Let's get players who hit well in the playoffs. Duh! Brian Cashman is so stupid!

The Yankees fans, press, and players are all crazy right now.

Mark Teixeira said the Yankees live and die by the homerun.  Mark Teixeira actually said this.

Alex Rodriguez compared his 2007 MVP comeback season to his upcoming 2013 season.  Alex Rodriguez also said he had a good at-bat last night.  He hasn't hit a HR in a month and he hasn't had a hit off a righty in a long time.

So no matter how you analyze this ALCS collapse, the proposed fixes are bordering on the bizarre:


" 'We are still executing the Gene Michael playbook, which is predominantly left-handed hitters that take walks,' Cashman said the other day. 'They are selective. They’re typically big, hairy monsters, as I describe them, that hit the ball over the fence, hit doubles, singles, can hit home runs.

'What you are seeing right now is not a reflection of that. These guys are better than this. And you’ve seen it and we’ve seen it. We have a lot of guys that got cold at the wrong time and it looks bad, but this is not a reflection of who they are.'

Maybe you agree with that. Or maybe you think he’s delusional, because for more than six weeks now, the only thing we’ve seen is a lineup filled with 30-somethings who cannot hit situationally if their lives depended on it."

They're not taking walks, not hitting singles, not hitting doubles.

This has been going on all season, not just the past six weeks.


"The first three we’d choose: move A-Rod any way you can, and say sayonara to Swisher and Russell Martin. Our one concession to age is to give Ichiro Suzuki a reasonable deal — and we don’t care if he turns 39 on Monday, he had 73 hits in 67 games here and hit .322."

These moves may occur.


"It’s time to recognize Granderson for what he is: a No. 7 hitter who struck out 195 times and was erased from the lineup at the moment of truth. Guys who put up 84 homers and 225 RBI over two seasons don’t grow on trees, so some team should be willing to surrender a power-hitting third baseman and a young arm for him."

Wrong.  No team would be willing to surrender a power-hitting third baseman and a young arm.

Besides, how many teams have both a power-hitting third baseman and a young arm?

How many teams have a power-hitting third baseman?

Who is this power-hitting third baseman?

Texas is going to give the Yankees Adrian Beltre for Curtis Granderson?  Cool!


"It’s time to pursue guys who have October résumés — Torii Hunter, A.J. Pierzynski, David Ortiz — who can fill in your gaps in right field, behind the plate, and at DH. Yes, they don’t make the team any younger, but they’re all winning players who know situational hitting, which nobody but Jeter and Ichiro ever grasped on the present team."

Surrrrrrrre ... Torii Hunter, A.J. Pierzynski, and David Ortiz.  Get Ortiz some steroids a time machine to 2004 and we'll be all set.

The Yankees going to acquire all three and win the World Series next year.  Oh, and don't forget Adrian Beltre.  He'll also win the World Series with the Yankees next year.


Yay!  Mission accomplished.


Also, the analysis is all wrong.  Jeter and Ichiro are poor situational hitters. 

If you load the bases with one out, Jeter will k or GIDP. 

Ichiro abandoned small ball like every other Yankee.  Ichiro struck out, like, once in his first 50 Yankee at-bats.  Then, he hit two HRs in one game against the Red Sox.  After that, he was swinging like Alfonso Soriano.

Don't you remember how many times, in September, Ichiro failed to move a runner over or failed to get a runner home from third base?  I remember, because I lost a year off my life every time it happened.

Don't you remember Nix's leadoff double?  In the playoffs?  In a close game?  Followed by three ks in a row ... Jeter, Ichiro, and "Tex" the Gunslingin' Overweight Cowboy?

Just because a player avoids HRs does not mean that player is good at situational hitting.

Just because a player has a decent playoff batting average doesn't mean they can come to New York and pound Verlander in the ALCS. 


You know, it's weird.  These writers sound stupid when they're vague -- "get a power-hitting third baseman."  But then, when they're specific -- "get Ortiz, Hunter, and Pierzynski" -- they sound even stupider.  When they get specific, they sound like they're swapping baseball cards instead of trading actual real-life players.

Mess.

One of many over-the-top observations regarding the 2012 Yankees.  This by renowned Yankee-hater Peter Abraham:

"We are coming up on the two-month anniversary of the Red Sox trading Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez, and Nick Punto to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Only now, thanks to the Yankees, can the true value of that trade be fully realized."

Because the Tigers swept the Yankees in the ALCS ... James Loney is suddenly a good baseball player?


"Derek Jeter will have surgery on his fractured left ankle on Saturday in North Carolina, then face 4-5 months of rehabilitation. The Yankees hope he will be back for Opening Day, but admit they have no idea to what degree the surgery will affect his ability to play shortstop.

Jeter, who turns 39 in June, worked hard in recent years to improve his range. Now he faces the hurdle of playing with a surgically repaired ankle. Jeter has $17 million on his contract for 2013 and an $8 million player option for 2014.

Then we have the latest drama surrounding 37-year-old Alex Rodriguez. He has looked helpless in the postseason and the Yankees aren't interested in giving him a chance to work it out. Rodriguez has been pinch hit for three times in the postseason and benched three times.

The most expensive player in baseball has become almost useless to them -- and he has five years and $114 million remaining on his contract. On Wednesday, before the postponed fourth game of the American League Championship Series, the Yankees talked about A-Rod like he was some scrub call-up from the minors."

When do you get to the part about the Red Sox?


"The Red Sox avoided this kind of mess when they unloaded Beckett, Crawford, and Gonzalez on the Dodgers."

The Red Sox are in a last-place mess.

Mess, therefore, not avoided.


"Instead of watching the 32-year-old Beckett throw 91-mph fastballs the next two seasons and become increasingly recalcitrant, they can go get somebody younger, better and more team oriented."

Imaginary Beckett Replacement will probably win the Cy Young Award in Unknown Year.


"Instead of counting how many surgeries Crawford has over the length of his seven-year deal, they can invest that money in a player entering his prime."

Imaginary Crawford Replacement who will be the First Player Ever to avoid injuries and also the First Player Ever to live up to his long-term free agent contract.  He will probably win the MVP in Unknown Year.


"And while Gonzalez was a hefty tariff to pay for unloading Beckett and Crawford, his diminishing power and problems hitting at Fenway Park are troubling signs.

Now, thanks to the Dodgers, the Red Sox have incredible roster and payroll flexibility.

Unless they pull off their own miracle trade, the Yankees are stuck with an aging and expensive roster."

Yeah, but ...

1) Roster flexibility does not necessarily equal a good roster.

2) The best players on the Yankees this postseason were all old.

3) The Yankees make so much money, they're not particularly hampered by these expenses.  So the Yankees have plenty of roster and payroll flexibility.

4) The Red Sox have 26 games to make up just to match the Yankees' record.



"The Red Sox were a wretched team and finished in last place, a whopping 26 games behind the first-place Yankees. But the Sox might actually have the advantage moving forward.

Seeing Jeter go down and watching the Yankees wrestle with Rodriguez only confirmed that idea."

"Might actually" is about as vague as it gets. 

"Might actually not."

Cover your ears! ARod just used a cuss word on live TV!

He unconvincingly said "I don't give a [brown word] about the gossip pages."

He also made it clear his relationship with Girardi is on the skids.


A week ago, I would have said this observation is crazy.  Now I agree:

"That said, not one of those clubs is likely to consider Rodriguez at the full retail price. But the Yankees have a history of unloading high-priced talent by continuing to pay part of the bill and estimates the team would have to fork over somewhere between 50 and 75 percent of his salary for the next five years aren't necessarily a deal-breaker. Not after this postseason.

Recently, Yankees President Randy Levine was asked whether he thought A-Rod would still be wearing pinstripes when his current deal ended in 2017. He told ESPN Radio in New York, "That's like one of those questions: Where's the stock market going to be in 2017, who's going to be president on Nov. 15?

'If I had crystal ball to predict all of that stuff, I'd be a lot smarter than I am,' he added. 'I'm not going to go there.'

Not yet, anyway, and not before this season comes to a merciful conclusion. But Rodriguez lost the fans long ago, and from the sound of things Girardi and general manager Brian Cashman might not be too far behind."

Balls.

I guess this is true:

"Slumping slugger Alex Rodriguez zeroed in on fan Kyna Treacy, a leggy 33-year-old, in the ninth inning of his team’s crucial playoff game against the Detroit Tigers, openly flirting with her and getting her phone number even as he was yanked from the lineup and the Bombers struggled to stay alive."

