Scattered thoughts on post-mortem day
It’s become a fairly understood thought, if not a law in sports, that anything short of a championship is a failed year to the New York Yankees. The late George Steinbrenner instilled this mentality when he purchased the team in 1973, and it continues to this day now a few years after his passing.
So as the Boss would look at it (95 wins, home-field advantage, and a 17th playoff appearance in 18 years) this season was a failure. The Yankees got swept aside by the Detroit Tigers in four games in the ALCS, and while most teams would be content with playing in October, the Yankees feel they need to win it all in this glorious month for them to be satisfied. And we as fans accept that.
Blame anyone you want, [aside from the World Series-caliber starting pitching they had] but this was a complete team failure. There’s no doubt they went up to the plate trying to do the right thing and pick up hits and drive in runs, but when all nine guys struggle each night so immensely, this was the only way it was going to end.
The Bombers just barely survived the ALDS against their renewed foe in the Baltimore Orioles, and the A.L. Champion Tigers would not let the Yankees survive any longer on historically bad hitting and late-inning comebacks. Give credit where it’s due – Detroit earned this pennant. But the Yankees lost it more than the Tigers won it in my opinion.
Playing without Derek Jeter will be an excuse many will bring up, but I don’t want to hear it. This team without Jeter was good enough to win, had they played like they did in the regular season. No doubt he has the biggest impact on the lineup, but the two through nine hitters still should have been getting the job done. It’s horrible to think, but in a way this lineup’s RISP fails ultimately cost them their Captain. Had they capitalized on those three bases-loaded rallies in the first nine innings, the extra ones don’t happen, and the Yankees win Game 1 by a landslide and Jeter never fields that ground ball. It could have completely changed the series. But could’ve, would’ve, should’ve – that’s the name of the game in October.
Look, Alex Rodriguez certainly didn’t help the Yankees a ton, but stop treating him as the scapegoat. That’s like asking a dog to stop barking, but the fact remains with his contract aside, Alex had a statistically better postseason than Nick Swisher, Curtis Granderson, and Robbie Cano. Making 25 million dollars a year will never make his mistakes excusable, but like I’ve mentioned he’s older and his prime has long past, and it’s unbelievable to think the front office couldn’t have seen this coming when they signed Alex to that mega-deal in 2007.
Unfortunately lost in this debacle is the outstanding pitching the Yankees received almost every game. Had starting pitching been the only factor that matters in the postseason, the Yankees win the World Series. CC Sabathia was dominant in his two ALDS starts, and unfortunately just ran out of gas yesterday and you couldn’t expect him to do it all. Andy Pettitte pitched better than anyone could have thought after taking a year off, and he deserved two more postseason wins added to his amazing resume. Hiroki Kuroda truly paid off as well, owning the Orioles and Tigers bats in the two starts he made. Phil Hughes also pitched a gem in Game 4 of the division series, and it looked like he’d grind another game out in Game 3 of the ALCS before tweaking his back. Too bad there’s no trophy or award they can win, but it certainly was some of the better starting pitching the Yankees have gotten since their late-90’s dynasty run.
Finally, just a quick note on Joe Girardi. As much as we all question him [and if I were GM he would have been fired four times already], his managing tactics were not something to look down on this October. He had an incredibly depleted team throughout the year, and managed to overcome the loss of Mariano, the loss of CC for a month, Andy for three, A-Rod for two – you see what I mean? And yet the Yankees still won the AL East and still looked like a good favorite to win the pennant. Wow.
Overall, this was a failure. The Yankees looked absolutely lost at the plate and never held a lead in the series. But people should not forget how the Yankees proved life does move on after Mariano, and they can survive losing their ace mid-season, and how this aging team can still come together and make a few more championship runs. Whether it’ll happen in 2013 is a big question, but the fact remains this year was very exciting and I’m proud of what the Yankees did – all the way up to the 12th inning of Game 1 of the 2012 ALCS.
Thanks for a wild ride guys.
Posted on October 19, 2012, in Personal Opinion. Bookmark the permalink. 21 Comments.
Brian D.
fishjam25
jimmytoucan
Matthew B
Delia E.
Dan H.
Matthew S.
Michael P.
Mike D.
The GM and Manager are the foremost problem with this team
Alex had a better statistical year than who? Granderson- 43/100, Swisher-25/93, Cano- .300/33/95. But I would like to know how many times Swisher struck out looking with RISP. Why have the fans given Swish a free ride for so long? He has always been a look-at-me guy. Adios amigo! And what do you think Alex’ numbers will be next year? Is he done as a big time power hitter? Could be. The lineup will be better with Gardner- Jeter-Ichiro at 9-1-2 in the order. Combine some small ball with some 5o’clock lightning. Pitching and bullpen will be good. Yankees will be back in the thick of the action in 2013.
Great post Ed .
I like your style
agreed any comment that mentions Swisher gone I am a fan of.
Swisher is a decent player just not a star. He has value but sadly Cashman failed to maximize his value by not letting him go last off season. He was worth 2 draft picks then instead of 1 now. If Cashman had a creative bone in his body instead of being nothing more then a pathetic garbage man the Yankees would have Beltran now for another year. The Yankees organization have no imagination at all!
Big question with Swisher is do you offer him arbitration and risk him taking it? Perhaps his awful postseason brings his value down so much he accepts? I don’t think he would but still a risk.
Yes you do as he can be traded on June 15th so you make that fact very clear too him.
I meant to say postseason numbers.
I understand his age is an issue and I don’t know how much he will command but if the Yankees really want to bring in a tough guy who can make a difference come October they should consider AJ Pierzynski. That is a guy who you know will set a tone and not be scared in the big moments. What do you guys think?
Love the bat, not crazy about the age and will be overpaid for having a career year.
