As the fantasy baseball season has mercifully drawn to a close, I thought it would be the perfect time to dispense some wisdom and advice for those who are hopelessly hooked on this game.
Call it the Goldilocks Guide, if you will.
Too early for next year, too late for this year.
Just right for those who are wallowing in self pity because they made the playoffs riding Josh Hamilton to that last playoff berth.
Only to watch him break a couple ribs on the eve of the finals.
The New York Yankees teams in the past would spend their money at astronomical proportions during an offseason following an early playoff exit.
One must hope the Yankees of this season will not follow the same model as it has proven to be detrimental over the course of time. The Yankees do not need to spend big on free agents, but instead should look to within and infuse youth into an aging roster.
The first order of business is of course the much-maligned rotation, which helped give pitching coach Dave Eiland the boot. Most Yankees fans want Cliff Lee to play Robin to CC Sabathia’s Batman. First off the Yankees do not need Lee and after the allegations fans spit on his wife I’m not sold that all the money in the world would bring him to the Bronx.
If the money is the end-all for Lee then it could be bad news for the Yankees in this writer’s opinion. The Yankees are already on the hook for Sabathia’s contract for another five years and Mr. Reliable, AJ Burnett’s deal for another three years.
Take the name, Lee, away from his numbers and you see a 32-year-old pitcher who has had career seasons the past two years. He is believed to be a seeking at least a five-year deal and it would be nonsense to think he can keep up the level he has pitched on the past two seasons for the length of his contract.
Following Lee there are talks of the Yankees looking into acquiring Jayson Werth of the Phillies or Carl Crawford of the Rays. Crawford is far and away the player Yankees fans most covet, but he would not be a good acquisition.
Crawford is a 30-year-old outfielder who relies entirely on his speed. He may have more power than the Yankees current left fielder, Brett Gardner, but signing him would be a mistake.
Gardner is a pesky hitter who works long counts and drives pitchers crazy. Once he gets on base, he then causes havoc. The pitcher is so worried about him because he’s a threat to steal on any pitch that they sometimes leave a cookie over the plate for the other hitters to feast on.
Both Gardner and Crawford’s games are based on speed and who would you rather have? A 30-year-old who may soon lose a step or a 26-year-old who is entering his prime years?
To help solve the rotation issues the Yankees would do good to bring along Ivan Nova who impressed in his short stint in the big leagues this season. Nova possesses a mid-90s fastball and sharp breaking curveball. He has trouble getting through an opposing lineup for a third time making it paramount to develop a third pitch, but he’s a cheaper alternative who could pay big dividends.
To help alleviate Jorge Posada who has shown that he cannot be an everyday catcher anymore, the Yankees should call up Jesus Montero. Montero started off his season slow, but rebounded to blast 21 home runs and hit to a .270 average.
The knock against Montero has been his defensive skills, but Yankees personnel believe his defense has improved enough to be a catcher in the big leagues. He is said to have Mike Piazza-type power to the opposite way and at worst he will be another Posada: someone who has below-average defense that can make it up with above-average offense.
To help out their aging left side of the infield the Yankees can use Eduardo Nunez to help give them days off. The Yankees made Nunez play multiple positions, so he can be super-utility player. He can play every day, but in different positions in order to give the older players rest.
Another player the Yankees are impressed with is somebody who has not gotten enough attention. His name is Brandon Laird and he played third base for the Yankees Double-A affiliate. This season he blasted 25 home runs, giving the Yankees hope he can fill a power spot in their lineup sometime soon.
Signing high-priced veterans would put the Yankees in a cycle which is hard to get out of. All one needs to do is look back to the 2002 and 2003 teams. They were filled with older players and were playoff failures, losing to teams who were more athletic and younger at every position.
This year’s playoff exit happened the same way. The Texas Rangers beat out an aging Yankees team. To continue to compete against teams such as the Rangers and Rays, the Yankees need to continue to infuse young players to complement their aging core.
Youth leads to success and the Yankees should follow that memo this offseason.
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It’s been a few days since the Bronx Bombers dropped Game 6 of the ALCS in Texas. And while the healing-process was undoubtedly delayed by Cooper’s drunken rants against all things Yankee and the decade-old ramblings from an endangered species called “Orioles Fans,” the fact that the Knicks are set to start the most exciting season in nearly a decade is enough to get us out of bed in the morning.
However, in the next couple days we’ll take a look at what went wrong, what went right and what needs to change for the 2010 New York Yankees.