In the ninth inning of a playoff game?


Bob Klapisch may not be over-reacting:

"What happened next said everything about the mushrooming cold war between Joe Girardi and Alex Rodriguez. The manager decided to not pinch-hit for Ibanez against Coke, even though Ibanez batted only .197 against southpaws this year.

Why would the normally conventional-thinking Girardi allow himself to be caught in this trap? Because his reservoir of faith in Rodriguez has gone dry. Not only did Girardi bench A-Rod and Nick Swisher for Game 3, he specifically refused to use A-Rod for Ibanez because, '[the Tigers] were going to bring in [right-hander Joaquin] Benoit.'

A little background here: earlier on Tuesday, the New York Post reported that A-Rod was seen flipping baseballs in the directions of two female fans near the dugout during Game 1. The paper said the baseballs were inscribed not with Rodriguez’ autograph, but a request for the women’s numbers.
 
A-Rod and GM Brian Cashman refused to discuss the story, but the organization was deeply embarrassed by it, especially since the Yankees were in the midst of getting swept in the first two games at home. And Rodriguez himself was playing himself out of the starting lineup by going 0-for-18 with 12 strikeouts against right-handers.

So while Girardi insisted his decision to bench A-Rod was strictly a baseball-related move, his refusal to use the slugger in the ninth inning was unquestionably a smack-down for his behavior in New York. It’s anyone’s guess whether A-Rod will start tonight against Max Scherzer in what could be the Yankees’ final game. Regardless, whether they get swept or Sabathia can keep the series alive one more day, the relationship between Girardi and Rodriguez will never be the same. Good luck trying to figure out how the two will co-exist in 2013 and beyond."

I don't agree with today's benching ...

... but maybe Chavez will surprise me:

"The New York Post reported that Rodriguez was openly flirting with two blonde female fans sitting near the New York dugout during Game 1 of the American League Championship Series at Yankee Stadium last Saturday night.

Rodriguez had plenty of time on his hands Tuesday -- he was benched for Game 3 of the ALCS at Comerica Park as Eric Chavez started in his place at third base against reigning AL MVP and Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlander.

The Post reported that he pulled one of the oldest tricks in the baseball handbook to picking up ladies by sending an autographed ball to them in the stands that included his phone numbers."

I guess this story could be true. It seems like a lot of people would have noticed.

If it's true ... if ARod acted petulantly and unprofessionally during a playoff game, well ... maybe it's time to eat $100 million and send him to Toronto for a few prospects.

A lot changes in one game, huh?

"Gone are mystique and aura, the two temptresses of the Bronx, who blessed old Yankee Stadium with kismet and joy and brilliant baseball. In their stead are apathy and malaise, a couple of hags from Yonkers. They embody the new Yankee Stadium, a sarcophagus if ever there was one: no matter how gorgeous and ornate the outside, it remains filled with lifelessness. 

No wonder Game 2 of the ALCS featured thousands of empty seats, like Game 1 before it, and like the do-or-die Game 5 of the ALDS, too. New Yorkers understand a fraud when they see it. They pay for expensive seats, drink overpriced beers, buy exorbitant merchandise and fund a $200 million joke, a team that for the second straight game couldn't score a measly run off the Detroit Tigers' Nos. 3 and 4 starting pitchers. These Yankees earned every last boo."

The Yankees are going to lose in the ALCS.

This $200 million joke won 95 games, won the AL East, and won the ALDS.

It's not satisfying for a fan base which expects a lot.

But I'd only take Passan seriously if had written this article in the top of the 10th inning on Saturday night.  Mystique and aura are gone from the new Stadium, except when Sabathia throws a complete game in Game Five and when Ibanez's two-out, ninth-inning HR clears the fence.

The gloves come off.

When I attend a Yankee game with my friends, we usually play some side games, one of which is to take gentlemen's bets on how far Robinson Cano will run on a ground ball before he starts breaking it down.

The choices are 30 feet, 45 feet, 60 feet, and 75 feet.

90 feet is not an option because I don't know what kind of odds that would require, even for a gentlemen's bet:

"Didn't his middle-of-the-infield mentor, Derek Jeter, teach this guy anything? In fact, Jeter has tried over the years to convince Cano that he needs to run out every last dribbler, dive, get his uniform dirty, play the game like Jeter does, like Pete Rose did."

Well, no.

Jeter has not taught Cano anything about hustle and smarts.


"The manager also swung and missed -- like his star-studded sluggers who managed a grand sum of four hits -- when asked about Cano's hustle, or lack thereof. Girardi claimed he had no problem with Cano's hustle, or lack thereof.

'Robbie plays fine for me,' Girardi said. 'And I am sure he is frustrated and I understand that. You work really hard to get to this point, and you want to be a part of the winning and contributing, and it is frustrating when you don't.' "

Girardi benched Cano once, years ago, when Cano turned a one-base error into a two-base by loping after a botched ground ball.

That was the beginning and the end of the disciplinary response to Cano's slack.


"In the sixth inning, after Ichiro Suzuki small-balled his way onto first with a slow hopper that Detroit starter Anibal Sanchez couldn't handle, Cano offered something closer to a swinging bunt.

Cano had just watched Suzuki race down the line as if his Hall of Fame candidacy depended on it, his foot speed and competitive will leaving the rushed Tigers to fumble and bumble their way into trouble. Cano had also watched Jeter for years force infielders into hurried and errant throws by honoring DiMaggio's dogma of playing every game as if someone in the crowd is observing for the first time.

So what happens here in the middle of a scoreless game with the Yanks already down in the series, and down a captain? What happens when one of the sport's most talented hitters -- a player who should be desperate to deliver something, anything, of substance -- sends this potentially tricky bouncer to Sanchez's left?

The pitcher feels so comfortable fielding the ball that he throws the kind of underhand lob that a father might toss to his 4-year-old child. The pitcher does this because he knows Cano is running, and because he knows Cano doesn't run Ichiro/Jeter hard to first.

It didn't matter that the underhand throw was Charmin-soft, and it didn't matter that Cano -- nobody's idea of an Olympic sprinter -- might not have beaten it out at full blast. It did matter that Sanchez and the Tigers felt unburdened on the play because they knew Cano would take a lunchtime stroll down the line."

This is hilarious to me, the sudden outrage at Cano's slack.

It's like a New York sportswriter woke up this morning and got angry because the subway doesn't take tokens anymore.

Don't ya know?

"The ball squirted up and out of Robinson Cano’s throwing hand in the seventh, sabotaging a potential inning-ending, double-play relay while Quintin Berry scooted home from third base for the first run in a 3-0 loss to Detroit.
Cano betrayed no emotion, because he never does.

'I didn’t get a grip on the ball, but I think he would be safe anyway,' he said."

Cano will win a Gold Glove, but it's fraudulent.  He botches plays in the field constantly ... often due to his laziness and lack of fundamentals ... and the accolades he receives are mostly due to his penchant for making easy plays look hard.


"Cano didn’t run hard to first on a soft, swinging bunt to the pitcher in the sixth."

Cano didn't even run hard to assist Jeter.  

Jeter must have been 90+ feet away.

"He didn’t protest much later, either, when Omar Infante was called safe at second base by ump Jeff Nelson on a clear tag-out, turning the eighth inning into a two-run fiasco.

Cano was cool as an October night, even as his manager was ejected for arguing the botched call, very nearly blaming the umps for losing both Games 1 and 2."

Cano argued with the umpire a little bit.

  "The stats are mind-numbing, archeologically significant. After grounding out harmlessly to first base in the eighth inning, Cano left the stadium 2-for-32 (.063) in the 2012 playoffs and on an 0-for-26 streak, the longest postseason slump in the team’s long history.

No Yankee has been this bad for this long in October, ever."

It's the longest single-season postseason hitless streak in MLB history.

He was robbed of a single on a bad umpire call, to be fair.  On the same play, however, he didn't run hard out of the batter's box.

"Cano is in the middle of everything, spurring nothing. He leaves runners on base. He is deceptively efficient in the field, yet his nonchalant style does not endear him to fans."

He is not deceptively efficient, he is lazy and fundamentally unsound.  

As for his nonchalant style, nobody complains because he hits .300.  Nobody besides me.

"Is it the pressure, the responsibility of being the club’s very best hitter?

'I don’t put that in my mind,' Cano said.

Maybe he should."

I don't think it's important for him to change his demeanor.

I just think he hit a weird slump at a bad time.

It is important, however, for him to hustle. Do it once, for me, so I can see it with my own eyes. Run 90 feet to first base one time in your career.

