2022 Set -- New York Yankees

 At one point, it seemed like we were back in 1998: the Yankees had the best record in baseball, the pitching staff was lights out 1-5, the lineup was cruising, and Aaron Judge was the surefire MVP candidate. Unfortunately for the Bronx Bombers (and fortunately for the rest of America), only one of those midseason snapshots was still true by season's end, creating the reason most of you are excited for the Yankees post -- AL MVP Aaron Judge, the new AL home run king! That said, the Yankees still finished with 99 wins and advanced to the ALCS, where they ran into that buzzsaw of an Astros squad.

Just to keep the rivalry rolling with Houston, here's Pettitte's best Yankees card

Let's get to Judge (and crew)!!

Lineup: What can be said about Aaron Judge that isn't already well known -- He's like '01 Bonds with greater defensive versatility. Honestly, I was surprised he wasn't just OF +2 since he's so adept in RF. A sneaky awesome part of his card is the 14 for a 1B+... he's the most expensive hitter in the set at 660 points, but I still expect someone will take him in the first 5 picks, if not #1 overall. 

Unfortunately for Yankees fans, the next most expensive hitter in this lineup is DJ LeMahieu's (injured) 280 pt, OB 8 card with great defense and limited offensive potency. Benintendi, Rizzo and Torres provide three 250 point cards of varying appeal for league drafts. Benintendi will be a no-brainer for many managers, especially those that like cheap OB with little meat on the chart, while Rizzo is a 17-20 HR on an OB 8 - the perfect #6 hitter and 1B for many managers. Torres has a lot of xbh pop, but the OB 7 and only +2 at 2B is likely to make managers more wary at the 250 pts than the other two, as he feels like less of a bargain for what you want out of the card. The remaining four lineup slots are all OB 6, which explains why the Astros' amazing rotation mowed them down so easily (especially if you sub in OB 6 Donaldson for LeMahieu). Stanton may find play with his 12-20 HR range, but an OB 6 for 220 pts is VERY hard to roster without any defense or speed. Ironically, I think that's why 210 pt Harrison Bader (speed A, CF +3) finds a spot even at his price point as an OB 6 to be someone's #7 hitter. Kiner-Falefa is dreadful, but Trevino's 150 pt catcher card with a +12 arm may be a first-rounder in a 12 team league if you play with the crazies from discord ;)  

Bench: Definitely a card that missed the conventional PA cutoff for me, but Matt Carpenter was such an instrumental part of the 2022 season that I couldn't help but include him... I slapped a PR symbol on him, but he was crushing the ball at the same 60+ HR rate as Judge! If you let him into the lineup, suddenly they're a lot scarier...... which is why he was brought in during the ALCS, where the whole "small sample size" and "probably still injured" realities caught up to him. If he's used in your league, definitely worth in an early round pick as a middle-of-the-lineup bat!

Josh Donaldson obviously started many games for the Yankees (especially after DJ went down), but he finds himself on the bench for this post. Someone may fall in love with that 140 pt card with +3 defense, but it won't be me. Hicks is the kind of cheap OB 7 with B speed that WDR would draft and put in a low lineup slot if he wasn't on the Yankees. 

Rotation: It seems strange to say this for the Yankees, but the rotation was 2022 New York's unquestioned strength. It had enough depth to ship out ANOTHER Tier 2 at the deadline for OF help after all! The leader is Tier 1 ace Nestor Cortes, who put together a brilliant card. At 680 points, he's actually outprices 60+ HR Aaron Judge! The Yankees $300 million arm is next up, with Cole bringing a Tier 2, Control 3 with no doubles card with a massive K range. Luis Severino provides a third ace-level card with a solid Control 4, on at 18 Tier 2 card. The rotation rounds out with a pair of stereotypical Tier 3 guys: Control 3, on at 18, at least three rolls for each outcome on the chart. The "big three" to this rotation matches up equally against anyone else (but the Dodgers) and I expect each of them to be drafted.

Bullpen: Clay Holmes brought a stellar closer card, but I don't think I'd pay 230 pts for him when there's a lot of Tier 1 closers in this set for 220 pts. However, he's perfect for heavy GB builds. Schmidt has the nice IP 2, but even though he's cheap in '00 version, I don't really like a Tier 3, control 3 bullpen arm. I'd much rather take Loasiaga for 100 pts less and no doubles in exchange for 1 less IP. Of course, the guy that I'm targeting is Wandy's Tier 2, Control 4 card for 190 pts. Sure, he's 30 pts more than Doug Brocail, but dang, I love the Brocail chart/card. Luetege is actually super draftable as Tier 4, Control 3 at only 80 pts. 

The Yankees come in at 6800 points for 22 players, with, incredibly, over 35% of those points being allocated to 4 players (and nearly 45% to their best 5 players)! Judge and Cortes alone are just barely under 20% of their team's points -- which is another way of saying, the Yankees absolutely have ELITE starpower, but depth is not their forte.