The Yankees are both exceeding and underperforming expectations

Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty ImagesNo one expected the Yankees to play as well as they have this year. Well, I shouldn’t say no one. Perhaps you knew, in your heart, that Aaron Judge would have a median outcome that involved hitting like Babe Ruth for extended stretches. Maybe you could feel it in your bones that Luis Severino was ready to breakout, Jordan Montgomery was poised to suddenly emergence, or Michael Pineda would pitch competently. Maybe the ascensions of Aaron Hicks and Starlin Castro have been all too predictable to you.

If you, hypothetical reader, knew all these things to be coming, I'd have to ask: why didn’t you tell the rest of us? Because most of baseball has been left…