It was fun for a while.

"But the always gregarious Swisher couldn’t let it go, especially since he believes some fans made it personal with verbal attacks this weekend aimed at him and several inappropriate tweets about him to his wife, actress JoAnna Garcia.

'(Saturday) night was pretty big. A lot of people saying a lot of things that I’ve never heard before,” Swisher said. 'Prime example - I missed that ball in the lights and the next thing you know, I’m the reason that (Derek) Jeter got hurt. It’s kind of frustrating. They were saying it was my fault.'

Swisher, who may have played his final home game as a Yankee if the series doesn’t return to New York, normally does an emphatic military salute to the Bleacher Creatures during their customary first-inning roll call, but he admittedly took warm-up throws closer to the infield and noticeably toned down his interaction with those fans during Sunday’s 3-0 loss.

'That’s the last thing that I ever thought would be in this ballpark, that people would get on you that bad,' said Swisher, who is an unfathomable 1-for-34 with runners in scoring position in his postseason career. 'Especially your home, where your heart is, where you’ve been battling and grinding all year long. It’s just frustrating, man. You never want to be in that spot. It’s not like you’re trying to go out there and do bad on purpose. It’s just tough, man.' "

Quick review of NYY 2012 playoff stats.

Alex Rodriguez: 2-for-19 with 10 ks.
Robinson Cano: 2-for-28 with 4 ks (and 1 walk).
Nick Swisher: 3-for-23 with 6 ks.
Curtis Granderson: 3-for-23 with 11 ks.
Eric Chavez: 0-for-11 with 6 ks.

Fab Five: 10-for-104 with 37 ks.


I still say play Girardi may as well play ARod and challenge ARod to show some pride and guts.


By the way, teams are winning playoff games every day by hitting singles with RISP. 

Kevin Long tried to save this team in early September by imploring more attention to small ball.  Girardi dismissed the idea and the team didn't listen to Long.


Fast forward six weeks: What would this team do to go back and get a few well-timed RBI ground outs? 

If I am allowed to pick the critical at-bats ... and all I'm asking for is a sac fly or an RBI ground out ... a chopper to second base ... then, the Yankees have not lost a playoff game in 2012.

Yeah, yeah, I know it's a ridiculous exercise ... fallacy of pre-determined outcome ... one-sided perspective.

But it's a professional embarrassment to witness a team completely unwilling to play the game properly, even in the playoffs, even with the game on the line.

I have trouble believing that Alex Rodriguez lacks the ability to chop a grounder to 2b off of Doug Fister.  He's trying to hit a 3-run HR and, when he fails to hit a HR, he's got nothing.  That's the story of the 2012 Yankees.

Empty seats at Yankee Stadium.

"For the second consecutive playoff game, swaths of empty seats filled Yankee Stadium, entire rows without a single fan. And on Saturday night, instead of letting them sit embarrassingly open for Game 1 of the ALCS, ushers were told to fill them with fans from other sections."

Part of it is a problem with MLB's weird scheduling, but it's mostly an unenthusiastic response by a spoiled fan base.

  
"Indeed, the face-value ticket prices are exorbitant. Seats for Sunday's Game 2 against the Detroit Tigers are available on the Yankees' website for between $113 and $688. The Legends Seats – behind home plate and the surrounding areas – range from $860 to $1,715. A spokesman for Major League Baseball said the league offers a variety of potential ticket prices to each team, which then chooses its desired pricing for its LCS home games."

It's noticeable.

One-percenters showing up in the playoffs, talking on their cell phones, and acting entitled to a walk-off grand slam.

Last season, Granderson led the league in RBIs and runs scored.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't:

"It has now been three seasons since the big three-way trade among the Yankees, Tigers and Diamondbacks in which the Yankees sent rookie Austin Jackson and lefty reliever Phil Coke to Detroit and righthander Ian Kennedy to Arizona to land Granderson, a four-tool All-Star.

Two years later, all three teams maintained it was one of those rare deals where everyone came out a winner. Granderson had a breakout season last year for the Yankees with 41 homers and a league-leading 119 RBI. Kennedy led the National League in wins with 21 and, running away with the AL Central, the Tigers got a 15-9 season out of Max Scherzer, the pitcher they got from Arizona, while Jackson, despite a 44-point drop in average, provided superb center field defense.

But trades are ever-evolving in determining who got the best of them, and Jackson’s emergence as a .300 hitter this year after working to eliminate a hitch in his swing that had accounted for Granderson-like 170 and 189 strikeout totals his first two seasons, has prompted the thinking that, when it’s all said and done, he may prove to be the best player in this deal."

Madden writes another woulda-coulda-shoulda article the day after he says the Yankees shoulda traded for Miguel Cabrera. 

Yesterday, Madden chastised the Yankees for refusing to trade their prospects in an imaginary deal.  Today, he chastises the Yankees for trading their prospects in a real-life deal.

"So this ALDS will be the latest referendum on the big trade. Much as they loved those 43 homers and 106 RBI from Granderson, the Yankees winced at those 195 strikeouts which helped account for a .232 average and .319 on-base percentage (as opposed to Jackson’s .300/.377). They hold a $13 million option for next year, but with that $189 million luxury tax threshold hovering in 2014, it is doubtful they will sign him long-term. More likely, they will try to trade him this winter. If Granderson helps them win it all, they can consider themselves winners in the deal for the short term, even though most scouts will tell you that, already, Jackson is the better player."

1) This "ALDS" [sic] is a lot of things, but it's not a referendum on the big trade.  Nobody cares about the big trade.

2) After Swisher's inevitable exit, I'm curious what the Madden version of the Yankee 2013 outfield looks like.  Gardner, Ichiro, and the guy who's better than Granderson? 

3) $13 million sounds very inexpensive for a guy who hit 40 and drove in 100 for 2 years in a row.

Jackson is a different player than Granderson, but not a better player.  Granderson has some deficiencies, and so does Jackson.  I wouldn't be so dismissive of the guy who plays CF and leads your team in HRs and RBIs.

You guys! Yankees could have had a triple crown winner at third base ... well, at DH, because he can't field ... but, still.

What is the point of this observation?

Yankees could have had lots of players, in theory:

"A-Rod opted out of his already onerous $252 million contract on Oct. 29, 2007, much to GM Brian Cashman's great relief."

I think the Yankees were paying about $9 million of ARod's annual salary and got two MVPs out of it.

In 2007, well ... forget it ... I'm not getting into it.

ARod 2007 was the best offensive season I've ever seen up close, so, whatever. The Yankees' GM was relieved to put Mike Lamb at third.


"A little more than a month later, the Florida Marlins traded Miguel Cabrera and their one-time lefty pitching ace, Dontrelle Willis, to the Tigers for two top prospects, pitcher Andrew Miller and outfielder Cameron Maybin, and three other non-prospects."

So, in retrospect, this guy is saying the Yankees should have taken on Dontrelle Willis's contract and lost five prospects.

Maybe.

Because we have no idea if this deal was in the works in the first place.


"The Marlins had made it known that they were willing to trade Cabrera, with whom they had had some issues about his work ethic and who had a year to go before he was eligible for free agency, but on the condition that the other club take on Willis and the remaining four years and $35 million on his contract. After leading the National League with 22 wins as the toast of baseball in 2005, Willis had deteriorated to a 10-15 record and 5.17 ERA in 2007, and there were few clubs capable and/or willing to take on that financial risk. The Yankees were certainly capable, but whether they would have been willing, we’ll never know."

In Bill Madden's alternate universe, Miguel Cabrera is pounding the baseball for the 2012 Yankees. Which would be great.

But who's pitching for the Yankees in the imaginary ALCS?

Is Dontrelle Willis pitching Game Four?


"What happens now with A-Rod is anyone’s guess. Steinbrenner is long gone from the scene, reportedly making only token appearances at the Yankees’ Steinbrenner Field offices in Tampa, and A-Rod, already in marked decline, could find himself on the bench for much of the ALCS as the Tigers’ starting rotation is totally righthanded. Meanwhile, it is understandable if the Yankee high command probably doesn’t want to think about that missed opportunity to get one of the best hitters in the game to replace the opted-out A-Rod five years ago."

You still haven't explained how this was going to happen, or if Cabrera wanted to come to New York, or which prospects the Yankees would have traded, or if the Yankees would have won the World Series in 2009 without ARod.

Carlos Beltran gets three hits in a playoff game.

As Mike Francesa points out, New York fans booed this guy out of town. He is the greatest postseason batter in MLB history.

