Don't Write Off The Yankees

By Steffen Ploeger

The New York Yankees are the most successful championship organization in the history of professional sports in North America. With 27 World Series title under their name, the "Bronx Bombers" are identified by fans, rivals, and sports bettors as the most intimidating team in the MLB.

However, the most impressive players on the Yankees roster are getting older, and as a result, are more prone to injuries. Players like Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez are still in the class of the best of the best in baseball, but they are no longer the consistently top performing players that they once were. The Yankees are relying on their star veterans to continue performing, but their days are numbered. Legitimate questions of whether younger players can step into the shoes of the veterans haunt the Yankees, and perhaps expose a glaring weakness in the eyes of divisional rivals.

The Yankees began the 2013 season with less impressive odds than is typical for their organization, and many odds makers noted the team's aging superstars as reasons for the lower expectations. Jeter and Rodriguez were both sidelined early in the season, alongside fellow veterans Mark Teixeira and Curtis Granderson. The offensive talent expected from these four players was sidelined, and sports books inside casinos and online casinos considered the losses too great for the team to perform.

But since it is the Yankees, the team always finds a way to compete. The depth displayed by the rest of the roster helped the Yankees perform better than expected, and their odds of being World Series contenders improved with their performance. The season is only a month underway, and from now until October, anything can happen to alter a team's performance. But the Yankees prove year after year they are a force to be reckoned with, and once their veterans return to the lineup, that forceful nature will get knocked out of the park.