By Anthony Strait
The New York Yankees headed into their American League Championship Series matchup with so much on their side. They were coming off a three-game demolition of the Minnesota Twins which allowed them some rest. The starting pitching was coming together after a rough September and looked poised to power the team much like in 2009. An added bonus was that the Texas Rangers needed all five games to eliminate the Tampa Bay Rays, meaning that Cliff Lee would not start till Game 3.
Yet so much went wrong for the Yankees that many will make the argument that they could have easily been swept if not for a bullpen meltdown by the Rangers in Game 1. The Yankees ALCS loss in the end became a microcosm of the problems that plagued them over the last month of the season and in the end left them short of their ultimate goal: repeating.
You can start with the Yankees bats, which many felt would be the strength that would carry them back to the fall classic. In the regular season, New York led the majors with 859 runs—72 more runs than the Rangers. Yet outside of Robinson Cano and an eighth-inning comeback in Game 1, the Yankees bats were punchless.
The team batting average in the regular season was .267; in the LCS they batted .201 with a .300 on-base percentage. New York was just 5-for-47 with runners in scoring position in Games 2 through 6. A more sobering realization for the Yanks was that Cliff Lee pitched once in the series—meaning they couldn’t hit the other Rangers pitchers either. Losing Mark Teixeira didn’t help matters but he didn’t have a hit in the series (0-14). All in all, the Yankees scored just 19 runs in the series.
“We’re capable of anything at any time on offense,” said GM Brian Cashman after the Game 6 loss. “But outside of the one inning [eighth inning of Game 1] and the one game in New York [Game 5], we didn’t do anything.”
The Yankees offense vanished while the starting pitching was pretty much beaten up throughout the series. CC Sabathia was roughed up in Game 1 and Phil Hughes followed that up by allowing seven runs in four innings in Game 2. The starting pitching, a question mark at the end of the regular season; pitched well in the Minnesota series. Against Texas however the ERA through the six games was 6.58. Andy Pettitte pitched well in Game 3 while the decision to start AJ Burnett was questioned. Yet Burnett pitched well up until the sixth inning of Game 4. The starting rotation struggled down the stretch and was really roughed up by an aggressive Texas team that ran the bases and forced the issue.
Another key under the microscope and one that will be during the offseason will be manager Joe Girardi’s decisions during the series. The decision to start Phil Hughes in Game 2 over Pettitte raised eyebrows. Many viewed starting Sabathia and Pettitte back to back would have given the Yanks a chance at trying to steal two games on the road before facing Lee.
Game 4 saw Girardi going with the numbers game in leaving Burnett in one inning too long. It led to an intentional walk of David Murphy followed by Benji Molina’s three-run home run that gave the Rangers the lead for good.
The final nail was bringing in David Robertson after Hughes was knocked out of Game 6. He immediately served up a two-run homer to Nelson Cruz.
A series that saw the Yankees get outplayed, and to an extent out-managed, has now left them with an offseason full of questions to answer. The future of the core four (Jorge Posada, Pettitte, Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera) is up in the air, along with adding or subtracting personnel.
Heading into the playoffs the Yankees looked like a shell of the team that won it all a year ago. The Rangers made them look old through six games and now it will be up to Cashman to retool for 2011. Perhaps he can look at the last week to address the team’s needs; considering they will have the winter to reflect on a series where everything did go wrong.
This article originally appeared on The NY Sports Digest. If it’s offbeat and it’s about the Mets, Yankees, Knicks, Giants, Jets, Islanders or Rangers, than The Digest is the spot to get it. Stop with the mega-sites and get a feel for the true pulse of New York at www.NYSportsDigest.com
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Yankees general manager Brian Cashman has started making changes. The Yankees were pushed from the playoffs by the Texas Rangers last week. Many decisions will need to be made as New York tries to regroup for next season.
The first decision was made yesterday when the Yankees announced pitching coach Dave Eiland would not be returning. This move is a surprise because of the history Eiland has with the organization.
One can only speculate as to the reasoning as Cashman would not give a reason other than to say it was “private” and “personal.”
Cashman also said the decision had nothing to do with the pitching staffs performance in the ALCS. Eiland missed a month of the season due to personal issues and there has been some speculation that may be part of the reasoning.
The team will begin looking for Eiland’s replacement once the negotiations with Girardi are complete. This will be an important position on the Yankees staff. Eiland had built a relationship with young pitchers like Phil Hughes.
So, Eiland, who pitched for the Yankees and became their pitching coach in 2008, will not return. Who else will not be returning?
Find out as you continue reading this article at Double G Sports.
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Last night, the New York Yankees were blown out for one final time in 2010, watching as the Texas Rangers celebrate with ginger ale on the pitcher’s mound after closer Neftali Feliz struck out Alex Rodriguez for the last out. Good to see A-Rod finally help Texas to the World Series!