Swisher's last game as a Yankee?.

"So, obviously, this is far from all A-Rod’s fault. This is turning into the nightmare scenario that loomed as a possibility all season — the Yankees’ home run-or-bust offense coming up empty in the postseason for a second straight year."

It really is kind of funny to me how the 2012 Yankees are finally the team they've been accused of being since approximately 2002.


"Then again, the Orioles can’t hit, either, and the Yankees do have CC Sabathia on the mound on Friday, so you still have to think they have some type of advantage for Game 5.

It’s just hard to imagine Yankee fans are very confident at this point. How could they be after watching this team struggle so badly at the plate?"

I think the Tigers are going to the World Series.

It's not reverse psychology or faux cautiousness, but I haven't been confident in this team since around ... I guess since around September.


"No, it’s not just Rodriguez. With his single on Thursday night, he’s practically sizzling compared to Robinson Cano and Curtis Granderson.

Cano, the hottest hitter in baseball when the season ended a week ago, is 2-for-18 in the series, but at least he’s hitting the ball, sometimes with hard luck.

Granderson is in such a fog that Joe Girardi really needs to bench him in Game 5, put Ichiro Suzuki in center and insert Raul Ibanez in left. The center fielder, who went 0-for-5 with three strikeouts in Game 4, is 1-for-16 with a whopping nine K’s for the series.

And, of course, don’t forget Nick Swisher. After all his promises that October would be different for him this time, he is 2-for-15, bringing his postseason total as a Yankee to 18-for-115."

I guess you keep putting them in there and hope the pitcher throws the ball into their bat.

But it's embarrassing and unprofessional (and disheartening to witness as a fan) when the team refuses to play small ball to this extent. When there's a playoff game on the line.

Even worse, they keep talking like they're playing the game properly. "We've been in playoff mode since September." I don't see any proof of this.

It has been the same thing all year. They roll when they hit four HRs in an inning. They can't get a sac fly or a hit with RISP if their lives depended on it.

My prediction is that the Yankees get shut out tonight.

All praise to Girardi.

Girardi showed faith in his player up to a tipping point, but the player didn't reward the loyalty. I never thought for a second that Girardi was bending over backwards solely to massage ARod's ego. Girardi took a huge, career-altering chance by pinch-hitting for ARod and Girardi would have been vilified if Ibanez had made out.

Get a couple of hits and drive in a run or two.

"For this and many other reasons, you can expect Robinson Cano to be slotted into the No. 3 spot in Girardi’s lineup for Game 3 tonight, unless the manager contrives another list of scatty reasons why he should keep A-Rod in the three hole.

By now, you know them all by rote:

Rodriguez’s 1-for-9, five-strikeout ledger in this ALDS is merely an inscrutable run of bad luck, but he still finds ways to get on base.

Rodriguez, despite the fact he’s had one RBI and one extra-base hit in the 16 games he has played since Sept. 19, can renew his power surge at any time by channeling his inner Hulk and morphing into an irradiated mutant.

And Rodriguez, whose allegedly fragile mental state is one of those Yankee things that have been deemed Inappropriate for Public Discourse, would fall to pieces if he were dropped to sixth or seventh in the lineup.

...

Just be prepared for the possibility that moving A-Rod down in the order may lend them not a whit of offensive benefit whatsoever.

Because the alternatives to the current lineup aren’t very inspiring, either."

Maybe Girardi will surprise everyone and keep ARod batting 3rd.

Grab ARod by the scruff before the game and tell him, "Don't let me down. I'm not batting you 8th. I'm putting my reputation on the line for you. Get two hits and an RBI and everyone will shut up. Another 0-for-4 and you're dead to me."

At least he is specific, Raul Ibanez it is.

This reminds me that Miguel Gonzalez tossed 7 shutout innings at Yankee Stadium on August 31.

In any case, I don't think this is a ridiculous lineup.

I think the Yankees will probably get shut down by Miguel Gonzalez again, but Raul Ibanez will be unproductive from the #5 hole instead of being unproductive from the #8 hole:

"With the Orioles starting right-hander Miguel Gonzalez in Game 3, Girardi should use an order that has the usual 1-2 table setters at the top in Derek Jeter and Ichiro Suzuki, followed by Robinson Cano, who is long overdue for his rightful place hitting third. Teixeira has four hits and a walk in the first two games, so he bats clean up, followed by Raul Ibanez.

The left-handed hitting Ibanez has been swinging a clutch bat for some time and gets sandwiched between the switch-hitting Teixeira and the right-handed hitting A-Rod. Swisher, Curtis Granderson (pretty remarkable to put a player with 43 home runs in the next to last spot in the lineup), and Russell Martin round things out."

Ibanez has definitely had a few big hits this year.

He is a .240 hitter this year, slightly better against righties. He is a .233 career playoff hitter with 3 playoff HRs in 120 playoff at-bats.  Just so everyone is aware of the deficiencies of the Best of the ARod Alternatives.

So, yeah, if you think Ibanez is more likely than ARod to launch one into the short porch, it's a sensible idea. It's also possible that Ibanez ends the game by hitting into 4-6-3 DP while ARod waits in the on-deck circle ... on a day when ARod gets three hits and a HR.

OK: Jeter, Ichiro, Cano, then the guys who get out every time.

Against a righty starter, I'd have no problem with Chavez/Ibanez replacing ARod/Nunez. I also have no problem, in theory, with dropping ARod in the lineup.

Having said that, please be specific when constructing the alternate lineup.

What you'll quickly discover is that the 2012 Yankees don't have too many good hitters:

"The last at-bat of the game was proof enough. Robinson Cano is by far the Yankees’ best hitter these days, and if he were hitting in the No. 3 spot, he would have come up against Jim Johnson when one swing still could have changed everything.

Instead he watched from the on-deck circle Monday night as Alex Rodriguez struck out swinging to end the game, his fifth strikeout in this series.

Enough, already. For a lot of reasons it’s time Joe Girardi makes the obvious move and puts Cano into that third spot, while moving the seemingly diminished A-Rod down in the lineup."

Showalter would have intentionally walked Cano.


"And let’s face it, Rodriguez hasn’t looked like a No. 3 hitter for quite some time, as he continues to search for his power stroke.

Yet after Monday night’s game, Joe Girardi said he had no plans to change the lineup for Wednesday’s Game 3, noting that A-Rod 'squared up two balls tonight.'

True enough, A-Rod did look a lot better than he did in Game 1, when he struck out three times. He hit line drives his first two times up, one that second baseman Robert Andino turned into a double play by making a diving grab, and another that went for a single to left.

Nevertheless, A-Rod was a .270 singles hitter down the stretch of the pennant race for the Yankees, delivering only six extra-base hits over the last month of the season.

Whether it is the result of the broken hand that put him on the disabled list for six months or simply the combination of age and multiple injuries in recent years, Rodriguez rarely hits for power.

In addition, scouts say he is more vulnerable than ever to fastballs at the belt or higher, saying pitchers attack him there when they need a big out, often getting him to swing and miss."

"Scouts," as in Every Person Who Watches the Yankees.

So he cheats against the fastball which makes him more vulnerable to breaking balls. It's pathetic. Even when he gets a hold of a fastball, it will die at the warning track.


"These days, however, you have to think it’s more about fading skills than him trying to validate his status as a Yankee."

I just think Girardi is hoping Cano gives ARod a little protection and it clicks in. I don't think it's such a crazy idea, either.

It might have finally clicked in for Teixeira, surprisingly enough (despite a few typical pop-ups).

It clicked in for Ichiro after about a month of batting ninth.

ARod's slump could turn around on a dime.


"Nobody is saying that Girardi should hit A-Rod eighth, as Joe Torre famously did in Game 4 of the 2006 ALDS against the Tigers. But Rodriguez shouldn’t be hitting third with Cano in the same lineup.

It might not have mattered in this game, but you can always wonder what Cano might have done with one more at-bat. You also can wonder if that thought kept Girardi from sleeping well afterward."

I just don't see the huge difference if Cano bats third.

Instead of having a gaping hole in the #3 spot, you now have a gaping hole in the #4 spot.
Whoever you pick, it's a player who has a low batting average, strikes out too much, and is unlikely to get a hit in the clutch.


Who on this team is noticeably better than ARod? Jeter, Ichiro, and Cano. That's it.

Teixeira may be finally coming out of it, so I guess he'd bat 4th, though the notion seemed laughable a week ago. Swisher is 1-for-33 in the postseason with RISP. Nunez earned his Yankee Pinstripes by popping up with the bases loaded. Granderson has an on-base% of .319 this season.

