The hated Yankees bring great offense to series

-With the highest payroll in baseball, the Yankees better have the best lineup in baseball. And, they do. They lead all of MLB in wOBA, OPS, OBP, SLG, runs created... you name it. The only players with an OPS below .800 are Melky Cabrera and Brett Gardner, and both of their OPS totals are above .750. They also absolutely mash power pitchers to a tune of an OPS+ of 142. So, it will be a good battle of power vs. power mashers when Verlander and Jackson meet up against the Yankees.

-Defensively, the Yankees are below average, and would be flat awful if Brett Gardner did not get playing time in CF. They rank 20th overall in UZR at -12.9. Gardner is a plus, plus defender with similar defensive numbers to Franklin Gutierrez. Derek Jeter and Robinson Cano are slightly above average defenders this year. Ever so slightly. Among the regulars, A-Roid and Johnny Damon have been two of the worst defensive players at their respctive positions this year.

-I will profile the starting pitchers seperately, so I will just look at their bullpen. In the last 30 days prior to the All Star break, the Yankees had the 4th best ERA among bullpens in MLB and have improved as the season has progressed. Obviously, we all know about Mariano Rivera. He has a K/BB rate of 14.33 this season. which is by far the best of his career. One blip in his resume is the 1.22 HR/9 ratio, which is the highest of his career. Phil Coke (a lefty), Phil Hughes and David Robertson are the next most used relievers. Robertson has a sick 13.50 K/9 ratio but he also walks the park with a BB/9 ratio of 6.35. He has the best ERA and FIP of the three but a WPA of -0.86. Hughes is the incredible prospect who has yet to pan out, but poses a big threat out of the bullpen. Brian Bruney has been lethal against lefties and may be counted on to get a guy like Granderson out this weekend. The veteran Brett Tomko, long reliever Alfredo Aceves and little-used reliever/promising prospect Mark Melancon round out the bullpen.