It's sad that Girardi is being made the scapegoat here. The lineup was punchless and the pitching sucked--what exactly was Joe supposed to do? At the end of the day, Texas was a better team than the Yankees. They deserved to move on, and they did. Better luck next year.
Joe made plenty of mistakes, but having a mediocre pitching staff in the playoffs was nothing you can blame him for, really. If you guys don't land Lee, it'll be interesting to see if Brian overreacts and trades for a nutjob like Zambrano or something.
You are right about that, but its not like Joe was good. Everything was basically terrible. Winning 2 games was amazing.
You're right but he could have at least managed last night like the game meant something. Somebody should have been ready to come in as soon as Hughes let any base runner on in the 5th and that person should have been Sabathia and not fucking Robertson who hadn't been able to get anybody out in the entire series. All 4 runs were on Girardi and nobody else. The fact we still didn't score again after that really doesn't matter. Like I said he has morphed into Torre and neither have any clue on what to do with the pen in late innings.
This year's team was nowhere near last year's, so I'm not surprised that we lost. Could have used 2009 Burnett, Matsui, and Damon. Sigh.
Yeah, And I bitched about Cashman in the spring for that. He let both of those guys go and went out and got a .247 hitter to replace them although I have nothing bad to say about how he played in the post season.
I'm so confused. I thought Swisher and CC and the rest of the team finally decided to show heart and care about winning. No way. The Yankees are/were a better team overall... they just played very poorly in this series. That's the risk of short series. (A 60% favorite in an individual game still loses a best of seven series 30% of the time.) Shit happens. Fortunately for the Yanks, Cashman knows this. (Although I'm sure that will infuriate the legions of Yankee fans who are outraged that another title wasn't handed to them.) In this series, games 2 and 6 hurt the most. Hughes pitched poorly, and the bats did nothing.
I'm not following you. If Lee stays in Texas for less money I would consider him a fool, especially so if he turns down the Yankees' higher offer. Not really sure what my criteria was, this guy has been on 3 teams in 1 year...
The way the Yankees played in September, one could argue the Minnesota series was a fluke and the real Yankee team showed up for Texas. Heart and effort aside, the Yanks looked baffled. Plus it's hard to beat Mantle (Hamilton) and Koufax (Lee) because that's who showed up for Texas. Cruz was outstanding too.
So if the Minnesota series was a fluke and September showed us the "real" Yankees, that means April, May, June, July, and August (which had the Yankees as one of the best, if not the best, teams in baseball) were also flukes. It also means that the context of September should be thrown out the window (the Yanks pretty clearly took their foot off the gas pedal, whether you agree with it or not). Sorry, but I'm not buying that.
http://www.sportspickle.com/news/3785/rangers-working-with-a-rod-on-a-contract-extension Thanks to Alex Rodriguez’s .133 batting average through four games of the ALCS, a performance that has helped the Texas Rangers take a three-games-to-one lead in the series, the Rangers are working with the third baseman on a lucrative contract extension that would keep him on their payroll through the end of his career. “We have a young and talented team — one we expect to be in playoff contention for several more years,” said Rangers team president Nolan Ryan. “And the Yankees are a perennial playoff team that we will likely face again. So it makes sense to keep Alex Rodriguez on our side.” Rodriguez broke through last year with a great postseason performance as the Yankees won the World Series, but Ryan is happy to see he remembers who is paying his salary. “People criticize Alex a lot,” said Ryan. “But this series he has showed he is a man of honor and integrity. For the amount of money we’re paying him, it’s only right that he’s doing absolutely nothing to help the Yankees beat us. He’s a good man.” But the Yankees third baseman, who the Rangers still owe $24.8 million from the $252 million contract he signed with Texas in 2001, insists he is playing only for his primary employer: the Yankees. “I’m doing my best out there,” said Rodriguez. “I am a New York Yankee through and through. I am doing everything I can to help us win.” “Ah, crap,” said Yankees manager Joe Girardi. “I was hoping there was some sort of explanation. Dammit. I guess last year for A-Rod was just a fluke then. What about Mark Teixeira, though? He’s got to be playing for the Rangers, right?”