Russell Martin?  Is Russell Martin now batting 5th?  Because he never grounds into double players and never strikes out?


It's not that I'm against burying ARod in the lineup. But if you go Jeter-Ichiro-Cano, then the lineup is a black hole after Cano. Six batters who swing for the fences and usually come up empty.

The problem is not where they hit, it's how they hit.

Yankee Postseason Roster.

A pleasant surprise that Andruw Jones is off the playoff roster:

"Lowe’s inclusion was one of many difficult decisions that the Yankees made before the series started. They chose Lowe over Cody Eppley, and also left Ivan Nova and Freddy Garcia off the roster. Andruw Jones was replaced by Eduardo Nunez, and Jayson Nix made it after proving he had recovered from a strained left hip flexor."

One thing I think we can all agree on is that Yanks/O's feels nothing like Yanks/BoSox.

Can Mike Lupica write an article about a baseball series without somehow linking the story to Theo Epstein? The world may never know:

"It is the Yankees and the Orioles now in the first round of the playoffs, and so the American League East season did not end on Wednesday night, it goes extra innings, the way it used to with the Red Sox back in 2003 and 2004, when the Yankees and Red Sox would play 19 times during the regular season and still not be done with each other, or have settled anything."

2004: Red Sox end the Curse of the Bambino by coming back from 3-0 deficit in ALCS.  Red Sox win the World Series for the first time since 1918.

2003: Aaron Boone.

1999: Pedro and Zimmer. Clemens and Manny. Perhaps the most intense baseball series I have ever witnessed.

1978: Bucky Dent.

These are some of the greatest moments in one of sports' greatest rivalries.


"Maybe that’s because of the Yankees’ record in the playoffs since their collapse against the Red Sox in ’04:

2005: Lose first round.

2006: Lose first round.

2007: Lose first round.

2008: Miss playoffs.

2009: Win World Series.

2010: Lose to Rangers in ALCS.

2011: Lose first round, finally losing Game 5 at home to the Tigers."

What's your point?


This is the Orioles' record in the playoffs since they leisurely drove home from the golf course and watched on TV as the Red Sox beat the Yankees in '04:

2005: Miss playoffs.

2006: Miss playoffs.

2007: Miss playoffs.

2008: Miss playoffs.

2009: Miss playoffs.

2010: Miss playoffs.

2011: Miss playoffs.


Not sure what any of this has to do with tonight's game.



"The Yankees thought they had put the Orioles away for good Wednesday night, when they beat the Pawtucket Red Sox as the Orioles were losing to the Rays."

Really?

The Yankees thought they had beaten the Orioles all the way back to 1993, before the Wild Card existed?

I am pretty sure the Yankees figured the Orioles had roughly a 50%-50% shot in Texas.


"Only they did not put them away. In the past, the Yankees couldn’t play the wild-card winner in the first round if that winner came out of the AL East."

I don't see what is the big difference here. So the Yankees would be playing Detroit instead of Baltimore and Lupica would be waxing poetic about Verlander, Leyland, and Cabrera.


"Once, in October of 1996, the Yankees really began their run as Torre's Yankees by beating the Orioles in the American League championship series. Now the Orioles are back, because a team that was 41 games under .500 when Showalter took over in 2010 has come all the way back."

"All the way back" is winning one playoff game. That's cool. I understand that this stuff is graded on a curve. I also understand that the Orioles players are probably excited to play in the playoffs, while the Yankee players will be yawning through the first round.


Funny you bring up 1996, though.

I was thinking the 2012 Yankees are the worst Yankee team to make the playoffs since 1996.

The good news is that the Yankees won the World Series in 1996 ... so who knows what will happen in 2012?


"It starts by trying to win three of five against the Yankees. Such a great fight in the AL East this season, such a great September. Like a stirring 12-round fight. No decision yet. Yankees and Orioles fight on. Start of the 13th round at Camden Yards tonight."


Thanks for the boxing metaphor. The 2012 ALDS between the Yankees and the Orioles is nothing like boxing and it's nothing like Yankees-Sox. You're 0-for-2 in your metaphors.


This preview of the 2012 ALDS taught me that Mike Lupica is rooting for the Orioles.  Lupica thinks the Yankees will lose.  Lupica always thinks the Yankees will lose.

The difference is, this is a year where most Yankee fans probably agree.

Most Yankee fans would cut off one of their fingers for a Mark Teixeira sac fly.

Introducing Robinson Cano.

Robinson Cano is 29 years old and has been in the big leagues for 8 years.

He almost won rookie of the year, he almost won MVP a couple of years ago, he had another great year (only hampered by the fact that he was garbage with RISP).

Bill Madden notices that he's the Yankees' best hitter:

"His middle-of-the-order cohorts, Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira, may be earning considerably more than Cano, but that is for past performance."

Of course. You'll be saying the same thing about Cano in 10 years.


"And though Curtis Granderson may have outhomered Cano, 43-33 and driven in 12 more runs (106-94), in terms of fear value, much of that is negated by the outfielder’s ungodly 195 strikeouts."

Yeah.

Jeter and Cano are the only players on the whole team who batted over .300.

Everyone else is all-or-nothing. It's like watching Dave Kingman in an over-50 softball league.


"There is no hotter hitter going into the postseason than Cano, who finished the season with nine straight multi-hit games — longest by a Yankee since Bernie Williams had 10 straight in 2002."

I give you credit for that research. It's a good trivia question.


" 'I’m not taking anything away from their other guys, Teixeira, Rodriguez, Granderson, (Nick) Swisher, who can all hurt you, but if you can contain Cano, your chances of beating the Yankees are immeasurably better,' the same scout said. 'During that slump of his in August, they were a very beatable team, especially with their starting pitching being so uneven.' "

Please don't hesitate to take something away from Teixeira, Rodriguez, Granderson, and Swisher.

The Yankees are a very beatable team, there is simply no denying this. The downside of an "all or nothing" approach is the "nothing."


" ... the window of opportunity is rapidly closing for this Yankee team. Indeed, Cano is the lone homegrown All-Star caliber position player to come out of the Yankee player development department since Jeter in 1996, and while there are some promising outfielders in A-ball, Tyler Austin, Mason Williams and Dante Bichette Jr., they remain years away, and until further notice subject to the popular saying around baseball about Yankee prospects: The closer they get to the big leagues, the less they like them."

Okay, okay, okay. I am crying "uncle."

Cano, Gardner, Hughes, Nova, Pineda, Robertson, Nunez, Granderson ... Teixeira isn't old ...

The "window of opportunity" usually stays open for the Yankees. That's what the big payroll is for.


As for the future, the only future is Sunday night in Baltimore. Win that game before you worry about the future prospects of Dante Bichette Jr.

Yeah, what's with the infantalizing nicknames?

Since he won the division, Girardi deserves a lot of credit.

I'm happy a sportswriter finally noticed the weird nicknames:

"He’s not your lovable Uncle Joe. Joe Girardi will never be Joe Torre, no matter how many silly, infantilizing nicknames he employs for his players."

Bobby Valentine is distracted by a Dustin Pedroia text message and crashes his bike while swerving to avoid two French tourists.

Other than connecting with his swing, Teixeira had a good day hitting the ball.

Mark Teixeira is a professional baseball player who actually said the following:

“The frustrating thing is, I don’t think I swung at a ball all night,” Teixeira said. “I was just so off. I was early or I was way late on everything, and that’s the frustrating part. I was seeing it okay, it just wasn’t connecting with my swing.”

Congratulations to Shawn Hill for his first MLB win in two years.

Girardi sets a lax tone by starting Nunez, Jones, and Stewart:

"With those rallies short-circuiting, first-inning sacrifice flies from Robinson Cano and Granderson were all the Yankees managed. Toronto's bullpen combined for six scoreless innings, with Shawn Hill contributing three for the win, and New York's third-inning opportunity stood out as its most glaring miss.

In that frame, the Yankees loaded the bases against Romero with no outs, but Granderson popped out, Andruw Jones struck out and Eduardo Nunez lined out hard to second base.

Struggles with runners in scoring position have been a nagging, season-long theme for the Yankees, but they would agree to a man that this latest flare-up came at a most inopportune time.

'We couldn't make it happen,' Swisher said. 'That's no reason to get down on ourselves. We've got to keep pushing and come back here with a fire, and hopefully pull off that win tomorrow.' "

Awesome!

The Yankees can totally do it!

Get psyched for the World Series!

