I think this article is pretty spot on. The Yankees have struggled with consistency this year, which is something that young teams do, but it looks like they are either on a well timed hot streak, or perahps, like the 2015 Red Sox, that new core has settled in and is ready to genuinely be the core.Not sure I personally buy all of this, but this Fangraphs piece is very high on the current Yankee team:
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/no-one-will-want-to-face-these-yankees/
I don't think I'd rather face the Indians if the Sox are lucky enough to move on to the ALCS, but getting the Yankees instead isn't really the consolation prize I'd be hoping for. It's a very talented and very dangerous team who can beat anyone in a 5 or 7 game series.
It's K%, not K/9 in the article, which is a distinction worth making. And anyway, strikeout ability is actually a pretty good way to measure a bullpen's effectiveness. The two most important things to look for in relievers, IMO, are how often they can miss bats, and how often they can avoid walking batters. And if you are good enough at the former, you have more room for error with the latter.Aside from the cherry picking of using k/9 to display how great the pen has been, that all makes perfect sense.
You can attribute that 9 win differential to a couple explainable things. 1) Chapman’s unexpected blown saves 2) w/l record in 1 run games and 3) My game thread titles
The Yankees are, arguably, the best strike out bullpen in the game. By K/9 they have 2 in the top 7 and 3 in the top 14. By K% they have numbers 4 and 5 on the list, then check in again at number 17. As a unit they are tied with the Astros at the top of the league with a 10.93 K/9 and have a slight edge over the Astros for the top spot in K%.
If I was assembling a team for the playoffs by picking entire units (line up, rotation, bullpen, bench), there aren't many I'd take over the Yankees' pen.