Aaron Boone and the New York Yankees made quick work of the Minnesota Twins in the ALDS, sweeping them in three games, and outscoring them 23-7. That now makes the Yankees a perfect six for six when it comes to eliminating the Twins in the MLB postseason. Daffy Duck will beat Bugs Bunny before Minnesota wins an October series over the Yanks.
The Yankees had four days off between the end of the regular season and Game one of the American League Division Series. They came in well rested, and performed phenomenally.
Now they’ll have another four days off before the American League Championship Series, and that’s a factor to consider when making your free MLB picks today ahead of the ALCS. Regardless of whether the opponent is the top seeded Houston Astros or the fourth seeded Tampa Bay Rays.
We’ll know by late tonight who that opponent will be, and there are a couple of ways you can look at it when trying to predict who will win. Will the Yankees be rusty or rested? While their opponents be mentally and/or physically drained from having just finished an extremely tough series that went the distance.
How much of an advantage will they have had, coming off a series which was essentially a laugher, and then plenty of time to readjust for this one?
“I mean, in theory I guess that’s true,” New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone said on a media conference call yesterday, “but I’ve gotten that question a lot lately, even from some friends, even other coaches.”
“Honestly, I kind of abide by the ‘careful what you wish for’. Sometimes you don’t know what you’re pulling for. As much as you want a Game 5, maybe that ends up not working in your favor. Who knows?”
“I’m certainly enjoying watching it unfold. But I don’t really draw an advantage/disadvantage type thing. I don’t worry about that or consume myself with that at all.”
It’s a two-sided coin for sure. The Astros are a powerful juggernaut, so who wants to face them? The Rays, another good team, are an AL East division rival who know the Yankees as well as anybody, so that’s not a desired match-up at all.
The Yankees haven’t been back to the World Series since 2009, and they have dropped their last three ALCSs (2017, 2012, 2010). So they’re going to be as fired up for this series, much like Aaron Judge got himself hyped before the ALDS.
Given all the recent October disappointments, they can’t worry about the other side too much. They got to take care of themselves first.
“The biggest thing is we’re trying to take care of our house, make sure our players are in a good position,” Aaron Boone added.
“Depending who our opponent is, we feel like we’ll be very buttoned up on having a game plan of attacking them.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
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