Yankees fall Again

Well sports fans, it was another terribly disappointing playoff jog for the NY Yankees. After a victory in game one, where Derek Jeter wowed us with his 5 for 5 performance, the bats of the new murder's row plus Cano went dead silent for 3 straight games.

A-Rod was terrible again for a 3rd straight year. His called strike three with bases loaded in the first inning of game 2, was probably the difference in this series. Had he made contact, moved a runner, scored a run, Justin Verlander probably would have broken like a rookie that his is, rather than give him a little boost that was able to get him threw the next few shaky innings unscathed. A-Rod was not alone in the Yankee lineup in doing nothing, as Sheffield, Matsui, Giambi and Cano all brought nothing to the party, but A-Rod personified the problem and caused the biggest outs and he is expected to perform at those times. I think come April, A-Rod will be an Angel, or a Cub, or an Astro, or somewhere outside of NY since he is not going to be able to read, listen and hear about his futility for another 12 months until October next year, and Yankee fans have no reason to believe next year would be any better in the playoffs, so in my opinion Alex, sayanora!!

All the papers are also reporting the Joe Torre is probably going to be fired and being replaced by Lou Pinella. I love Joe Torre and think he has done a great job for 10 years in New York. He was the perfect manager to follow Buck Showalter in 1996 (I wonder if Torre will follow him again to Texas, or will the Red Sox fire Francona to get him now that he is available?). Those Yankees teams of the late 90's, was a professional team that needed a low key manager who was able to defer the wrath of the owner and keep the focus on the field. Joe was able to play O'Neill, Bernie, Leyritz, Jeter, Mariano etc. and they all responded to his professionalism and rah-rah speeches were not necessary. Those guys knew what needed to be done to win and just did it.

The Yankee teams of this decade have not responded to Torre's way in the playoffs, folding year in and year out to inferior teams (Diamondbacks, Angels, Marlins, Red Sox, Angels, and now you can add the Tigers to this list. I sat watching Game 4 yesterday, waiting for Torre get up off and say something to the team, get the motivated, light a fire, but that is not his style and unfortunately, that is why it is time for Joe to go.

Lou Pinella is a fiery manager who will be able to kick the current Yankee lineup out of its playoff malaise, since most of the team will return next year. He is an excellent and probably the only realistic choice to be able to replace Joe Torre, without a major overhaul of the team, since many of the players will be back next year. When the experts talked about Sweet Lou going to the Cubs, or the Giants or the Senators (neigh I mean the Nationals) or wherever, and none of them felt right. Bringing him back to NY in pinstripes could push the Yankees back to where the owner expects the team to be, winning the World Series, not sitting watching after a premature exit in a ridiculous collapse.

Here are my thoughts for next years lineup:

cf - damon
ss- jeter
rf - abreau
lf - matsui
dh - giambi
c - posada/nieves
2b - cano
1b - wilson
3b - phillips

They need to go after Barry Zito, since he is the best available pitcher on the market, and the Tigers just proved that pitching wins in October. They need to jettison Randy Johnson, Mike Mussina, Carl Pavano, and Jaret Wright. They need to give Daryl Rasnor, Jeff Karstens and maybe give phillip hughes a chance to join the rotation with Chin Ming Wang and Cory Lidle. And like every other team, they need to work on the bullpen bridge to an aging Mariano Rivera. I expect to see Scott Proctor getting more save opportunities to see if he can ultimately replace Mo in a year or two.

So baseball is now over for me, all I can hope now is the Mets lose in some painful way in the NLCS or in the World Series, so I don't have to listen to their fans gloat for 6 months. The problem is that most Mets fans (reynolds and fallon are exceptions) have no grasp on reality and fail to see the flaws in their team. They act as if the Mets have been great forever, rather than having one fantastic season. Talk to me when they make the playoffs for the next 5-10 years in a row. Then again in the NL East, that is quite possible. I have one final thought;

GO RANGERS - they are 2-0 and well on the way to Stanley Cup glory!!!