Take a Look at the Schedule
and you will see that it really is crunch time for the Yankees. The rest of August is tough--5 at Fenway, another series against the Angels, in LA, a series at home against Detroit--but once September comes things get as easy as you can resonablyhope: a series with KC, 4 with Boston but at home a series with the Twins, also at home (neither boston nor Minnesota are especially good road teams)many games with Baltimore and Tampa, 2 series with toronto at the very end, when they will be entirely out of it and finishing up a disappointing season. If the Yankees can hang with Boston in the division and whoever is leading the wild card through the end of this month, they should be able to squeeze into the playoffs.
For this reason, I think Torre, who had alot of meetings early in the year, should have one now, paired with the line-up changes we've been discussing. Because the Yankees have been going loss-win-loss-win-loss win, they might be less than fully aware how badly they need to step up their game if they are not to start sliding down the standings. Their pitching woes this year have been well-documented, and that is a part of the game that is very difficult to fix in the short term. but the truth is they started winning once their pitching improved and it has stayed improved, more or less, through this recent unhappy stretch. It is the fielding and the situational hitting that are killing them now, and there is really no excuse for that.
For this reason, I think Torre, who had alot of meetings early in the year, should have one now, paired with the line-up changes we've been discussing. Because the Yankees have been going loss-win-loss-win-loss win, they might be less than fully aware how badly they need to step up their game if they are not to start sliding down the standings. Their pitching woes this year have been well-documented, and that is a part of the game that is very difficult to fix in the short term. but the truth is they started winning once their pitching improved and it has stayed improved, more or less, through this recent unhappy stretch. It is the fielding and the situational hitting that are killing them now, and there is really no excuse for that.
posted by joe valente | 1:22 AM
3 Comments:
I totally see the logic, particualarly the affective logic, in what you are saying. I think the viability of this plan would be enhanced by the late season return of Matsui and, perhaps, Sheffield, which would doubtless contribute to the adrenaline rush of which you speak. My only problem with it is my problem with, well, the wild card itself, which in its present configuration I regard as only slightly less ersatz than the DH. Don't get me wrong, I'm not down on the wild card per se, but I do think you should have to pay some fairly steep penalty for having won nothing during the regular season and still being around in October. Anything that makes the baseball postseason more like hockey bothers me. I also believe the team with the best record in either league should get some substantial reward beyond simply making the playoffs. Put these things together and I would recommend that the best of five series between the wild card and the beat team take place entirely at the home ball park of the best5 team. If the wild card is to advance, and be pt on even footing with actual winners from then on, they must first win 3 of 5 on the road against the best. Of course that would make the wild card route a good deal less attractive for the Yanks this year, but it also would have likely meant no Marlins of 1997, no Marlins of 2002, and no Red Sox of 2004. Need I say more?
Susan Waldman tonight seemed to think there was no way Matsui was coming back, but that Sheffield was likely.
In the sing "The Last Resort," Don Henley has a line about migrating to California that I've always liked, "There is no more 'New Frontier'/we have got to make it here." And so it is with the Yankees. Dotel was ahead, way ahead, of Pavano, until Torre said, maybe Pavano, but not Dotel. Which meant neither one. Matsui was a month ahead of Sheffield and now Waldman says he's done, but Sheffield's likely. Which means neither one.
Post a Comment
<< Home