2019 Yankees are so loaded they might be in first place wire to wire.

While the Yankees were beating the rebuilding Orioles at Yankee Stadium 7-2 the 2018 champion Red Sox were losing to the rebuilding Mariners in Seattle 12-4 on opening day 2019. Division records:

Yankees 1-0
Red Sox 0-1
Orioles, Rays, Jays also 0-1

This after the Red Sox had their most wins ever in 2018. AL East division wins in 2018:
Red Sox 108 (beat Yankees 3-1 in tournament round one)
Yankees 100
Rays 90
Jays 73
Orioles 47

Ouch. Those Orioles really stunk. But of those three top teams, which is most likely to repeat its win total?

Opening day 2019 the Red Sox started their ace, Chris Sale, and Sale was terrible:

Pitching	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA	BF	Pit	Str	Ctct	StS	StL	GB	FB	LD	Unk	GSc	IR	IS	WPA	aLI	RE24
Chris Sale, L (0-1)	3	6	7	7	2	4	3	21.00	18	76	45	23	12	10	3	8	3	0	21			-0.492	0.84	-5.6

Sale had just signed a new five year contract with the Red Sox for big bucks. And Sale usually pitches well before September:

I	Split	W	L	W-L%	ERA	G	GS	GF	CG	SHO	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	BK	WP	BF	WHIP	SO9	SO/W
	April/March	19	8	.704	3.06	44	34	4	1	1	1	232.2	181	83	79	23	54	0	250	10	0	2	921	1.010	9.7	4.63
	May	22	4	.846	2.67	45	34	2	3	1	1	239.1	160	77	71	20	64	0	298	10	0	3	943	0.936	11.2	4.66
	June	19	12	.613	2.54	50	39	3	4	0	0	291.0	220	86	82	23	58	2	351	13	1	11	1139	0.955	10.9	6.05
	July	17	10	.630	2.40	39	30	1	3	0	0	225.0	189	64	60	16	42	5	268	19	0	9	903	1.027	10.7	6.38
	August	15	13	.536	3.16	53	35	4	3	0	3	259.1	209	98	91	30	64	4	338	15	0	6	1047	1.053	11.7	5.28
	Sept/Oct	11	16	.407	3.78	57	36	11	1	0	7	238.0	236	109	100	39	57	3	288	19	0	5	997	1.231	10.9	5.05

Boston has holes at 2B, 3B, C. And not much hitting in CF: Bradley. Red Sox opening day lineup:

Red Sox

1	Andrew Benintendi	LF
2	Mookie Betts	RF
3	Rafael Devers	3B
4	J.D. Martinez	DH
5	Xander Bogaerts	SS
6	Mitch Moreland	1B
7	Eduardo Nunez	2B
8	Jackie Bradley	CF
9	Christian Vazquez	C
	Chris Sale	P

The Yankees got a three run home run in the first inning from clean up hitter Luke Voit, who was not retired all day. Voit bats righty and hits righty pitching better than Yankee lefty first baseman Greg Bird, who homered in the 8th off a lefty.

Yankees 2019 first baseman: Greg Bird and/or Luke Voit? Wednesday, March 6, 2019

Luke Voit has super numbers for making solid contact.
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The Yankees have Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton. They led their leagues in Home Runs in 2017:
Stanton 59 for Marlins in NL
Judge 52 for Yankees in AL.

2018 Yankees averaged 30 Home Runs per fielding position: record 267 homers. 300 in 2019? Monday, March 25, 2019

Note the low at bats (AB) of:
Hicks: 480
Judge: 413
Torres: 431
Sanchez: 323

Bird and Voight playing mostly first base were not even regulars.

Stanton had the most homers, only 38.

And yet, the 2018 Yankees set a new record for team home runs: 267, almost an average of 30 per fielding position (OK, including DH), especially fielding rather batting order.

When Babe Ruth set the season Home Run record in 1927 for the fourth and final time he hit 60 HR in 540 AB in the old 154 game schedule. In the current 162 game schedule a minimum of 540 AB is a reasonable number of AB to expect per fielding position.

30 HR per 540 AB is half of what Ruth hit in 1927. That's about what the 2018 Yankees did. About half the old record ... for each and every fielding position, including DH. Six of nine had at least 30 HR, all but 2B, 3B, LF.

In 2017:
Stanton: 59 HR in 597 AB (for the Marlins)
Judge: 52 HR in 542 AB
Sanchez: 33 HR in 471 AB

What if those three each get at least 540 AB in 2019? And 2018 rookies Andujar and Torres continue to develop? Could the 2019 Yankees not only break their own record of 267 Home Runs but actually reach 300?
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2019 opening day Yankee lineup:

1	Brett Gardner	CF
2	Aaron Judge	RF
3	Giancarlo Stanton	LF
4	Luke Voit	DH
5	Miguel Andujar	3B
6	Gary Sanchez	C
7	Greg Bird	1B
8	Gleyber Torres	2B
9	Troy Tulowitzki	SS
	Masahiro Tanaka	P

Oh, the Yankees pitching was good 2019 opening day:

Pitching	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA	BF	Pit	Str	Ctct	StS	StL	GB	FB	LD	Unk	GSc	IR	IS	WPA	aLI	RE24
Masahiro Tanaka, W (1-0)	5.2	6	2	1	0	5	0	1.59	22	83	56	32	9	15	10	7	3	0	56			0.153	0.57	0.9
Adam Ottavino	1.1	0	0	0	0	3	0	0.00	4	19	13	4	1	8	0	1	1	0		1	0	0.050	0.46	0.9
Zack Britton	1	1	0	0	1	0	0	0.00	5	15	6	5	0	1	3	1	0	0		0	0	0.025	0.52	0.5
Aroldis Chapman	1	1	0	0	0	1	0	0.00	4	18	11	7	1	3	2	1	1	0		0	0	0.007	0.21	0.5
Team Totals	9	8	2	1	1	9	0	1.00	35	135	86	48	11	27	15	10	5	0	56	1	0	0.235	0.51	2.8

9 SO, 1 BB