More seriously though, the Yankees’ window is quickly shutting, as even all the money in the world won’t be able to get the Yankees out of their current troubles.
They’re old. They’re breaking down. They’re overpaid. Like really, really overpaid. They spent $64.5 million on their starting rotation this season. Texas spent $55.3 million on their entire team. The Yanks rotation—once considered the class of the majors—was an absolute joke once the spotlight focused on them. Phil Hughes crumbled in the second half of the season (8-7, 5.55 ERA), and lost both his starts against Texas.
AJ Burnett was good for a 10-15 record, and a 5.26 ERA this season—just good enough for an $80 million deal, and a Game 4 loss.
And who could forget Javy Vazquez, who went 10-10, with a 5.32 ERA, and was reduced to nothing more than a long-inning reliever—a kind term for mop-up duty—once August turned to September?
Even Andy Pettitte wasn’t the same after his arm injury, and chances stand at only 50/50 that he decides to return next season. Heck CC—or Cash Cow—was good for a 5.62 ERA in three postseason starts, getting bailed out by his offense in all of his appearances.
The hitting wasn’t much better. Derek Jeter hit .270 this season, or 44 points below his career average. His OBP was 66 points lower than the year before. And at 36, his fielding is slowly starting to deteriorate. Now the Yankees will have to shower him with a new deal because—let’s face it—they’re not getting rid of “The Captain.”
Nick Johnson was an absolute disaster of a one-year deal, and makes you wonder why they didn’t re-sign Hideki Matsui, or at least make a run at Texas DH Vladimir Guerrero.
Mark Teixeira started with his usual first-month slump, but never broke out of it. A-Rod’s .270 average was 33 points below his career average, though he was good for another 30/100 season. But at 35, A-Rod had another terrible postseason (.219 AVG, zero HR, three RBI) and isn’t exactly a fan favorite.
Jorge Posada is 39, and is coming off a year in which he batted .248, his lowest since 1999. Look around the league, and you’ll notice how few catchers there are that are over 35. Having a 40-year-old catcher is almost unheard of.
Mariano Rivera is eventually going to retire. Who in that bullpen is taking over for him? Do you trust Joba Chamberlain to really be the closer of the future?
So where do the Yankees turn from here? The Royals have put Zack Greinke on the trading block, but their No. 1 target is Cliff Lee, who dominated them in the World Series last year, and in Game 3 of the ALCS this season. The best postseason pitcher in baseball right now, Lee is set to turn 32, but when has age ever mattered to the Yankees?
But at the end, it may not mean much. Joe Girardi was out-managed all series by Ron Washington, making dumb decision after dumb decision. If we want to credit him with helping the Yanks win the Series last year, you have to fault him for them getting blown out of the ALCS this season.
Texas got hot at the right time. As a Rays fan, I know this better than any Yankee fan. On paper, I take both the Rays and Yanks over the Rangers. But the Rangers steamrolled the Yanks, and save an eighth-inning rally in Game 1, the Yankees get swept in this series. So for Yankee fans, take solace that the brooms remained in the closet.
Lance Berkman, Robinson Cano and Curtis Granderson were the only three hitters who even bothered showing up for the playoffs. And as much as everyone loves Brett Gardner and his great hustle, the fact is he batted .185 in the playoffs, and had only five home runs in 150 games this season.
I’d never count the Yankees out, because they like buying shiny new players, especially in a state of depression. Remember their spending spree two years ago, when they didn’t make the playoffs (Hello CC, AJ and Teix!). I’m not saying it will be to that magnitude—especially with Jeter, Girardi, Mariano and potentially Pettitte all needing new deals—but this team will do everything possible to get Carl Crawford, bring in Cliff Lee and possibly look into Rafael Soriano to take over for Mo in a couple years. But for now, let’s all rejoice—the Bronx is Burning. And all that money is only fueling the fire.
Michael Perchick is the writer/editor of TheJockosphere, a sports/Twitter site, reporting the top tweets and news directly from athletes. Follow him on Twitter @TheREALPerchick, and at http://thejockosphere.com/.
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The Yankees 2010 season is now officially over.
There will be no ticker-tape parade down the Canyon of Heroes in November. There will be no celebrating the 28th World Series Championship at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.
After the Rangers defeated the Yankees 6-1 in Game Six of the ALCS, all the Yankees have in the winter is a bitter defeat by a team that outplayed them in the series and a lot of questions surrounding their team.
But first, to be fair and a good sport, I must congratulate the Texas Rangers for advancing to their first ever World Series. They outplayed the Yankees in five of the six games and were the better team, no other way to describe it.
