Look at any metric or statistic possible, and you’ll see that the New York Yankees are the best team in Major League Baseball. The Yankees rank among the top teams in baseball in major categories for both hitting and pitching, with the list including home runs, ERA, WHIP, run differential and opposition batting average. At 46-16, their .742 wining percentage projects to a 120-42 final record?
Grab your tickets, New York, at places like TickPick.com, because history is set to be made. That’s record breaking to put it mildly, and we’ll have much more on that in a bit. First things first, tonight brings a division game against the Tampa Bay Rays, once of two sides that might actually stand a chance of catching them.
The opening total for this game was 8, with the current total now down to 7.5. You might want to take the over here, because the Bronx Bombers have been scoring runs at will, and hitting the ball with extreme exit velocity. And it’s not just the bash brothers of Aaron Judge (who leads the MLB in home runs) and Giancarlo Stanton (who consistently breaks his own records for exit velo).
The role players are getting it done too. Like catcher Jose Trevino, who ranks second on the team in WAR ahead of Josh Donaldson, Stanton and Anthony Rizzo. They also took a flier on a previously thought to be washed-up Matt Carpenter, who has far exceeded all expectations since joining the Yankees.
It all adds up to what could really be a very special season in the Bronx.
And where would that 120 wins, should they get there, rank them in the annals of baseball history? The current record for single season wins is 116, held by the 2001 Seattle Mariners and 1906 Chicago Cubs. Right behind them is a Yankees team that won 114 games, in 1998. The 1954 Cleveland Indians come in fourth, at 111 wins, while two really iconic and legendary New York Yankees teams are in the top eight.
The 1927 edition, considered by many to be the greatest baseball team of all-time, come in fifth, with 110 victories. Then you also have the very famous 1961 squad, immortalized in a Billy Crystal film, at 109 Ws.
There are also two more Yankees sides in the top 20, with the 1932 edition (who won 107) and the 1939 team, which emerged victorious 106 times.
In other words, it could end being a really special summer, and likely into the fall as well, for both the Yankees and their fan base.
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Bank (TheSportsBank.Net) and author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” as well as “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune, and he co-hosts the After Extra Time podcast, part of Edge of the Crowd Network. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.