So it’s taken some time for me to actually recover and reflect from the Yankees 3-1 ALDS loss to the Cleveland Indians. In the past few years with our high-powered offense and $200 million+ payroll, I’d always get infuriated when we lost in the ALDS. In 2005 it was to the Angels and in 2006 to the Tigers. I couldn’t understand why the Yankees lineup, which looked like an All-Star team from top to bottom, couldn’t hit their way through the playoffs. I’ve finally seen the light in regards to playoff baseball: it’s all about pitching and clutch hitting.
Cleveland deserved to win this past series based on those two factors: their starting pitchers outpitched ours, and their clutch hitting was phenomenal (compared to our non-existent clutch hitting). Obviously in the few minutes following Posada’s strikeout to end the series, I was yelling expletives all over the place. But the next morning, I found myself not terribly mad as I had been in the past two years, just extremely disappointed.
Why disappointed? Because this year I really thought we had a World Series caliber team. The pitching with Wang-Pettite-Clemens-Mussina could have been better, but it was still very solid at the top with Wang and Pettite. And the offense was clicking on all cylinders as the postseason came around. If we had performed as we were expected to, it should have been a much closer series, if not a win for us. In reality, Chien Ming-Wang threw not one but TWO absolutely awful games in Games 1 and 4. I’m not playing Monday Morning QB in second guessing Torre, but Mussina looked pretty solid in relief of Wang during that Game 4. Why not just start him and replace with Wang in relief if things got ugly? Also, we had so many opportunities offensively throughout the entire series – with the exception of Game 2 when Carmona was filthy – but never were able to capitalize. So many god damn double plays… and not enough hits with RISP.
I’ll get to the Joe Torre situation and how George Steinbrenner has handled the whole thing probably at a later date in its own post once Yankees top brass has decided Torre’s fate. I will say this much now: If Torre wants to come back and go through another season, and feels like he is capable of managing at the top of his game, he has deserved that right in his tenure as Yankees manager to come back next year.
I can’t wait for next year’s baseball season. I’m really looking forward to the new look that the Yankees will have. The way I see it, we really need to get one more solid OF to accompany Melky/Abreu/Matsui (with Abreu or Matsui DHing). DJ mentioned Aaron Rowand as a solid replacement, so we’ll see what happens on that front. Everything else really depends on what the free agents on the team decide to do. If Mariano Rivera and Jorge Posada stay, I see us with a very very good team next year. Wang, Pettite, Hughes, Chamberlain (it was announced yesterday that Hank Steinbrenner will insist on having Chamberlain be converted to a starter) will make for a very strong rotation. Our lineup will be lights out once again with or without Alex Rodriguez. The only very weak spot I see right now is our bullpen, but hopefully we can address that in the off season. Calling it now… Yankees 2008 World Series Champs.
-K
Posted by kevinhuang 