For a guy like Vladimir Guerrero, who has been one of the best players in the game for years without a chance to play in the Fall Classic, it’s nice to see. And for a guy like Josh Hamilton, who overcame drug and alcohol addictions to be the ALCS MVP (and possibly the American League MVP as well), it was also nice to see.
Now, with that being said, it is time to try and figure out the burning question, what the hell went wrong with the Yankees in that series?
1. The starting pitching.
In 2009, CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Andy Pettitte went a combined 8-2 in the postseason, which was crucial to them winning the World Series.
In 2010, Sabathia, Burnett, Pettitte and Phil Hughes went a combined 3-4 in the postseason, which didn’t get it done.
Sabathia wasn’t as dominant like he was last year, but he still pitched well enough to keep the Yankees in every game he was in.
Burnett was AWFUL in 2010, going 10-15 with an ERA over 5-plus. He was even skipping starts because of his inconsistency.
Pettitte might have been the best pitcher in the playoffs for the Yankees, and in Game Three, battled Cliff Lee as best as he could, allowing just two runs in seven innings. The offense didn’t give him an ounce of support.
Hughes was dreadful. After pitching lights out against Minnesota, he simply did not pitch well in Game Two and Six and the Rangers made him pay for all his mistakes.
With Burnett being too inconsistent, Pettitte’s uncertainty of pitching in 2011 and Javier Vazquez being banished from the roster, the Yankees are all but certain to go hard after Cliff Lee in the offseason, and it’s already been said that Lee’s best friend Sabathia, will recruit him to the Bronx.
2. The offense was shut down.
Lee, Colby Lewis, C.J. Wilson and Derek Holland did a very good job of making the Yankees offense look really bad. Tommy Hunter was the only starter who was ineffective. Wilson pitched poorly in Game Five, but did pitch well in Game One.
Alex Rodriguez only hit .219, Nick Swisher only hit .176, Marcus Thames only hit .174 and Brett Gardner only hit .185. That type of hitting will not beat anyone in the postseason.
Derek Jeter only hit .250 and Jorge Posada only hit .267, which isn’t good, but not terrible like the others.
Curtis Granderson did a terrific job hitting .357, Robinson Cano still played like an MVP hitting .343, and Lance Berkman actually was productive, hitting .313.
Now, some actually do wonder if the Yankees make a hard press for someone like Jayson Werth or Carl Crawford in the winter? I still say no, but I could be wrong.
3. Mark Teixeira’s injury.
Teixeira wasn’t hitting in the series, but still having him out there as a Gold Glove first basemen was a tough loss for the Yankees.
His presence in the lineup makes the Yankees lineup a deeper one. He still has the capability of hitting the huge home run when needed, like in Game One against the Twins. By putting both Berkman and Thames in the lineup, it shortened the Yankees bench and lineup.
It’s not like Teixeira doesn’t take care of himself, he’s in tip top shape and is always very durable during the season. It was just a freakish injury that happened at the wrong time.
When he went down with the hamstring injury trying to get on base in Game Four, it was as if representing the Yankees in the series, having one of their legs go out from underneath them and playing short-handed.
4. Joe Girardi
I don’t know if Girardi got complacent after winning the World Series in 2009, because he certainly wasn’t managing with a killer instinct like he was during the championship year.
He made a lot of questionable calls during the season and at times, over-managed which cost the Yankees some tough games.
But, when he decided to only “play for a playoff spot” and not go all out for the A.L. East, it was like he was accepting mediocrity for his team.
You do not go into the playoffs backing in. Luckily for the Yankees, they got the Twins in the first round, because if they played anyone else, like an older Angels team, the Yankees would have been sent home, like they were in 2005-2007 by the Angels, Tigers and Indians.
I know some questioned Joe Torre in the past and his methods, but Torre at least was aggressive every season in trying to win and make the postseason. Torre didn’t let his team hold up, he always went for the kill, and this year, Girardi did the total opposite, which I bet if George Steinbrenner were still around, would have earned himself a loud phone call or a trip up to his office for a pep talk.
Girardi managed as if he were scared, or even, trying to get out of New York and maybe to Chicago. Girardi can’t get the Cubs job now even if he wanted it, so he has to hope the Yankees will want him back next season with his contract expiring.
5. The off-season now begins early
Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte and Joe Girardi are all free agents once the World Series is over. Many expect Jeter to re-sign, and as long as they want to play, many expect Pettitte and Rivera to re-sign.
