2012 Schedule Released

The preliminary regular season schedule for the 2012 season was released by Major League Baseball today. The Yanks open up the season in St. Pete against the Rays on 4/6/12. The home opener is on 4/13 against the Angels. They also end the season with three against the Red Sox at the Stadium. As for interleague, the Yanks play the Braves six times, make a trip to DC, face the Reds for three games at home, and of course, the six Subway Series games vs. the Mets.

For the entire schedule, check out this PDF via River Ave. Blues.

Postseason Schedule

Yanks play Wednesday at 8:07 (all games TBS), Thursday at 6:07, and home game #1 (Game 3) is at 8:37 on Saturday. The rest of the 2010 Postseason Schedule can be seen here.

Good to see those earlier start times, Mr. Selig.

Breaking Down the Remaining Schedule

The Yankees go into tonight's game with the AL West leading Texas Rangers with the best record in baseball. Sitting at 69-43 with just 50 games remaining they hold just a 1/2 game lead over the Tampa Bay Rays and only a 5 game lead over the Boston Red Sox for the AL East title. Here at SIH we will break down the Yankees remaining schedule.

Texas (.580) - 4
Kansas City (.416) - 4
Detroit (.478) - 4
Seattle (.386) - 3
Toronto (.527) - 9
Chicago White Sox (.558) - 3
Oakland (.500) - 4
Baltimore (.345) - 6
Tampa Bay (.611) - 7
Boston (.570) - 6

Home Games - 24
Away Games - 26

There will be two critical stretches for the Yankees over the final 50 games of the 2010 season. The first is a home stand beginning August 30th. This is a 10 game home stand in which the Yankees will play at or Oakland, Toronto, and Baltimore. At home the Yanks play at a .649 clip and against sub-par teams that are not in contention this will be a stretch where the team needs to take care of business and if still in the AL East lead increase the gap. If not in the lead this is a stretch where they will need to close the gap and hopefully retake the division.

The second critical stretch is a home stand as well which starts off with a 4 game set against the Rays followed by a 3 game set with the Red Sox. This trio of teams will be competing with each other for the division crown and the Wild Card. Even if the Red Sox are out of it by then, you know nothing would please them more to spoil the division for the Yankees. 26 percent of the Yankees remaining games coming against the Rays and Red Sox the Yankees just need to handle their business.

With the Yankees playing poorly as of late remember this: With 50 games remaining if the Yankees play just .500 baseball the rest of the way they will finish with a 94-68. While this probably won't be good enough to win the division it will keep them in wild card contention. The Yankees are very unlikely to play .500 ball the rest of the way as their current win percentage is .616 and have played at a high of a .640 clip. This team has the experience to close out the division down the stretch and are poised for a deep October run. Enjoy the possible playoff preview tonight down in Texas with the Yankees facing Cliff Lee looking for a series split.

Tonight's Game Has Been Suspended

Tonight's Yankees-Twins game has been suspended with no score after five innings. The game will resume tomorrow at 5:05 p.m. eastern time, with the regularly scheduled game set for 7:10 p.m. or 30 minutes after the first game ends.

Day-Night Doubleheader Tomorrow

With tonight's rainout, the Yankees and Tigers will play two tomorrow, with the first game starting at 1:05 p.m. and game two starting at 7:05 p.m. Javier Vazquez will start the opener, with Phil Hughes getting the ball in the nightcap.

Breaking Down the May Schedule

With the Yankees finishing up April tonight with only their 7th home game of the season against the White Sox, I thought it would be a good idea to take a look and break down the May Schedule.

Home Games: 16
Away Games: 13

Three of the thirteen away games the Yankees will be sleeping in their own beds. (@ Mets)
The Yankees will spend just Three games in a different time zone (@ Twins) Central Time Zone.

Teams:

White Sox: 2 (home)
Orioles: 3 (home)
Red Sox: 6 (3 @ Boston & 3 home)
Tigers: 4 (@ Detroit)
Twins: 6 (3 @ Minnesota, 3 home)
Rays: 2 (home)
Mets: 3 (@ Mets)
Indians: 4 (home)

Teams Over .500: 4
Teams at .500: 1
Teams Under .500: 3

Significant Series:

@ Boston 5/7-5/9
Vs. Boston 5/17-5/18
Vs. Tampa 5/19-5/20
@ Mets 5/21-5/23

Possible Story-lines:

- Will Javier Vazquez recover from a terrible April, or continue to crack under the pressure of playing in NY?

- Can Mark Teixeira have a bigger May 2010 than his 2009?

- Can anyone get Robinson Cano out?

So the Yankees have a seemingly advantageous May schedule if you consider how well they play at home (5-1 this year, .703 Winning Percentage in 2009), the limited road schedule, and a 4-3 Home-Away split of significant series against tough division rivals. It's possible that the Yankees win 19 games this month making them 19-10 in the month of May. With one game left in April the Yankees currently sit at 14-7 (2.5 games behind the Rays). The Yanks are off to one of their best starts in the past few years and looking at the May schedule they are primed to continue their solid play. Obviously anything can happen, and that is why they play the games. Let's sit back and enjoy the ride.