My point was...the Yankees in September were not the Yankees from earlier in the season...and we all know teams change identities throughout the year. The real Yankees, speaking specifically about the back stretch, were not going anywhere in the playoffs. I said that many times, I wasn't confident they would even beat Minnesota. I'm sure everyone, excluding past success with Minnesota, was surprised they swept. About "taking their foot off the gas pedal" their certainly were games when Girardi "conceded" to the other team. But the lineup, for the most part, was the same as the ones fielded in the playoffs. This Yankee team didn't have the same run support last year's team had and they showed that when baffled, they couldn't overcome good pitching.
I know I've seen a couple of places talking about ARod still being paid by Texas, but isn't that incorrect? He opted out, and that relieved the Rangers of that financial burden as far as I can remember. --------- Anyway, again, I despise Girardi, and I desperately want him fired, (though according to Cashman, Joe is "absolutely" wanted back) but for the most part, I can't fault him for the result of this series. What I can fault him for was bringing in Robertson when CC was available. I can fault him for going to the well too often with Vlad. I can fault him for managing his team into backing into the postseason. Home field might have actually mattered this year if we had it. That said, I don't fault the pitching as much as most people are. How can any pitcher be expected to keep going out and throwing up zeroes against playoff teams? It's ridiculous, but that's what you're expecting when you steadfastly refuse to hit the ball. Five for forty-eight. That's how many times the Yankees hit safely with a runner on second or third in the ALCS. It's impossible to win playoff series under those circumstances. The completely inept hitting is what is to blame for this result. As for the pitching, the Yankees are in a lot of trouble. I'm in the boat that Lee is far from the slam-dunk many believed he was. I would have happily done it then, and I'd still do it now, if we had the opportunity to trade Montero for Lee. Add in that it looks like Andy is ready to call it a career, and we're in deep trouble rotation-wise. As for people still throwing down this "the Yankees were the best team in baseball during the season" bullshit, I said it all along, I posted the numbers last week, and I'll say it again. They didn't beat the good teams. I don't give a damn if you were able to take 5 of 8 for the season against teams like Kansas City. Playoff teams have to do that. Playoff teams also have to beat the playoff-caliber teams, and the Yankees were unable to do that in the regular season. The only playoff team the Yankees had a winning record against in 2010 was Minnesota. The result of the playoffs was exactly as it should have been. It's not what I wanted, but it's exactly what the team deserved.
Posting here from the WS thread because that thread has gone way off topic. I read the whole thread and I only saw people "hating" on Saturday when the Yankees were about to be eliminated. I didn't notice much of any hating in the ALDS thread, either. I don't really think any of that post is true. The vast majority of Mets fans don't like the Yankees, but few of them hate the Yankees so much that they'd root against the Yankees more than for the Mets.
Teams change identities? We all know this? The lineup was the same, but the identity was different? This is making no sense to me. It's human nature to coast a bit or lose focus when you're not in a super-tight playoff race. That has nothing to do with the lineup being thrown out there. Compound that with some late-season injuries, and the slump isn't unexpected. And your last sentence is supremely tautological. You're essentially saying, when they sucked, they sucked.
You're being disingenuous. The Yankees record against the other AL playoff teams: Minnesota - 4-2 Texas - 4-4 Tampa - 8-10 They played .500 ball against the other playoff teams. And that's typically what happens when very good teams face each other. The best teams in baseball still lose 60 games per year. They beat up on the bad teams, and split against each other. Just another reason why the playoffs are considered a crap shoot. Hey, let's use your logic for another team. Here is Texas's record against the AL playoff teams: Minnesota - 3-7 NYY - 4-4 Tampa - 2-4 OMG!!! Texas can't beat playoff teams!!! They didn't deserve to beat the Yankees!
I guess Cashman better start dusting off Plan B..and C..and maybe D too. "Fans' treatment of Cliff Lee's wife at Yankee Stadium might not help the Yankees' recruitment of one of the game's top left-handed pitchers. During the AL Championship Series games in New York between the Yankees and Rangers, fans were extremely rude to Kristen Lee, spitting and throwing beer in her direction and shouting obscenities, according to USA Today." The reported incidents could not have helped that cause. "The fans did not do good things in my heart," Kristen Lee said, according to the newspaper. "When people are staring at you, and saying horrible things, it's hard not to take it personal." http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/mlb/news/story?id=5729471