Glove is questionable
jose reyes has 114 million left on his contract,…. it goes 6 seasons 2013 – 2018,….. the last year is a 22 milion team option, with a 4 million buy out,… if you go the buy out route,, the contract is 5 years 96 million
arod contract is 5 years 114 million
what you do is,, you trade arod for reyes —— and eat 18 million of arod contract,…
so basically it would equal out to 5 years 114 million for reyes to be on the yankees,
and 5 years 96 million cost for the marlins to have arod–
( as far as the bonuses go,, that should be miamis liabiltym, as they will reap the benfits of the tickets and marketing)
you move Jeter to 3rd base and have chavez and nix back up 3rd
this gets arod out of ny,.. solves the jeter issue as to range for the ankle,….
thewn at least that is over
you still dump swisher to free agency,, and trade soriano for prospects to dump salary as they want
MY PLAN WORKS
THE NUMBERS MAKE SENSE,,,,,
Sadly your plan is nuts o coo coo!
the plan is not nuts,………. not nuts at all,…… if you can trade arod for creyes, 1 to 1, and eat 18-36 million of arods contract,…. to move jeter to third base,…… you solve 2 problems with 1 move
Absolutely the dumbest proposal ever…never going to happen in a billion different universes.
THEN YOU DO NOT KNOW YOUR BASEBALL
1—– arod live in coral gables outside miami, he loves miami,
2—- the stienbrenners are very close to the marlins owners
3—– the reyes and arod contract match up
4—– even with eating 18-36 million of the arod contract, the numbers can work inside the 189 million 40 man roster cap
5—– jeter needs to move to 3rd base —- everyone complains about his range except me,…. and i am now agreeing move him to 3rd,.. all of a sudden i’m nuts?
6——- the team needs a fresh mix,…… this mix is stale,.. and became fully stale tghis post season
7——-
Let’s hire Bugs Bunny as GM with Daffy Duck as his manager too!
lol, on a side not,……. glen campbell last night in concert at the state theatre in new brunswick nj, started talking like donals duck on stage,.. it was pretty funny,…..
Shouldn’t make fun of a sick man, that’s not what we do in this country! He has Alzheimer’s.
below are the 45 players that through baseball reference.com, appeared on the yankees 40 man roster this season
it adds up to 190.715 million,….. for the known salaries, and 19 p;layers with unknown salaries that takes the yankees 40 man roster this year, for the 45 players that appeared on it,…about 205 million,, it depends on what the yankees had to pay icvhiro,….
and also, we still have a lot of aj’s salary on the books too,.. that brings what the yankees are paying maybe over 220 million this year in player salary
if you simply replace swishers 10.25 million with a 1 million dollar player,…… and trade sorianos 11 million, for porosepewcts that will not appear on the 40 man roster, you save right away 20.25 million
see,………. then in 2014,….. you save another 15 off cause mariano will be gone,… make other mnove with granderson, to pay cano,..
now you can get down to 189 million for the 40 man roster
even with tading arod for reyes, ]\eating 18 million of arods contract, to make it a basic 1 to 1 swap
arod——29 million
cano —– 14 million
jeter——–16 million
martin——7.5 million
teixeira—–22.5 million
chavez—-900k
nunez——523k
steweart 482.5k
pena— unknown
pierce—-unknown
‘nix——-unknown
cerveli—-unknown
granderson—-10 million
dickerson—-unknown
gardner 2.8 million
ibanez 1.1 million
jones—2 million
mcdonald—unknown
mcghee—-unknown
mesa ——–unknown
ichiro———unknown
swisher——10.25 million
wise———-unknown
aardsma——500k
joba——–1,675 million
eppley——unknown
garcia——-4 million
hughes——3.2 million
igarashi——unknown
kuraoda——10 million
logan—— 1.875 million
lowe——-unknown
mitchell—–unknown
nova———527.5 million
pettite——-unknown
phelps——unknown
qualls——–unknown
rapada———–525k
rivera———–15 million
robertson——1.6 million
sabathia———23 million
soriano———-11 million
thomas——–unknown
wade————508k
warren———–unknown
i dont care about arod not hitting in the post season, i dont care about him signing baseballs for fans in the stands
in fact didnt we kinda just get on swishers case for making a stink about signing a ball for a state tropper?
i dont care about the fans getting on arods case
i dont care about what problems arod might have had with trump
IT IS NOT A NECISSITY TO TRADE AROD
but it would make sense to trade him and move jeter to 3rd base
jeter is a big part of the franchise, arod was always just a hired gun
the only way the marklins take arod is if they can dump reyes back to the yankees, with salary considerations
18 million cash is fair,.. maybe theyll hold the yankees up for double that , 36 million of arods contract
is it not a necsessity,.. but it can work
as we can see from my posts above,.,…. the new york yankees are divided between the haves and have nots,… huge discrepancies in salaries
to rebuild the team they responsible way,……. which is coming starting right now, and gonna go through this off season, and 2 more off seasons,….. you got to make the salaries more fairly distrubuted, while at the same time, lowering overall payroll for the 40 man roster
i dont know hardly anything about the rules,….. as i said 2 weeks ago,….. but i think we are paying aj 15 million a year to play for the purates, lol— but what effect that hjas on the cap i dont know
i do know it affects the banks ability to work with the yankees on a revolving credit line for monthly operating costs in every facet of the business
randy levine, president of the yankees, came out and planted the seed in our minds,… that the fountain of money is turning off,…. and the 40 man roster must be below 189 million
this is a fair thing,
it is not panicing, nor a slap in the face to the fans
cashman has the job to execute the moves that accomplish this
he will earn every dollar of his salary if he dose it right,.. and we can still average 95 wins a season over the next 3 seasons
then even going out longer,… as the economy bounces back