2011, Yankees

Why Did the 2011 Yankees Win the AL East Title?

Going into the 2011 MLB season, most experts predicted that the Boston Red Sox would win the AL East crown, with around 100 wins, and the Yankees would be hovering around 92 wins. Turns out everyone was wrong. As of 9/22/2011, the New York Yankees have 95 wins and the other division leaders have 90 wins. The Red Sox have 88 wins. The Yankees play in the toughest division in baseball- the AL East- you know the Blue Jays would be leading the NL Central and West. I mention this because the MLB schedule is NOT balanced, so the AL East super-powered teams have to play each other all the time. Therefore the fact that the Brewers have 91 wins does NOT mean they are equal to AL East teams. It means they beat up on the Pirates, Astros, Reds, and Cubs, all the time.

al mvp

Going into the season, the Yankees looked very competitive, but just not as good as the Red Sox, although it should be noted THE RED SOX CAME IN THIRD PLACE IN 2010, AND WERE PLAGUED WITH INJURIES. Yet just by adding Adrian Gonzalez and Bobby Jenks all of the problems were supposed to go away, including that injury prone starting pitching.

Casual fans and talking heads (that I want to BLOW UP) claimed that Yankees starting rotation was NOTHING after CC Sabathia. Turns out that Ivan Nova became a superstar, Bartolo Colon had flashes of pitching like an ace, and Freddy Garcia would be a #2 starter on any other team. So the experts were wrong- the pitching staff held up IN SPITE of AJ Burnett still sucking and IN SPITE of Phil Hughes’ season pretty much being wiped out by his velocity and injuries.

The Yankees bullpen SOMEHOW became the BEST IN BASEBALL without Joba Chamberlain, Pedro Feliciano, Rafael Soriano (pretty much) and of course Damaso Marte.

Instead of those names, the Yankees went with Luis Ayala and Cory Wade. David Robertson is arguably the best relief pitcher in baseball- his 3.8 WAR (!!!) puts his second to CC Sabathia for Yankees pitchers.

So..let’s see..steady and above average starting pitching…the best bullpen in baseball (Mariano Rivera is still God)..what about the hitting?

Well, when you consider, A-Rod fell apart due to injuries and age, Jorge Posada completely crashed, Russell Martin is batting .236, Mark Teixeira is under .250 again, Eduardo Nunez has appeared in over 100 games, and Derek Jeter and Nick Swisher had the worst first halves of their careers, the Yankees somehow scored 828 runs so far. Based on their runs scored and runs allowed, they should be 98-57 instead of 95-60!

So how did they do it?

Curtis Granderson is the 2011 AL MVP. Robinson Cano once again achieved his milestones. Jeter and Swisher heated up after the All-Star Break. Teixeira has 37 HR as of this writing. Martin has 17. Brett Gardner is the best left fielder in baseball according to all the stats, and leads the league in steals.

How ’bout them BoSox?

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  2 comments for “Why Did the 2011 Yankees Win the AL East Title?”

  1. wineries - Twitter Search
    November 8, 2011 at 7:38 PM

    smh at how cruel ppl cn b..not only did she abandon the "newborn" she put the baby in the garbage & tried to strangle it –

  2. Milohunter
    November 4, 2011 at 5:35 AM

    The Government, Politics and Religion categories all went that-a-way
    <<<——————-<<<<<<

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