Can the NY Yankees win the AL East this year?

[Insidb]

Miguel_Zorro said:

RubberWhistleHistle said:

I'm not sure what those stats about 1 run games are supposed to imply.. that stat takes into account the entire year, and when imade that comment, i was talking about since the AS break.

if you look at the entire year, I'd say they were playing below their potential at the beginning and they have certainly been playing above their potential recently. They're a really hot team right now. 

The stat about 1 run games implies that the Jays are a better team than their record suggests.

The 1 run game stat is one of the most useless is baseball, especially in this case. The Jays have the largest or second largest run differential in baseball, but have far from the best record. Losing a lot of 1 run games could imply that they win a lot of blowouts and lose close games, typically win by large margins, lose close games, and lose by decent margins, etc. I put more stock in WAR, which shows how good the Jays are offensively and how bad the Yanks are defensively. These two teams really live on those extremes, and the Yankees pitching flies under the radar (2nd in the AL WITH CC?!). With the fat man on the DL, they are a better team and should have one of the best staffs in baseball (barring injury, which is always a concern for them).

The Jays have shored up their holes with trades and are a great team. One of their biggest advantages is the consistency of their offense (The Yankees offense is slumping now and has slumped a few times this year.). They ALWAYS hit, which very few teams can say. I'll take the Yanks starters, the Jays offense, the Yanks bullpen, and the Jays defense (Headley has looked amazingly terrible this year.).