Good night to the Andruw Jones era.

MOTO Joel Sherman calls the Yankee loss "unacceptable":

"Romero loaded the bases again in the third. The Yankees get a big hit here, and the Blue Jays probably roll over and play dead.

'We didn’t do a good job with runners in scoring position,' Andy Pettitte said. 'We didn’t add on.'


Curtis Granderson popped out. Romero hurt his knee pitching to Andruw Jones, stayed in and struck Jones out on the next pitch. Jones came to the plate twice with the bases loaded. Twice struck out. Why is Andruw Jones — he of the woeful second half — still playing?"

Andruw Jones's first strikeout was not with the bases loaded, it was with runners on first and second.


In 105 at-bats in the second half of the season, Andruw Jones is batting .143 with 3 homeruns.

I am flabbergasted that Girardi puts him out there in a game like this. I guess Girardi is hoping Jones gets hot and earns a spot on the playoff roster. Which assumes the Yankees make the playoffs. With four games left and a four-game lead on Tampa, am I the only person who thinks Tampa has the Yankees right where they want 'em?

So much for that theory.

The idea was that a pennant race would force the Yankees to rise up and play high-quality baseball rather than sleepwalking into the playoffs.

Well, with seven games to go, they sleepwalked:

"Can anybody here play this game?

On a night when so much was on the table for the Yankees, they delivered a miserable performance against a putrid team that started a good pitcher.

Ivan Nova didn’t pitch well. Robinson Cano dropped a relay throw and made a baserunning mistake. Right fielder Ichiro Suzuki botched a ball on the warning track. And the hitters wilted in front of Brandon Morrow."

Felz Stat of the Day

For his career, ARod has 2,027 strikeouts. A lot, but a fair tradeoff for 647 homers and not a bad ratio when compared to 1,210 walks.

This season, ARod has 111 strikeouts, but with only 18 homers and 44 walks.


Warning track power and the pitchers are no longer scared to pitch to him.

I think Hughes is a five-inning pitcher.

It's tough to analyze "killer instinct," but this team really doesn't seem to have it. Despite their excellent play in the past two weeks which has enabled them to maintain their AL East lead.

The Orioles had already lost.

The Yankees were beating a team that is a million games under .500.

The Yankees had a 2-run lead in the 7th inning.

John Harper blames Logan, and Logan deserves most of the blame. Losing pitcher Hughes also deserves a lot of the blame:

"In a month full of close games, the bullpen has been more crucial than ever for the Yankees, and for the most part, Joe Girardi has been typically aggressive in getting the best out of it. But Tuesday night he was too quick with the trigger and it cost him.

You can argue that bringing in Boone Logan to face Denard Span with the bases loaded in the seventh inning was the book move — lefty vs. lefty and all that.

However, Phil Hughes was pitching a gem, and bases loaded or not, 'he still had good stuff,' catcher Russell Martin said afterward, when Girardi gave him the hook."

I was thinking Hughes should have never started the 7th in the first place. Predictably, the bases were loaded before I could say "Chien Ming Wang."


"At the time he was leading 3-1, his pitch count was at 99 and he’d just struck out Pedro Florimon for the second out of the inning. No wonder he was doing his best, after the 5-4 loss to the Twins, not to let his anger spill out publicly.

Besides the fact that Hughes deserved the chance to pitch to Span, the bigger issue is the workload on the bullpen. At some point there’s a price to pay for pushing relievers to the limit, and this may have been a case in point."

Congratulations on striking out ... ummm, who? ... Pedro Florimon?

Hughes has allowed more HRs than just about anybody in the American League. Denard Span isn't Lou Gehrig, but he isn't Pedro Florimon. I absolutely don't trust Hughes on his 100th pitch with the bases loaded and the game on the line.

Logan blew it bigtime. Maybe it's due to overuse, but Logan was only asked to get one batter out.

Get one batter out and guess what happens? Girardi is a genius and the Yankees have a 2 1/2 game lead.

You got your hustle in my clutch hitting.

You got your clutch hitting in my hustle.

What a second ... it's delicious!

Hustle and clutch hitting: Two great tastes that taste great together:

"If those writing and/or posting to my e-mail and Twitter accounts are an accurate barometer – and from the insane nature of many of them, please, please let that not be true – then the leading reason why the Yankees have not run away with the AL East is because Robinson Cano will not run quickly to first base."

It definitely doesn't help a baseball team win baseball games.


"If only Cano were like, say, I don’t know, Paul O’Neill because, wait, come to think of it Paul O’Neill tended to trot to first when he hit a routine grounder or pop. But he showed his emotions outwardly, punched a water cooler, slammed a bat and so he was The Warrior."

Yes, Paul O'Neill tended to trot to first base when he hit a grounder.

I remember a World Series game where he petulantly walked back to the dugout after popping up a sac bunt attempt. The pitcher let the ball drop and turned it into a double play.

Why are we talking about Paul O'Neill?

If only Cano were like, say, I don't know, Derek Jeter. Play the game in a fundamentally sound manner and hustle. Cano would be an MVP candidate and the Yankees would have a few more wins this season.


"So if Cano just learned to fire a batting helmet into the ground, would all be forgiven? Or is there something deeper at work here?"

No, I don't think anyone is asking Cano to act outwardly angry. I think the fans are asking Cano to hustle on the basepaths and in the field.


"Before we get too sociological, let’s focus on why the Yankees are not comfortably ahead of the Orioles. There are many reasons, of course. However, it you want to home in on Cano, the problem is not hustle, it is big-moment muscle."

Right ... No doubt.

By asking Cano to hustle, is anyone suggesting otherwise?


"Ten games. Fifty at-bats. Sure it would be more aesthetically pleasing to see Cano bust it to first base. But the Yankees need him to drive in runs way more than they need him to run fast."

I have an idea: Both!

I find it amusing when Mike Lupica writes funny things.

This is from July 1st, but I still think it's funny to read an article praising Valentine and Collins:

"Collins: The baseball lifer making it work at Citi Field, not believing all the coverage in the offseason about how his team wasn’t even supposed to play the season. He continues to believe and make the team believe, the Mets team that is 43-36 and still right there in the National League East.

Who knows where the Mets are in two months? But that is the beauty of it all, in a season that has been a gift to their fans, isn’t it? We can’t wait to find out."

In the wake of today's 16-1 loss, I challenge anyone to claim the Mets didn't quit.

Mets playing important games in September.

Ninth-inning HR keeps Phillies' playoff hopes alive as the Mets lose their 8th straight home game and fall to 1-10 in their last 11.

I will now make predictions about the Mets:

1. Terry Collins will keep his job.
2.  David Wright will sign with another team.

Sta-Puf Marshmallow Man will remain on DL longer than expected.

"Mark Teixeira is unlikely to be back in the 10-14 day timeframe provided by the Yankees last Monday. 

GM Brian Cashman conceded on Tuesday that Teixeira is not 'close' to returning after he irritated his calf strain on Sept. 8 trying to stay out of a double play that controversially ended a loss in Baltimore. Cashman is hoping to have him back for the Sept. 27-30 series in Toronto. It’s the Yankees’ second to last series of the season with a matchup against the Red Sox scheduled to finish off the year."

If two runners are on base with two outs, I honestly trust Steve Pearce to get a hit as much as I trust Mark Teixeira. 

Alex Rodriguez is playing well.

Since returning from the DL, ARod has played in 12 games.

AB: 47
H: 14
BA: .298

2B: 2
HR: 3
Runs: 11
RBIs: 9

He really doesn't see it?

If one combines revisionist history with a total lack of self-criticism, then one can create a world where they are never wrong.

In a way, it must be fun to be Mike Lupica:

"Somehow there is still the quaint notion, a leftover from the 1990s, that it is still World Series or bust for the Yankees, even as they have been staggering to the finish line in the American League East for two full months, from the time the rest of the division was told by the media to go home when the Yankees were 10 games ahead in July."

In July, Lupica told his readers to focus on the exciting Mets rather than the ho-hum Yankees.

Sir, you are "the media."

"The media" is you.


"We still hear that about anything less than Series title No. 28 means the season is a failure the way we hear, constantly, about how the Yankee 'brand' must be preserved and maintained at all costs, and I do mean at all costs, because of the way they keep spending money to make money."

The World-Series-or-Bust idea is another Lupica Special. I thought he copyrighted it 15 years ago.

As for the branding, the Yankees are a money-making machine. The branding is working.


Which got me to thinking: What is Mike Lupica's brand? A Jimmy Breslin ripoff who counterbalances his children's books with occasional forays into politics?

