The luckiest vs. the unluckiest for the AL East

The Athletic has an article today with the chart below, along with their explanation.

I'm not sure I can agree with what they're calling "luck." "Effectiveness," "Consistency Rating," "Just Plain Good" might be better. But according to them, we're the unluckiest team in MLB. And the Jays are the luckiest.

Another meaningless stat in a meaningless universe? Maybe. But whatever they call it, we're getting our asses kicked by the Great White North. And too many other teams, as well. 

But at least they say we're "fascinating."

Unluckiest Teams:

30. New York Yankees, -7.9 wins

Luck ranks (more = luckier): Close games 30th | Offense 16th | Defense 27th

"The Aaron Boone-era Yankees are a fascinating, ongoing test case in whether luck-based stats like these can ever truly regress back to where we’d expect them to be. 

"On the one hand, I (and others) have been complaining about New York’s lack of fundamentals for years, citing them as a primary reason the team doesn’t always have the record its talent and underlying stats would predict. 

"However, this year’s splits are so pronounced that some kind of positive regression seems inevitable. (An eight-win luck shortfall in 96 games is truly enormous.) The Yankees were just 13-18 in one-run games in the first half, and 18-26 in those decided by two runs or fewer, while they were a league-best 35-17 in games with a margin of three runs or more. 

"Performance in blowouts is a strong predictor of future success, and New York’s improvement potential is further bolstered by the fact that pinstriped pitchers have allowed 17.3 more runs than expected via BaseRuns. While some of New York’s bad luck may be unfixable, a differential like this is extreme."