Much has been written about the need for the Yanks to get off to a strong start in the highly-competitive AL East.
With last night’s win over the Tigers, the Bombers have a 10-10 record after their first 20 games. Some would call that disappointing. Some would call for Joe Girardi’s head on a platter. Some would step back and say “given all they’ve been through, 10-10 is pretty decent.” But perhaps a larger question is . . . do the first 20 games of a season make or break your chances for the playoffs?
To attempt to answer this, I’ve analyzed the performances of all 104 playoff teams in the wild card era from 1996-2008 (I excluded 1995 due to the shortened schedule). I first looked at how those teams did in their first 20 games:
