The New York Yankees head into the 2012 season as the unquestioned favorite in an AL East division that appears to be as unintimidating as it has been in the last few years. <\/p>\n
Odds to Win American League Pennant:<\/strong> +325 RHP Michael Pineda, RHP Hiroki Kuroda, INF-OF Bill Hall, 1B-DH Russell Branyan, RHP Manny Delcarmen, OF Dewayne Wise.<\/p>\n Back for 2012:<\/strong> OF Nick Swisher, 2B Robinson Cano, RHP Freddy Garcia, LHP CC Sabathia<\/p>\n C Jorge Posada, INF Eric Chavez, RHP Sergio Mitre, LHP Damaso Marte, RHP Luis Ayala, RHP Bartolo Colon<\/p>\n New York\u2019s offense is still incredibly stacked and the Yanks addressed some serious needs by upgrading their rotation ahead of the 2012 year.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s take a look at the Yankees chances this year, starting with the offense.<\/p>\n 1. SS Derek Jeter: There are not a whole lot of questions about New York\u2019s batting order \u2013 they figure to be as strong as ever despite the declining skills of Alex Rodriguez who only hit three home runs in 171 bats to end the season.<\/p>\n But health was an issue last year and going into 2012 his knee should be heeled and ready to go. Nobody has more to gain that Rodriguez \u2013 he would like nothing more than to shut the mouths of his critics and help the Yanks win another championship. There is power, RBIs and solid averages up and down the Yankees lineup.<\/p>\n How scary is the Yankees batting order? Mark Teixeira is projected to hit fifth in the incredibly stacked lineup.<\/p>\n There are absolutely no issues with Yankees offense \u2013 expect them to be at or near the top of most offensive categories again this year.<\/p>\n That brings us to the pitching \u2013 a serious area of concern going into the offseason.<\/p>\n 1. CC Sabathia, 19-8, 3.00 ERA in 2011 Closer: Mariano Rivera, 44\/49 saves, 1.91 ERA in 2011 The Yankees have absolutely done what they needed to do in order to return them to their dominant ways. [dfads params=’groups=10&limit=1&return_javascript=0′]<\/p>\n The acquisitions of Michael Pineda and Hiroki Kuroda have given them quality third and fourth starters – they won a combined 22 games on pretty bad teams last year. Impressive Ivan Nova returns for his second year after going 16-4 in his rookie campaign.<\/p>\n With CC Sabathia anchoring the rotation, names like Phil Hughes could end up as one of the better set up men in the game. The starting rotation is solid, even great for the first time in a long while for New York \u2013 they should be scary!<\/p>\n Out of the Bullpen comes Mariano Rivera \u2013 the most dominant close perhaps in the history of the game. David Robertson, Rafael Soriano and Boone Logan are some of the best, most dependable talents in the league. Look for New York to end the season with one of the most impressive Pens statistically.<\/p>\n With a lineup like this, failure is not an option. The Yankees are the class of the AL East up and down the lineup. Get used to seeing the Yanks at the top in 2012 \u2013 there is a realistic chance of them leading the AL East wire-to-wire.<\/p>\n New York finished 1st in the AL East on their way to yet another World Series appearance in 2012.<\/p>\n 2012 MLB Team Preview: N.Y. Yankees The New York Yankees head into the 2012 season as the unquestioned favorite in an AL East division that appears to be as unintimidating as it has been in the last few years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":33557,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[670],"tags":[53692,53693,24742,10737,10736,66513,10729,66497,678,681,44287,6874,24973,11278,11279,24972,11280,11281,44286],"class_list":["post-48242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb-baseball","tag-2012-mlb-team-preview","tag-2012-yankees","tag-al-east","tag-al-east-predictions","tag-al-east-preview","tag-handicapping","tag-handicapping-baseball","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-betting","tag-mlb-gambling","tag-new-york-world-series-futures","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-new-york-yankees-picks","tag-new-york-yankees-predictions","tag-yankees-futures","tag-yankees-mlb-picks","tag-yankees-odds","tag-yankees-predictions","tag-yankees-world-series-odds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48242"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107893,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48242\/revisions\/107893"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nOdds to Win World Series:<\/strong> +650<\/p>\nKey Additions:<\/h3>\n
Key Subtractions:<\/h3>\n
Projected batting order<\/h3>\n
\n.297 BA, .355 OBP, .388 SLG, 6 HR, 61 RBIs in 2011
\n2. CF Curtis Granderson:
\n.262 BA, .364 OBP, .552 SLG, 41 HR, 119 RBIs in 2011
\n3. 2B Robinson Cano:
\n.302 BA, .349 OBP, .533 SLG, 28 HR, 118 RBIs in 2011
\n4. 3B Alex Rodriguez:
\n.276 BA, .362 OBP, .461 SLG, 16 HR, 62 RBIs in 2011
\n5. 1B Mark Teixeira:
\n.248 BA, .341 OBP, .494 SLG, 39 HR, 111 RBIs in 2011
\n6. RF Nick Swisher:
\n.260 BA, .374 OBP, .449 SLG, 23 HR, 85 RBIs in 2011
\n7. DH Andruw Jones:
\n.247 BA, .356 OBP, .495 SLG, 13 HR, 33 RBIs in 2011
\n8. C Russell Martin:
\n.237 BA, .324 OBP, .408 SLG, 18 HR, 65 RBIs in 2011
\n9. LF Brett Gardner:
\n.259 BA, .345 OBP, .369 SLG, 7 HR, 36 RBIs in 2011<\/p><\/blockquote>\nProjected rotation<\/h3>\n
\n2. Ivan Nova, 16-4, 3.70 ERA in 2011
\n3. Hiroki Kuroda, 13-16, 3.07 ERA in 2011
\n4. Michael Pineda, 9-10, 3.74 ERA in 2011
\n5a. Freddy Garcia, 12-8, 3.62 ERA in 2011
\n5b. Phil Hughes, 5-5, 5.79 ERA in 2011
\n5c. A.J. Burnett, 11-11, 5.15 ERA in 2011<\/p>\nProjected bullpen<\/h3>\n
\nRH setup man: David Robertson, 1.08 ERA in 2011
\nRH setup man: Rafael Soriano, 4.12 ERA in 2011
\nLH setup man: Boone Logan, 3.46 ERA in 2011<\/p>\n2012 New York Yankees Prediction:<\/h3>\n
View The MLB Cappers Leaderboard For 2011 \u00a0– Picks Packages for 2012 On Sale! \u2014\u2013><\/strong><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"