As a result this version of the Yankees are even worse than they actually were. Bad news is, the offense other than Robinson Canó and Brett Gardner are horrific. He puts up 7.7 WAR as the ace of the rotation. Good news is, he was awesome, putting up a 2.03 ERA (218 ERA+) in 252.1 innings in this new 2013. “Louisiana Lightning’s” 1978 was incredible, not only winning him a Cy Young but getting him a second place MVP finish. So we’ve tried two hitters, let’s see if what happens if we insert the best pitching season in Yankees history into the rotation. Record: 85-77, same as real life Ron Guidry The result is the same record as real life and a playoff-missing season.

However, the 2013 Yankees apparently liked Overbay’s bat more than we even thought, as they spend a lot of time playing him at first and DHing Gehrig. Unfortunately, importing that into 2013 had next to no effect. So what would happen if you replace him with one of, if not the greatest first baseman ever?įor Gehrig’s season, we imported his best hitting season: 1927, where he hit 47 home runs and a career best 220 OPS+. There was also the one game where Travis Ishikawa played. They got some better production when Mark Reynolds showed up, but nothing spectacular. Lyle Overbay was one of the Yankees’ better hitters in 2013, to the point where, as previously mentioned, they played him in right field. They finished way behind the first place Red Sox and miss out on the Wild Card spots as well. In this universe, they also acquire Evan Gattis, which would’ve been an improvement on watching Chris Stewart every day. Despite not really needing to have Ichiro in the lineup, they do anyway and play him at DH nearly every day. He was worth 16.2 WAR, and led the league in all sorts of categories.įor whatever reason, despite have the luxury of having what would be maybe the greatest single-season batter ever in their lineup, they don’t take advantage and barely improve. 390/.548/.841 with 63 home runs, which was good for an even better 275 OPS+. They even had Lyle Overbay play there “to keep his bat in the lineup.” For this experiment, we have transported 1920 Babe Ruth, who put up a 255 OPS+ that year, his career best. Boesch hit well, albeit in just 53 plate appearances, but other than that right field was pretty barren. In real life, right field was mostly manned in 2013 by Ichiro Suzuki, with Vernon Wells and Brennan Boesch also getting a bunch of innings. Can the likes of Babe Ruth save this team or were the 2013 Yankees just cursed to be unspeakably boring? Babe Ruth However in each one, I’ve given the 2013 Yankees one legend from the past in what was the legend’s best season. Using Out of the Park Baseball 21, I’ve re-simulated the 2013 season four times.

However, what could’ve been done to make them actually good? In retrospect, it’s actually pretty funny. No matter how stupid things got, something stupider seemed to follow. It was a minor miracle.Īs a lover of dumb baseball, the season is a cult favorite of mine. While no one that watched a significant amount would think that the 2013 Yankees were good, they were in the playoff race until fairly late in the season. Lyle Overbay played 142!ĭespite that, they actually finished with a winning record. The list of notables to miss large chunks of the season includes Derek Jeter, Alex Rodríguez, Mark Teixeira, Curtis Granderson, and Francisco Cervelli. It’s that they were mediocre and almost everyone remotely fun got injured at some point. However, the 2013 Yankees’ season was just the absolute pits. By win loss record, it’s not even the worst Yankees’ season in the past decade. There have been worse seasons in Yankees’ history.

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