First, I will admit I am a Yankees fan and agree with a lot of your points, most of them actually. However, I don't feel the media (at least the stuff I saw) made it seem that it was thiers to lose.

They were the 1st wild card team against an 84 win 2nd team. While anything can happen in a one game playoff, I think most people picked them over the twins because they were a better team. That game didn't exactly go spectacularly well either with their starter lasting ONE-THIRD of an inning. The bullpen was the only reason they were able to win that game.

Going into the ALDS, contrary to what was stated, NO ONE picked them to win against the #1 seed Indians especially after losing the first 2 games. They were able to win 2 games at home and lucked out against Kluber in game 5.

I still believe that Houston was favored over them in the ALCS given they had home field advantage, again especially after losing the first two games. The commentary loves to throw out stats about win percentages of teams winning game 1 and 2, which Houston won. The Yankees were able to put together a 3 game win streak at home to put the series at 3-2. I am not a statistician but I think a team that only needs to win one game vs. a team that needs to win 2 games has odds in its favor, but the commentary I heard seemed to suggest Houston was capable of overcoming the odds with MVP Verlander pitching and proved it.

I am not trying to be a jerk, but I heard Lance McCullers say on TV that "everybody counted them out"... and I just don't understand where that narrative is coming from because I personally didn't witness any of that.

This years version of the Yankees was an "underdog" team that was constantly mentioned on the broadcasting. I don't believe an underdog is favored to win the entire thing nor is it their's to lose. I do think people like to hate the Yankees because they are uninformed and just assume that the Yankees are still the buy the best free agents possible mentality where they have been trying to deviate from that for a few years now since the game has changed.