A man who can't be bothered with viewing sports on daily basis.

Instead, Lupica is a gatekeeper to the sports conversation.

He doesn't want you to focus on silly things like wins, losses, balls, strikes, batting averages, and other events that occur on the field of play. He wants you to talk about the people who play the sports.

It's a gossip column about pro athletes, written by an author of children's books.


The branding is working, to be fair.  Lupica seems to be quite successful in his various ventures.  Similar to the 2012 Yankees, his branding does not correlate with reality. Similar to the 2012 Yankees, he's a fraud.  The 2012 Yankees, in contrast, still have an opportunity to redeem themselves.


"But then you look at the standings. Then you see they don’t even have as good a won-loss record as the 'Moneyball 2' Oakland A’s. Then you remember that the Yankees have played in one World Series in the last nine seasons at a time in baseball when the Red Sox have won two, the Cardinals have won two, and the Texas Rangers have played in the last two."

At least he gives some dap to the A's. I guess the Boston Valentines fell too far out of the race.


There's nothing here, folks.  Lupica looked at the standings for the first time in two months and noticed the Yankees are struggling.  The rest is him explaining what the Yankees are "supposed" to do.  Which is win the World Series.  Which is the exact branding message that he mocked.


"Even if Mark Teixeira hadn’t gotten hurt, the Yankees might have ended this season without a single 100-RBI guy."

Curtis Granderson has 90 RBIs.

Lupica has decreed that Granderson won't get 10 RBIs in the next 2 weeks.  

I don't know how Lupica knows this, but it doesn't really matter.  If Granderson finished the season with 120 RBIs, Lupica can just say that the media doubted Granderson's ability to get 100 RBIs.

"I love Mike Trout, but Miguel Cabrera is the MVP of the American League."

Mike Trout can sleep well at night.  He has Mike Lupica's seal of approval.  Mike Lupica loves him.


Mike Trout is also leading the league in batting average, stolen bases, and runs scored while winning a gold glove in CF.  So he's also got that going for him.

If you're going to spend time analyzing the arguments in the Trout-vs.-Cabrera MVP battle, I wouldn't rely on the opinion of the gossip columnist who writes children's books.  You may as well rely on the opinions of Dr. Seuss or Cindy Adams.

I will kick 'em when they're down.

At least someone is paying attention to the Mets:

"And with that, the Mets concluded another depressing stay at home, where they have not won since Aug. 26 and where they have not scored more than three runs since Aug. 12.

'It’s frustrating for all 35 guys in that clubhouse, the players and coaches and front office, to not play well at home, to not score runs,' Manager Terry Collins said. 'But, you know, I’ve been sitting around thinking about things, and we set the bar pretty high in April and May. For a club that wasn’t supposed to be very good, we set the bar up there, and I’m proud of that.'"

Bad News/Good News.

"Derek Jeter doesn't even want to miss one inning of the New York Yankees' playoff push.

The shortstop pulled up lame after lunging for first base on his double-play groundout to end the eighth inning of New York's 5-4 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday night. Manager Joe Girardi had to talk him into coming out of the game, but Jeter said he would be back in the lineup when they try to hold onto first place in the AL East again Thursday."

Bad news: Yankee All Star shortstop Derek Jeter injured his leg while hustling to first base in an attempt to beat a relay throw on a double play.

Good news: Yankee All Star second baseman Robinson Cano is forever immune to this particular injury.

Stop saying $189 million.

"If the Yankees were actually to fall not just out of first place but all the way out of the playoffs, I suspect there will be a groundswell for the organization to behave like, well, the Yankees.

In 2008 when the Yanks missed the playoffs for the first time since 1993, they invested $423.5 million on CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira and A.J. Burnett. The further impetus was provided by the need to fill an expensive new stadium opening in 2009."

They won the World Series that year.

"And I wouldn’t be surprised if, after all the talk about getting under the $189 million luxury tax threshold for 2014, the Yankees U-turn should this season end poorly. They are not going to jeopardize the brand — worth billions — to save the millions available via the new collective bargaining agreement for going under the threshold."

Hank and Hal are trying to sell a Shoe Dini to you.

 

Don't buy it.

If the Yankees win the World Series this year ... if they sweep the playoffs, winning every game by 10 runs ... they should still make a U-turn and spend more than $189 million.

 

 

"Since the end of last season, four teams invested more to assure a playoff spot in 2013 than any others and if the season ended today, none would be in the postseason:

* The Marlins bought free agents Heath Bell, Mark Buehrle and Jose Reyes to build — by far — their largest payroll ever and the seventh-largest in the game. By midseason, Miami was in sell-off mode and today is a last-place team.

* The Angels made Albert Pujols the second-highest paid player in baseball and also signed C.J. Wilson. Total offseason investment: $317.5 million. That wasn’t enough, so in July the Angels traded three of their top eight prospects to Milwaukee for Zack Greinke. They have all of that and arguably the greatest rookie year ever being produced by Mike Trout. Yet, they not only have so far failed to accomplish the mandate — overtake the Rangers to be the supreme AL West team — but actually also trail the A’s."

Sure, you should need to spend the money wisely.  Nothing guarantees a playoff spot: High payroll, low payroll, young team, old team. new stadium, old stadium.

Would the Angels be better off without Albert Pujols?  Of course not.

Is Joel Sherman really saying that the A's are the new model for success?  Because I can list a lot of low payroll teams who are purty darn bad.  Like every low payroll team besides the A's.

Jacoby Ellsbury was never the AL MVP.

"The Yankees gave leads of 1-0 and 3-2 to starter Hiroki Kuroda, but the right-hander who has been the Yankees most consistent starter could not hold either. The Red Sox, who snapped a four-game losing skid and won for just the second time in their last 13 games, were led by two of the stars — their two former American League MVPs — who remain.

...

Other than Jeter’s double, the Yankee bats were stagnant. Alex Rodriguez, who showed signs of life in Baltimore, went 0-for-4 with 3 strikeouts. And Curtis Granderson, who hoped his slide was over, went 0-for-3, and left three runners in scoring position. The Yankees dropped to 4-22 in games in which they do not hit a home run. This has been a theme lately, in the postgame sessions, especially with Jeter and Rodriguez."

Logan forgot to cover 1b on a ground ball. Nunez doesn't know how to slide into second base.  Yet again, I'm forced to wonder about the coaching in the Yankee minor leagues.

1-for-12 with RISP.

4-22 in games where they don't hit a HR.


7-13 in their last 20 games.


There is no easy part of the schedule.  The Yankees are the easy part of the schedule.

Heck, ARod already has stepped it up.

"Tuesday night exemplified how badly the Yankees need A-Rod, who went 0-for-4. He came to bat three times with men on base — twice with a runner in scoring position — and came up empty each time. Heck, he couldn’t even make a productive out with runners at second and third and no outs in the first, grounding out to third base."

ARod has been very productive prior to his broken wrist and in the 8 games since his return.

I don't see the big deal about the first inning ground out.  When a 2012 Yankee player fails to get a hit with RISP, it just means he's a 2012 Yankee.  Girardi and Long have kidnapped a puppy and threatened to kill that puppy if any Yankee hits a sac fly.  So before you criticize ARod's poor situational hitting, think of the puppy.


"The Yankees went 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position in the 4-3 loss to the Red Sox, the lone hit coming off Jeter’s bat in the sixth. They left nine runners on base, a crime in a one-run loss to a last-place team that had seemingly stopped caring weeks ago."

It is incredible, and it has been that way all year. Long called them out a couple of weeks ago, but his message fell on deaf ears.

The 2012 Yankees:

• 17-22 in one-run games.
• .231 team BA with 2 outs and RISP.
• 5-9 vs. AL East rivals in pennant stretch.
• Worse record than the A's.

 

Maybe it's all statistical noise and they're about to win 5 straight one-run games, get a walkoff win, tear off an 11-2 winning streak in September.

There is no Yankee fan on Earth who has any reason to think this is going to happen.

This team will likely hang on and make it into the playoffs.  When the playoffs start, anything can happen.  What I'd expect, however, is more of the same: A listless team who swings for the fences and hopes the opposing pitcher throws the ball into their bat.

I heard the fastball was up to 88 MPH.

"Clemens, however, told KRIV-TV in Houston on Monday night he would only want to pitch against a contender. 