The only question is, how much does Jeter sign for? He did have a down season in 2010 hitting .270, but Jeter is the equivalent to what Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio were to the Yankees in their era’s. The Yankees will likely give Jeter whatever he wants because of what he has meant to the team.
Pettitte is probably 50-50 on retiring. Many felt if the Yankees won in 2010, he would hang them up. He doesn’t want to pitch when he’s 40, so if he comes back in 2011, he’ll be 39 and it would likely be his last season, that is if he doesn’t want to retire after this season. He got to win one more championship with the Yankees, which is why he came back after the 2006 season, so it will be a waiting process for Andy.
As long as Mariano wants to pitch, the Yankees will hand him anything he wants. Rivera can still pitch at a high level, and was one of the few relievers who did well for the Yankees in the 2010 playoffs, so as long as Mariano wants to come back, I expect Rivera back.
Girardi may have no other choice but to go back to the Yankees, as the Cubs job was filled. Many expected Girardi to flee from the Bronx to Chicago, but now that can’t happen, and with not too many jobs out there, Girardi may be staying put.
Joe Torre is out there, as he has stepped down from the Dodgers, but many really wonder if he would really go back to the Yankees for one last run, especially after Torre was booted out of the Yankees manager spot when they were eliminated in the 2007 playoffs.
The Yankees off-season now begins. It begins a little early, but like the cliche goes, there is always next year.
It wasn’t a terrible year, they did make the playoffs, while some of their rivals (Red Sox, Mets) sat at home watching the game and playing golf, so the 2010 season wasn’t a total failure.
And honestly, the Yankees did win the World Series in 2009, and while the 2010 ending did sting, them winning last season takes a little bit of the sting off, because at least they aren’t in a 10 year championship drought as opposed to the nine-year drought they were in before the 2009 World Series.
What will the future hold for the 2011 Yankees? Guess we have to all wait and see.
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It’s been three years since the Joe Girardi era began in New York. Three seasons and one World Series ring later, I still hate the guy.
The New York Yankees faced elimination last night in Texas as “Mr. MVP” Josh Hamilton and the Texas Rangers were staring their first World Series appearance in the face. The Rangers finished the job, they beat not just one, but two of the best teams in baseball. They are going to the World Series.
The Yankees will now go sit at home and watch how the rest of this plays out. Can the unstoppable Phillies get beaten by “The Freak” and the Giants? I know I should be more interested, I know I should want to watch this fantastic series and watch who ends up holding that trophy when the World Series is over, but after watching one of the longest Yankee seasons of my life, I can’t help but not watch another game until April.
Going into last year’s offseason, the Bombers were looking like a team that could be a dynasty. They had three top-of-the-line rotation starters, and a lineup where anybody could launch a home run. Their team was fun to watch and they had a GM who had an unlimited supply of money to go make the team better. They had a team that was very good, indicated by the championship rings that were on their fingers from the previous season. But like any team, they now had a few holes.
Hideki Matsui, the man that literally won them Game 6 of the 2009 World Series, was now a free agent. This team needed a DH. This team seriously lacked a bench and with a team that was aging rapidly, that wasn’t good. Andy Pettitte, who was one of the three top rotation starters, (and if you don’t believe me on that go look at his postseason numbers from that year) wasn’t even sure if he was coming back or not. Brett Gardner was going to be the starting left fielder—his batting average two years ago was .228. We had Austin Jackson, an unproven rookie starting in center field. Jackson had been labeled the next best thing by Yankee scouts, but we have all heard that before (see Joba Chamberlain, Melky Cabrera).
Enter Mr. Brian Cashman, who apparently was told that he needed to keep the budget down. Apparently Hal Steinbrenner realized the team had a $200 million payroll, and spending any more money would make baseball unfair I guess. Cashman decided it would be best to go out and get another starter, so CC, AJ and Pettitte wouldn’t have to throw out their arms to win another World Series.
But instead of asking for a little extra money and signing a veteran like John Lackey, we went out and traded the only good bench player we had in Melky Cabrera for Javy Vazquez. I thought that we had already seen Vazquez fail trying to pitch in New York, but I guess Cashman forgot. “That’s okay,” they must have thought, “maybe this time he can pitch better in the toughest city in the world.”
I figured they would now go out and either re-sign Matsui or a proven DH. Once again Cashman made another genius move, he dealt for Nick Johnson. Anybody else remember when Johnson was shipped out of town when the Bombers signed Jason Giambi? Johnson was a decent player at best, with very limited power and had a track record of not being able to stay healthy.
But who else was available? Nobody, right? I mean, the only guy that was available until about a week before the season started was Vladimir Guerrero. You might have heard of him, he hit .300 with 29 home runs and 115 RBI this season on the team that eliminated the Yanks last night.
