Sometimes, the best way to understand the numbers is to place them on a scale. That is, sometimes the best way to understand how good Robinson Canó’s batting average is, is to see how many other players have hit .370 or better this late in a season (hint: it’s not going to be a lot).

We don’t necessarily need to focus on a player though; we can also analyze the numbers for a team, and in this case, see where the Yankees rank amidst their competition.

We’ll start simply. The Yankees’ may be “only” tied for first, but their 40-23 record is tied for the best in all of baseball. Ultimately, in the end, this is what matters. This might not be the blistering pace if 1998, but it’s pace enough to win 103 games, and if 103 wins doesn’t have you playing in October, then there’s something seriously wrong with the entire system.

The Yankees are 22-7 at home; it’s the most wins at home and only the Braves have fewer losses–though they’ve played four fewer games in their home park.

On the road, the Yanks’ are a little more pedestrian, as most teams are, with an 18-16 record. Even so, their record is good enough to rank fifth for road marks, and they haven’t entirely had an easy road schedule either–two visits to Boston, one to the Angels, one at Citifield (where the Mets are pretty good…).

Now, we can break down the Yankees’ performance into offense and pitching.

Offense

The Yankees rank first in runs scored (355), but NOT in hits, doubles, triples or home runs–though they rank fourth in hits and sixth in triples. How is this possible?

Simple. The Yankees, with a .365 team OBP (best in the Majors) rank second in MLB with 268 walks. Only Atlanta’s (?!) 295 rank higher. The Yankees, with 414 strike outs, are 7th or 23rd, depending on how you look at it, but they’ve struck out fewer than 22 of the other teams. Less strikeouts and more walks is usually a sign of good things, and it’s no different here.

The Yankees are second in OPS to Boston (.817 to .810), but whereas the Yankees have a higher BA and OBP, the Red Sox are more dependent on power. Given how dependent the Yankees were on their power hitting last season, this is an interesting development. The Yankees are scoring the runs they are not because they’re massacring the ball, but because the Nick Johnson of get-on-base-at-all-costs philosophy seems to have taken over the entire team.

Pitching

The Yankees’ team ERA of 3.82 ranks just ninth–pedestrian for a team on a 103 win pace, but much of that is due to the team’s bullpen. The starters–yes, include Javier Vazquez–have an ERA of 3.72 that ranks sixth, and second in the American League (it was obviously lower before Hughes’ performance yesterday).

In terms of runs allowed, the Yankees have allowed the 8th-fewest in the league and only three teams have walked fewer than the Yankees’ 188. Though the Yanks’ pitching may be giving up runs (on occasion), they’re not terribly hurting themselves by walking opponents left and right, either.

The Yankees rank dead middle-of-the-pack 15th in strikeouts, and with Sabathia struggling (for him) and Hughes’ leading the team in strikeouts, this may not be entirely surprising. That said, now that Javier Vazquez is pitching more like the guy the Yankees traded for and not the guy in April, I’d look for the strike out ranking to rise as the season progresses.

The 504 hits Yankees’ pitching has surrendered ranks third fewest in the league, so I wouldn’t worry too terribly much about the middle-of-the-pack strikeout-ness. Yankee pitching is getting outs, and that, in the end, is what matter.

Opponents have a .311 OBP against Yankee pitching–which is good for third in all of MLB. (a you-can’t-predict-baseball note: opponents have an OBP under .300 against San Diego.) That said, opponents have a .703 OPS against the Yankees (7th overall and 2nd in the AL). The low OBP and higher OPS doesn’t bode well for slugging…and, while it’s all relative, the Yankee pitching does drop to 12th (.393) in this category.

What does this mean? Yankee pitching isn’t walking a lot, and they’re not giving up a lot of hits, but when they do, they tend to be good hits.

Indeed, the Yankees’ 65 home runs surrendered are the eighth most in MLB, and you can take your pick–blame Javy, blame CC, blame Chan Ho Park, etc. Lots of candidates. That said, both Vazquez and Park have been pitching somewhat better of late and the Yankees’ do play in the AL East.

The Yankees have allowed the sixth fewest in total bases, and the fewest in the American League, and when that happens, your team’s pitching is probably doing just fine.

Summary

The summary is simply put: the Yankees are at or near the top in a number of offensive and pitching categories, and this is what you’d expect for a team with the best record in baseball.

In the American League you need to hit, and the Yankees are doing that just fine, but what makes the difference is that they’re also pitching well, in the harder league, to boot. What’s sustainable and what’s not is up for debate, but none of the numbers, offensive or pitching, seem so outrageously ludicrous as to not be–and in some cases we might even reasonably expect the numbers to approve.