What’s to Blame for the Yankees’ Struggles: Starters or Offense?

On the good side, the Yankees took the first three games from the Indians over the weekend, as you heard right here on 104.5 The Team.

On the bad side, the Yankees lost the last game of the series, missing out on a sweep, and lost the first game of the divisional series against the Baltimore Orioles last night.

Late on yesterday's edition of Levack & Bahl, Levack and I got into a discussion about the Yankees, and we landed on different sides of a key debate.

What is to blame more for the Yankees' early season struggles: the offense, or the pitching?

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As a man of honor and integrity, I will present both sides of the argument, and let you decide.

"Mr. Bahl, please state your case."

"Gladly, your honor."

OFFENSE: The Yankees have scored 77 runs in 23 games, for a total of 3.35 runs per game. That total is fourth-worst in Major League Baseball, ahead of only the Tigers, Nationals and Mets. Your key players are simply not getting it done...

• Judge + LeMahieu: .250
• Torres: .208
• Stanton: .192
• Sanchez: .182
• Hicks: .162

You still have Higgy, though!

While that sounded like a joke, he has the highest average in the team by over 20 points. That's not good.

PITCHING: I'm just going to lay out a few numbers here, too.

4.57. 6.23. 5.40. 6.23. 9.72. 4.50.

These are the ERAs of every pitcher BESIDES Gerrit Cole, who has started a game for the Yankees this season. The Yankees have a starting pitching ERA of 4.43, while possessing the second-lowest bullpen ERA in baseball.

For me, your offense is being put in a position of knowing they HAVE to score five runs within the first five innings of every game. Yes, they *should* be able to handle that most nights, but you can't make it an expectation for 162 games (minus you, Gerrit).

We love assigning blame in sports. So, let's do it. Who should be blamed for the Bombers' struggles?