Then it wouldn’t be a Yankee offseason without dealing for an All-Star, right?
The genius Brian Cashman went out and dealt one of our blue chip prospects in Austin Jackson (who was going to be the starting center fielder), and got Curtis Granderson. Apparently the Grandy-man was a proven star out in Detroit—I didn’t know superstars hit .249, but I guess the Cash-man did his homework.
The Yankees have done this for as long as I can remember, dealing young promising talent for “superstars” to fill their ego. If there is anything I have always hated about New York, it’s that.
Add outfielder Marcus Thames and we were ready for the 2010 season. We added a DH who has shown he can’t stay healthy, an unproven pitcher in New York (and in the American League in general) and a “superstar” that hit .249 the previous season. Not bad I guess. And about that whole “not raising the payroll too much,” Granderson and Vazquez made a combined $17 million last season.
The thing that I have always hated about the Girardi/Cashman combination is that they are all about numbers. You watch Girardi in the dug out and he’s constantly looking at matchups and numbers. That’s what he does, so let’s look at the numbers.
The numbers said that Nick Johnson had a great on-base percentage. The numbers said that Curtis Granderson hit 30 home runs last season and that the short porch would be great for him. The numbers said that Vazquez won 15 games and had a 2.47 ERA in Atlanta last year. Cashman and Girardi must have missed a few stats though. Nick Johnson hadn’t played more that 98 games in the last four seasons, Granderson hit .249 along with his 30 home runs with the Tigers and the last time Vazquez pitched in New York, his ERA was almost five.
Then we started going, and it was a typical Yankee season. They had a slow start, but they picked it up. They started hitting, CC Sabathia started dealing and winning games.
The new Yankees struggled as a lot of people thought they would. Vazquez struggled early and often, he finished the season with a 10-10 record, and a 5.32 ERA. You didn’t even see him the second half of the year. Nick Johnson played 24 games for the Yankees this year, before going down with an injury that was supposed to sideline him up to six months. You didn’t see him again for the rest of the year (he hit .167 in the 24 games). Curtis Granderson missed a lot of the season with an injury, and while he played very well at the end of the year, he still finished with a .247 batting average.
But then some things started happening that I don’t think anyone expected. AJ Burnett had a mental breakdown—he won one game in the last 85 days of the season. Burnett finished the season with a 10-15 record along with a 5.26 ERA. Derek Jeter stopped hitting and that was one of the most painful things I have ever watched. The soon-to-be 37-year-old watched his batting average drop from about .310 to .270 over the last two months of the year. Jeter has always been clutch in the postseason—he had 10 hits in 40 postseason at-bats this year.
The worst part about this season was the trade deadline. Nick Johnson was done for the year, Javy Vazquez couldn’t wait to move out of New York by the time, the Yankees bullpen had been getting constantly beat up and they needed to make a move to make up for the terrible offseason they had. Who was available?
First you had pitcher Cliff Lee. The un-hittable machine was available from the Seattle Mariners for a good young prospect. Lee had shutdown the Yankees in the World Series last season when he was in a Phillies uniform—Cashman should have looked at those numbers. They had a deal in place for him, to trade another blue chip prospect in Jesus Montero for Lee.
The deal was just about done when the Rangers jumped in and some how pulled off a deal to get the All-Star pitcher. The way a lot of Yankee fans looked at it at the time was, “At least he didn’t go to the Rays or the Red Sox. It won’t come back to haunt us at least.” We were wrong again.
Then you had the power hitter Adam Dunn. Dunn had put up monster numbers for the Nationals in the first half of the season and with an expiring contract it seemed Dunn was destined to part ways with his organization. He was rumored to go to the Rays, which I guess got the Yankees involved. In the end, he stayed in Washington DC, he’ll be a free agent this offseason.
Instead the genius Brian Cashman went out and dealt for 34-year-old Lance Berkman. The former All-Star had hit .245 in Houston the first half of the season, but I guess Cashman or Girardi saw a stat where Berkman would fare better in New York. I’d like to see that stat, because he hit .248 the second half of the year for the Yankees. Then they dealt for reliever Kerry Wood, who actually turned out to be pretty good in pinstripes. If I had to pick one trade I have liked over the last year, this was it.
I think the hardest thing for a Yankee fan is that nothing good came out of this year. We enter next season with several old players that just got a year older—Jeter is the most interesting one. Jeter is going to be 37, and he is going to ask for at least $100 million in what will probably be his last contract. Mariano Rivera is a year older and that guy named Joba that was supposed to replace him can barely get out of the bullpen now. A-Rod is going to be 36 years old next year. This team is old and nothing is going to change that.
