The fate of the Yankees lies within something called Zelus Analytics

Behold The Z-Team: 

Leading off, there's Dashing Doug Fearing, followed by Crazy Hair Luke Bornn (old "Double N"), the mysterious Inderpal Singh at DH, and Dangerous Dan Cervone - the Four Horsemen of the Yankee Apocalypse - the top four at Zelus Analytics, the team of wonks, crunchers and algorithms that has been hired to figure out what the hell is wrong with the Yankees.

Let's hope they find a Fibonacci sequence - (a Rizzutonacci sequence?) - that will restore the Yankees to, well, whatever the hell they were... long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away. 

(In case you're wondering, in Greek mythology, Zelos was the daimon that personifies dedication, emulation envy and jealousy. In a nice symmetry,  considering the Yankee fan base, the English word "zealot" stems from this name.)

In my years of following the Death Barge - an obsession that extends back to the glory days of M&M - I cannot recall a Yankee owner punting on his gut and hiring an outside analytics firm to analyze the interior analytics department. Crunching the crunchers. Part of me wants to believe it's a good thing. But I dunno...

Maybe Prince Hal realizes something horrible has gone astray, that the Yankees somehow last summer became a toxic environment, and he's willing to try something - anything - to change things. Zelus will generate a garage full of data, and maybe somewhere within those numbers, the pencil-pushers can explain how somebody thought it was a good idea to get Joey Gallo from the Rangers in 2021, launching the Texas trajectory toward a championship. Maybe they'll solve the mysteries of Josh Donaldson, Aaron Hicks, Luis Severino, Estavan Florial, et al. 

Or maybe they'll turn an already soul-less franchise over to Artificial Intelligence. 

Or maybe they'll just give Hal new ideas on how to make money. 

And therein lies the concern.

With or without a world championship, Hal will do just fine. The Yankees control the most lucrative market in American sports, and it will take years of domination by the Mets before they lose that toehold. 

Of course, if they ever do lose it, it will take decades to get it back.

Let's wish Zelus well. For posterity, here's their elevator pitch, direct from the website: 

Professional sports teams are currently engaged in a billion-dollar arms race to squeeze wins out of data. While early innovations in sports analytics largely relied on simple techniques, many teams are struggling to handle emergent challenges with the complex data sources now dominating the space. At Zelus Analytics, our mission is to address these challenges by building the world’s leading sports intelligence platform. In so doing, we intend to help the professional teams in our exclusive partner network compete and win championships.

So it goes.