Has no one else noticed this pattern, now the norm for at least four seasons:
The Yankees start out like a house afire and we can't imagine anyone catching up with them. It's gonna be a great season.
As soon as the calendar hits May, that all comes to an end and they are among the worst teams in baseball for two months, maybe three.
In mid-July or August, they remember how to play this game again and then make a run into the playoffs, which ends with them losing to some team that in April we wouldn't have believed would have had a chance.
Sound familiar? It's back again.
After losing two of three to the Mets this weekend, the Yankees are three games out of first place, which wouldn't be all that concerning except that they were three games AHEAD just a couple of weeks ago. Tampa Bay never loses, and the Yankees rarely do anything else lately. Today they managed to blow a three-run lead in the ninth inning. That's not easy to do against a team that's in last place and 12 games off the lead in the National League East.
There are three factors at play here:
1. Aaron Judge is not being Aaron Judge. This is the least concerning of the trends because it happens occasionally and then he goes off on a tear where Babe Ruth wouldn't have been able to keep up. I'm not worried about Judge per se, but the team does as well as he does, and that's also been the case for years now.
2. The rest of the hitters aren't exactly filling the void. Except Ben Rice, who has emerged as a legitimate star this year. But Trent Grisham isn't last year's Trent Grisham. Austin Wells was never the Austin Wells we were promised. Jazz Chisholm is trying so hard to hit home runs that he's NOT hitting home runs, or much of anything else. I don't even want to discuss Ryan McMahon. Spencer Jones can't be blamed because he wasn't supposed to be here yet, but he doesn't have even one home run so far, and that's supposed to be what he does.
3. The bullpen sucks. Especially the "closer." (See: 3-run lead, ninth inning.)
There were needs at third base, catcher, and center field this offseason, and there should have been an upgrade in the bullpen. Instead, Brian Cashman et al chose to run out essentially the same team as last year's, with the loss of Luke Weaver, who killed the based-loaded-nobody-out rally yesterday, and Devin Williams, who tried his best to give the Yankees the game today but couldn't quite accomplish it. Not his fault.
Max Schuemann? Really?
No progress was made. The big accomplishment of the winter was getting Cody Bellinger back. And he wasn't going anywhere.
So go into hibernation, Yankee fans. Tune in starting July 15. Things ought to get going around then.
