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The Yankees right now are arguably the hottest team in baseball. They have won 13 of 16 and 23 of their last 30. During this stretch they have won in all sorts of ways, out pitching (2-0 win against the Oakland A’s), out hitting (9-1 win against the Mets, where the team recorded 11 hits), and out lasting (5-3 14 inning thriller against the Nationals) all of their opponents. While an argument could be made that most of the Yankees hot streak came during inter league play, the American League teams they played were the A’s, Angels, Tigers, Rays, and now the Indians. And let me remind you, wins are wins, and if you get them now you don’t have to worry about getting them in August or September.

The real question is whether the Yankees can continue this impressive play, and stay atop the AL East. I feel they will because the problems they have now are not ones that will hurt their chances of winning the division, while they very well could kill their chances at a World Series.  First off is their dependence on the home run. Over 50% of the Yankees runs come from the long ball, which is fine when you lead the majors in homers, but being such a one dimensional team will hurt come fall.

Also, when you look at the other teams in the AL East I don’t see a formidable foe. The Red Sox are struggling to stay over .500, and have been all season, and between their pitching woes, and Bobby Valentine’s mouth I don’t see them finishing higher than third. The Jays are proving again that they are not ready for fall ball. Their streakiness will eventually lead them to fourth or fifth place in the division yet again. Then you have the Orioles, the feel good team of the first half of the season, but you have to wonder if they can pull it off all season. Even if they can they aren’t good enough to take this division from the Yanks. Which leave the Rays as the only team who could give the Yankees a run for their money. They hit, they pitch, but they haven’t stayed healthy so far this season. If they are able to get healthy they have a team that could give the Yankees some problems to take home the division.

Besides the Yankees being one dimensional, there are some other things they need to do in order to stay in first. The most important of all of them is to hit with runners in scoring position. Collectively the Yankees are hitting .218 with runners in scoring position, and shockingly only Swisher is hitting above his career average in that category. A lot of the players, and the manager, are saying, it just hasn’t “clicked yet” but I am worried that this team will have the same problem last years team had in the Division Series against an inferior Detroit team. The bright side of all this, if/when they start coming up with clutch hits regularly, this offense will be extremely potent.

Finally, if the Yankees want to stay kings of the AL East castle, they should go out and get Wandy Rodriguez from Houston. He’d be a great arm to bring in, add another lefty to the rotation, and free up Phil Hughes to move to his rightful place in the bullpen. Wandy is 33 and would be a nice four or five guy in the rotation.

Either way this Yankees team looks like a team that could win the division, but there is definitely room for improvement, and Brian Cashman has never been one to sit idly while there are deals out there to be made.

On a side note; It wouldn’t hurt to get Bret Gardener back at some point this season… just saying.