take the over.