So what happened to the New York Yankees? Can we really blame Brian Cashman for what happened to this team? I do. He had chances to go out and get hitters like Adam Dunn and Vlad. Cliff Lee might not leave Texas at the end of the season to become a free agent if they win the World Series this season.
There are more question marks than there are good things for the Yankees right now. Joe Girardi doesn’t have a contract for next season, neither do busts Javy Vazquez or Lance Berkman. Does Andy Pettitte come back? Does Mariano Rivera come back next year, because he doesn’t have a contract either? There are conversations of the Yanks going after Royals ace Zach Grienke, but I have read he doesn’t want to pitch for a big-market team. The biggest question mark of all will be the captain Derek Jeter and how much he will want and for how long.
When it comes to this offseason, I think it will be very interesting. However one thing is clear: If the Yankees don’t start making better moves with more common sense and they continue to ignore the age of their players it’s going to come back to haunt them eventually.
That’s a stat that Cashman should look at.
As for the overall view of this season, it was a failure. They made mistakes in the trade department, and the signing department. It is for these reasons that I would like to thank Brian Cashman and Joe Girardi, because they just did something I thought was impossible for them to do even if they made the wrong moves. They just ruined a dynasty.
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Just a day removed from the Yankees elimination, it isn’t hard to find a disappointed New Yorker. The beloved Yankees are done for the year, and their dreams of a second consecutive world championship are diminished.
As many love to do, we can sit here and talk about what could have happened and what should have happened. We can talk about the mistakes the Yankees made; we can talk about the Yankees lack of luck; we can talk, and talk and talk.
Or, we can put things in perspective, and come to the realization that Yankee fans are lucky enough and we are lucky as it is to have the chance to enjoy baseball.
The Yankees have been to the World Series 40 times in their existence. The Rangers, when the 2010 World Series begins, will have been there once. My point? It’s okay for another team to win for a change.
In the past 16 seasons, the Yankees have made the postseason 15 times. They won the World Series last year, and won it three straight times in the late nineties. The farthest the Rangers made it in the last 16 years is where they are right now. Once again, it’s not a bad thing for another team to be in the World Series.
History aside, why are Yankees fans disappointed? Even with a late season collapse, the Yankees won 95 games, and made it to the sixth game of the American League Championship series.
Yankee fans consider that a failure, while Nationals fans prey for a .400 winning percentage in the regular season.
Yankees fans are lucky, and there is no reason to be disappointed. This was a great season, without many injuries or problems in the clubhouse. Not to mention that the Yankees will likely be back in the postseason next year, and many years to follow.
Furthermore, it’s not a bad thing for Major League Baseball to host an American League Champion that isn’t the Yankees for a change. Too much of anything can be very harmful, and it’s a pleasant change of pace to see a motivated, talented team such as the Rangers in the World Series.
And, of course, Yankee fan or not, you should never be disappointed when your team does not succeed. Sports are meant to be fun, and any sorrow that is created as a result of sports is unnecessary.
Yes, the Yankees lost, but the sun will rise tomorrow, and everyone’s lives will go along, unharmed.
NY Fans: you have it better than anyone, so try not to complain. Baseball fans: your right to watch, enjoy, and root for your team is precious enough, and it’s a victory for us all.
To read more thoughts and analysis, check out my blog. You can also send me an e-mail, follow me on Twitter, and check out more at jesskcoleman.com.
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Let me start by saying congratulations to the Texas Rangers.
The Rangers are the ALCS Champions and well deserve to be just that after winning Game 6 against the New York Yankees, 6-1.
It is a first World Series appearance for the Texas Rangers organization. Texas will face either the Philadelphia Phillies or the San Francisco Giants, who are still battling it out in the NLCS.
After dominating the Minnesota Twins in the ALDS, the Yankees had eight days off till the ALCS started down in Texas.
The Yankees could have won this series, but you have to play baseball in order to win.
Let’s look at the three factors, hitting, pitching and managing for the Yankees in the postseason to figure out what happened:
1) Hitting, a word that became unfamiliar to the Yankee batters. If you do not score runs, you will not win ball games. Maybe if a team had Cliff Lee, Roy Halladay, The Freak or CC Sabathia in the same rotation, you could afford not to hit, but even that Cy Young foursome would lose a game or two.
A-Rod continued his horrible 2010 postseason, coming into Game 6 with three hits in 17 at-bats, with a .176 batting average. Last year, A-Rod hit six home runs, batting a .365 over 15 postseason games. His slump was a HUGE problem and reason the Yankees struggled so much.
