After complaining all season long about the inability of the NY Yankees to hit with men in scoring position, to score runs other than by hitting the ball out of the park, am I justified in being depressed about their futile performance in the post season? I meant to post this entry two days ago but was too depressed to write it. Imagine how bad I’d feel if I had not anticipated the result.
Making it past the Baltimore Orioles in the first playoff round did not camouflage their flaws as a team. Nobody wants to lose but what's galling to Yankee fans is the way the team went down. They batted like Little Leaguers swinging at balls way inside, outside, in the dirt or at eye level. Pitches down the middle they took for strikes. They tried to hit an impossible five-run home run each at bat. They don't employ situational hitting. No sacrifice flies. No hitting to the opposite field to advance a runner. The few times they worked a full count they usually wound up striking out. It was painful to watch, especially when the graphic displayed by TBS showed them swinging at balls and taking strikes. It was painful because most of the pitchers who dominated them were just mediocre. They've made them into giant killers. The Yanks turned journeymen Phil Coke and rookie Drew Smyly into a latter day Sparky Lyle and John Franco. At the same time Yankee hurlers pitched their hearts out most of the time but received little support at bat or in the field.
It was a total team loss. They couldn't hit, hit with power or with men in scoring position, they couldn't pitch perfectly and their fielding lapses—not always errors—led to decisive runs. The only things they didn't do wrong was run the bases poorly or hit into double plays. But for those you have to have men on base and the Yankees had depressingly few such opportunities.
Total domination. Don't fool yourself into believing the outcome would have been different had the Yankees won the first game. They'd have lost the series 4-1. Their only moral victory was knocking out the Tigers’ closer in game one. It didn't matter. Years ago the NY Football Giants routed the San Francisco 49'ers 49-3. SF wide receiver Jerry Rice was asked if the game would have turned out differently if he hadn't fumbled without being touched on his way to an easy touchdown on his team’s first possession. Yes, he conceded, the final score would have been different. It would have been 49-10. Rice comprehended the total annihilation his team had sustained. No Yankee or fan should delude themselves into thinking any differently even had Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera been upright and active.
So what should the Yankees do? It begins by first recognizing that the first order of baseball business is making the playoffs. They succeeded this year, and most other recent years, but it will be harder to win their division given a resurgent Baltimore team and what should be an improved Toronto squad once all the injured Blue Jays heal. The Yankees keep getting older while the opposition gets younger and hungrier.
What can be done? The Yanks are set at first, second and shortstop. Alex Rodriguez at third is a high-priced singles hitter. But he's still good defensively and as long as you only expect 20 or so home runs a year from him you won't be disappointed. He won't be able to carry the team for games at a time. Singles hitters aren't expected to.
Should they resign Ichiro Suzuki? Only if they commit to a more Punch and Judy National League style of play. Scrap the home run strategy. Scratch out runs by stealing bases. Hitting behind the runner. Hitting to the opposite field. Sacrifice bunt. Sacrifice fly. Turn the Bronx Bombers into the Bronx Bunters or Bronx Afterburners. Turn Eduardo Nunez into a left fielder to keep his bat in the game. Shift Ichiro to right. Commit to Brett Gardner as your center fielder. Trade Curtis Granderson for a starting pitcher and an outfield or infield prospect. Let Nick Swisher go, or sign him and then trade him for another starting pitcher. Resign catcher Russell Martin. For the bench resign Raul Ibanez, Jayson Nix, and Chris Stewart. Find a right-handed batting replacement for Andruw Jones. Perhaps young Melky Mesa. Overall, instead of the 245 home runs the Yankees hit in 2012, they’ll be fortunate to hit 150, but total run production might not drop too much because of more rallies.
The go-go strategy works only if pitching is tight. Yankee starters next year could include C.C. Sabathia, Hiroki Kuroda, Andy Pettitte (if he chooses to return), Michael Pineda and Ivan Nova. Plus anone they might get for Granderson or Swisher. It's a good, not great, starting rotation, but competent enough to keep them in games provided the bullpen is solid again. So I’d keep Boone Logan, David Robertson, Joba Chamberlain, Clay Rapada, Cody Eppley and Raphael Soriano, along with a returning Mariano. The pitching should be good enough to get them back into the playoffs. After that it’s a crap shoot. Remember, the team has lost when trying to bomb its way to a championship. It would be exciting to watch them slap some hits, run, and hit and run their way to a title.
Some final baseball thoughts: The Detroit Tigers deserved to beat the Yankees. Their star players came through in the clutch, as did their role players and rookies. A total team effort. At least Jeter didn’t have to be part of his team’s debacle, though he might always remember his inability to drive in the winning run in the 10th inning of the first game prolonged the game in which he was injured in the 12th inning. Second, at least A-Rod didn’t make the last out of the season. That “honor” went to Jayson Nix. Third, in the words of Mike Lupica, The Daily News sports columnist and ESPN radio host, today marks the official start of the football season in New York (though it might have unofficially started with Jeter’s ankle injury which has been described as more common to football players than baseball players).