Things are too good, too quiet, too kind for this team in this town.
Or is this the new culture and coda in the Bronx? Are the kinder, gentler Yankees a more stress-free baseball club?
The needle is pointing straight up from River Avenue. Depending on the sportsbook, the Yankees are somewhere among the top five favorites to win the World Series. According to a piece this week from CBSSports.com, which cited the latest Vegas numbers, the odds are 6-1 -- or a 14.3 percent chance -- that the Bombers bag ring No. 28. Their over/under for the year is 94.5 wins.
CBSSports also cited a SportsLine computer model, which simulated the Yankees' 2018 season an astounding 10,000 times, to produce the "most unbiased and precise sports projections imaginable." The model also has the Yanks winning an average of 93 games.
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Another piece from The New York Times, taking a wide lens to 2018, says things are looking so bright in the Bronx that they must look hard to find something to worry about, which is quite antithetical to the historically tense climate that for so long rippled throughout the clubhouse, with the always-heavy mandate storming down from the Boss, George Steinbrenner.
But are these newer, more relaxed times?
The last few years were unusually uncertain for the Yankees, who were trying to rebuild while remaining relevant. But after their enchanted run to Game 7 of the ALCS, the Yankees are, by all accounts, back to their late-October ways. Indeed, the Yankees are back to being the talk and chalk of baseball. Perhaps they aren't exactly the best club in MLB, but they are close enough.
After the brass shocked us all by canning manager Joe Girardi despite said run that left them nine innings from the Fall Classic, they hired managerial neophyte Aaron Boone to replace him, sweeping in a new era on the bench, and perhaps a new culture in the executive suite.
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With Hal Steinbrenner running the show, there has been a more detached approach, or at least a more gentle touch. We have no idea if old man Steinbrenner would have rolled the dice on a new-age manager like Boone, who preaches friendship over fear. But is the mandate the same? Is it World Series or bust for the Bombers? If the Yankees are a .500 club after Memorial Day, does Boone have to fear for his new job? What about July 4? Is there a vocational sword hanging over Boone's head? Or do the Yanks have his back no matter how the team fares the first few months, or even the entire season? It seems general manager Brian Cashman, with his boss' blessing, hired Boone to remake the Yankees in a more friendly refrain.
Speaking of fear, renowned Yankees fan, Chazz Palminteri, who played Sonny in "A Bronx Tale," was famously asked in the film if it's better to be loved or feared.
It's a fitting question. About eight years ago, during my first interview for WFAN.com, Palminteri told me a fabulous story about watching Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS in his house. Terrified of losing, and wholly unhappy with the results while watching from various TV sets, Palminteri, just as superstitious as any ardent baseball fan, finally watched the last few innings on a microscopic, 13-inch TV through a pantry door, cowering from a nearby closet. It seems he finally found the alchemy that worked, as the man who is today the new Yankees manager belted that iconic homer in the 11th inning off Tim Wakefield to win the pennant.
Is that the kind of hit, game or season that is expected of these new, loaded Yankees? Does Boone need similar heroics from one of his players to make it past his maiden campaign as skipper? Expectations have always been epic around here, even when the talent doesn't match them. Now that the Yankees are stacked from the top to the bottom of the lineup, through the bullpen and all the way down the minor leagues, we all expect a deep, autumn run to familiar ground.
For too long, the Yankees have feasted on fear -- for their jobs, for their baseball lives. Now they're living on love, on the wholly millennial concept that we can always hug it out. Does that translate on the diamond? The Yankees are so talented, perhaps any approach will work.
For now, at least, there's nothing to fear in the Bronx.
Follow Jason on Twitter at @JasonKeidel