It’s not as if the rest of the Yankees were much help anyway. Swisher’s batting average was .194 and Teixeira (pre-injury) was even worse, hitting .148 in the postseason. Both regular season sluggers lost their swagger completely for the second postseason in a row.
2) Shockingly, the pitching was second to the hitting, because if you can’t score runs, the game is over no matter who is on the mound. Otherwise, the pitching was almost as terrible as the batting, following the ALDS where the pitching was phenomenal.
Sabathia got the job done winning both his ALCS starts, even though he grinded in both games against Texas. CC is an ace and that is why he gets the title. Sabathia had an ERA of 5.63 over 16 innings and struck-out 15 batters. The Yankees won all three games CC started, which is the only stat that matters in the post season.
As usual, Pettitte came through enormously posting a 2.57 ERA over 14 innings, striking out nine and only allowing one walk in his two postseason starts. He was 1-1 because Cliff Lee beat him in Game 4, but once again, the Yankees didn’t hit and back-up Pettitte’s performance.
The bullpen of Kerry Wood, Mariano Rivera and Joba Chamberlain all did a solid job. Robertson and Mitre were a mess, shocker. Robertson is usually a go-to-middle reliever because he has been so successful the last two years, but Mitre should never be allowed in Yankee Stadium again.
Girardi needs to go see a shrink in the offseason for the separation issues he seems to have with Mitre, who he coached as a Florida Marlin. Whatever it is, nobody wants to ever see Mitre on the mound again.
The starting pitching in the ALCS was not as dominate as the ALDS at all. Blame it on the eight days off between games or maybe Joe Girardi’s managing calls, but the starters looked rattled. Sometimes it got painful to watch as a fan because you know how good they can be or usually are.
Pitching posted a record of 5-4, with a 5.01 ERA, giving up 44 earned runs, 32 walks and 63 strikeouts during the 2010 postseason. Those numbers will not get you though the postseason, Yankees or not.
3) Skipper Joe Girardi had New York fans questioning—excuse me, criticizing—his every move over the last two weeks. When any sports team loses, the manager or coach always gets blamed, but in all essence, Girardi is a good manager. The Yankees won the World Series in 2009 and made it to the ALCS this season.
The only move Girardi made that made absolutely no sense happened in Game 6 of the ALCS. Hughes was the starter, and though it was not the smoothest performance, he had held the Rangers to one earned run through the fourth inning. He walked Josh Hamilton for the second time, which I would have done too.
Vladimir Guerrero was up next and the aging DH is still a risk but not even close in comparison to Hamilton. Vald knocked the ball over Granderson’s head for a double and two runs score. I hoped Girardi would let Hughes get the last out to finish the fifth inning, but knew that was a pipe dream when it comes to Girardi.
Guerrero’s hit only made the score 3-1, which is still manageable. Hughes had been throwing a lot of pitches, but he held the Rangers and that is his job. The bigger mistake was when he replaced Hughes with Dave Robertson instead of Kerry Wood.
Robertson had struggled all postseason, and it would seem only logical to put your best reliever out there to hold the score. Instead. by the time Robertson got the one out needed to end the inning. he had allowed a home run and three earned runs, leaving the score 6-1 entering the sixth inning. It drove me nuts that Girardi pulled Hughes, but to put in Robertson was irrational and just plain out stupid.
Well, now the Yankees and their fans will watch another team be crowned World Champions. It sucks to lose, but a true Champion would come back ready to win even more in 2011.
Overall, great season once again for my New York Yankees and can’t wait for next season.
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The bats finally woke up for the New York Yankees last night. CC Sabathia stepped up like any ace should, battling through six innings and giving his team the lead.
Staring elimination in the eye, the Yankees used their bats and took advantage of some sloppy play by the Texas Rangers to force a Game 6. The series now returns to Texas with the Rangers holding a three games to two lead in this best of seven series.
In order to defend last seasons world series title, the Yankees will need to win the final two games in Texas, starting Friday night. One step at a time though.
Before a big matchup between Cliff Lee and Andy Pettitte in Game 7, the Yankees will need to win Game 6 behind Phil Hughes. Hughes was roughed up in Game 2, also played in Texas.
Early in the series, the Yankees bats had been silenced by the Rangers pitchers. Robinson Cano had really been the only hot hitter.
Last night, some others woke up a bit. With a three run lead in the third inning, Nick Swisher and Robinson Cano hit back-to-back home runs to give Sabathia a 5-0 lead. Seven of the nine Yankees in the lineup had at least one hit. The team totalled nine on the night.
Read full article at Double G Sports.
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