'I can tell you right now -- and they would know, too -- that if I was going to go do it, I am going to pitch against a contender, that's who I want to knock out,' Clemens said. 'Why would I want to waste my time running around and getting in shape. I get over to Minute Maid [Park], I'll crank it up and get it over 90 for a contender. We'll knock them right out of the playoffs. That would be the fun. Pitching against somebody that's not in contention wouldn't be any fun for me.' " 

Please pick the Yankees to pitch against!  The Yankees are in contention!  Steinbrenner will pay you $1 million and send a limo to the airport.

Derek Jeter Top Ten AL MVP 2012.

"There can't be a conversation about the American League's Most Valuable Player Award without including Derek Jeter, and doesn't that make this whole season even better?"

Person #1: Who do you think is the AL MVP this year?
Person #2: Not Derek Jeter.

Person #1: Who are your top AL MVP candidates?
Person #2: You mean the players who are having better years than Derek Jeter?

I guess Richard Justice is correct.  I tried to have an AL MVP discussion without mentioning Derek Jeter and I couldn't do it.

 
"Jeter is leading the AL in hits and is second in batting average and fourth in runs. He batted .389 in April, and his average has fallen below .300 for just two days the entire season."

1) What about the guy who's first in batting average?

2) What about the guys who are top three in runs?

3) Why are you ignoring all the other batting statistics?

4) April batting average?


"His defense at short has been terrific, as usual. Meanwhile, his Yankees have had at least a share of first place in the AL East for 93 straight days, and now with the stretch run upon us, Jeter is hitting .378 in September."

1) His defensive range is comically bad.

2) The Yankees blew a ten-game lead and have the 3rd-best record in the league (barely).


"He's part of what appears to be a close race for the AL MVP Award. There's a case to be made for Mike Trout, Miguel Cabrera and Josh Hamilton as well."

You left out a few, including at least one of Jeter's teammates.


"The case for Jeter is this: 

• Doing his job at the top of the lineup spectacularly well.
• Playing nice defense.
• Winning.
• Leadership.
• Being at his best when the pressure is cranked up the most, which is pretty much every day of the year with the Yankees."

•  .367 on-base% and 89 runs are darn good.  Not spectacular.
• Defense is garbage.
• Not winning.
• Jeter leads by example for sure.  Sixteen years of hustling to first base.  But it doesn't rub off on at least one of Jeter's teammates ... and few fifth-place collapse teams usually get high marks for their leadership.  So let's see how the final three weeks play out.
• He has had a great year, just not the best year in the AL.

"Regardless of how it plays out, it's fun just having Jeter in the discussion. Scouts have marveled at the quickness of his bat and his ability to get hits on pitches in tough locations."

He has been great.

Isn't that enough?

Isn't it possible to appreciate his greatness without exaggeration?

I don't get it.

"Every which way Chipper Jones turned at Citi Field, someone wanted to thank him.

Mets chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon presented the Atlanta star with a pricey piece of 3-D artwork. A policeman gave him a firm handshake, an usher provided a pat on the back. A man intercepted Jones in the hallway near the clubhouse, reached into a shopping bag and handed over the Braves flag that flew over Shea Stadium and a framed part of the outfield wall."

This is the blog to read if you want to see Nick Swisher's batting average described as "sinusoidal."

Nick Swisher's 2012 batting average by month:

Apr .284
May .207
Jun .321
Jul .222
Aug .306
Sep .057

One play can't cost a team the pennant.

"Just another one of those nights that could only happen to the Yankees.

The first-base umpire butchered a call that may have cost them a victory and sole possession of first place."

Bad umpire calls seem to occur every day.

This play certainly will live in Yankee Universe infamy if the Yankees miss the playoffs.  I think Dave D'Alessandro and everyone else knows their 2012 collapse is not due to one unlucky play.


Teixeira is called safe.

Tie game, top 9, ARod coming up.

No guarantee the Yankees win the game.

Children.

Blown call in a pennant race.

Girardi loses his cool with reporter.

Reporter writes a column in which he calls the Yankees "losers."


I don't even disagree with Sherman's observations.  The Yankees had their chances and CC was the goat of last night's game.

But a grown man using a newspaper column to passive-aggressively call another grown man a loser?

He may as well have a column of Yo Mama jokes.

Theoretical physicists would claim that it's not possible to go back in time and watch yourself play baseball.

The multiverse will accommodate all things that are possible.  However, no combination of probability waves will create a situation that is not possible.  Therefore, Rickey Henderson can't go back in time and watch himself play baseball.

On the other hand, theoretical physicists never predicted the singular greatness of Rickey Henderson:

"Under our Turn Back the Clock ground rules, not only can you go back to a game you saw in person, you can also go back to a game in which you actually played. And maybe it's no surprise who chose such a game.

'I would like to see myself play,' Rickey Henderson said, choosing Game 2 of the 1989 ALCS.

Well, you don't need the ego of Rickey to want to have seen him in action that series. He stole eight bases, scored eight runs, homered twice and had a 1.609 OPS in five games. He stole four of those bases in Game 2 alone when he pretty destroyed much the will of the Blue Jays' pitching staff.

'That was a fantastic series and a fantastic game for me, Rickey said. And I think that was one of the most important times and one of the most fun times in baseball.' "

PS - Thanks to my buddy who sent me the link.

They aren't losing because Joba pitches; Joba pitches because they're losing.

Still, the Yankees have lost eight games in a row in which Joba has pitched.

Soft.

At this rate, he should be ready to go by early November:

"First baseman Mark Teixeira ran 10-12 sprints Thursday at what he called '80 percent' effort and said 'things are headed in the right direction.'

While Teixeira, out since Aug. 27 with a left calf strain, did not rule out a return to the lineup tonight, from all indications Saturday is more likely.

'I ran close to full speed,' Teixeira said. 'But game speed and practice speed are different, so it’s difficult to really go full speed in practice, but it was encouraging.' "

You're not a sprinter in the Olympics, you're a first baseman in a pennant race.

If you're 80%, you play.

Maybe they wouldn't listen for the first five months.

"Hitting coach Kevin Long suggested an altered approach after the Yankees failed to produce more than six hits for a fifth straight game, the first time since 1990 they've accomplished the dubious feat.

'We have to get back to the basics,' Long said. 'We might start having some guys bunt that you don't normally see bunt until we get it going . . . everybody should be capable of doing it and if we're not all in, then something's wrong. At this point, when you're not scoring runs, you have to try something. This is an important time right now. We need to get the guys in this room to sell out, and trusting everybody on the team, from the guys on the bench to our big horses. We have to come together and we have to do it now.'

While manager Joe Girardi has been hesitant to use words suggesting worry in the clubhouse, Long wasn't.

'You've got a 10-game lead and it'd down to zero so there's some added pressure and guys are probably trying to do too much,' Long said. 'Obviously we've lived on some home runs . . . at times like this it might be moving runners, that's just as important as hitting home runs. The biggest concern here is we've lost our cushion so we have to turn it around and we have to turn it around in a hurry.' "

I think it's probably too late to change the team's bad habits since you encouraged it for so long. (I think there was a stat from last night that the Yankee batters struck out 9 times on changeups?)

Maybe this team will wake up and meet the challenge of, you know, playing important baseball games. Or playing baseball games as if they were important.

Grace Under Pressure.

Sub-.500 record in one-run games.

Zero victories (I think) when trailing after seven innings.

The manager's snitty answers at press conferences.

The manager using five pitchers in one inning.

The manager cracking.

The team cracking.

Just a lot of indications this team really can't handle adversity.

Though I give Girardi credit for finally benching Ichiro.

Robinso Cano diving for a ground ball is MLB's equivalent of Haley's Comet.

"Cano said he believes he would have kept that ball in the infield, but as he reached down to field it, his left foot came up awkwardly and he felt his left hip grab. He stayed in the game and was planning to remain in if the game went beyond the ninth. Cano said he never felt anything pop, and described the injury only as tightness.

'Right when I tried to bend, my left foot just came straight up and I felt my hip,' he said. 'It will be hopefully just nothing bad.' ”

I sure hope Cano is OK and I don't want to completely dismiss the injury ... but, if his hip injury is preventing him from bending over ... then this hip injury has been lingering for about seven years.

Here Comes the Backlash.

"A two-out groundball single by Chris Gimenez in the eighth scored Ryan Roberts from second with the decisive run. The winning base hit barely got past Robinson Cano, who could have likely smothered the ball if he decided to make a diving attempt."

When a team is playing .600 ball, the fans don't pay attention to a catcher who bats .195 or a second baseman who acts like he's bored out of his mind.

Earlier in the game, Cano stalled on the torturous 90-foot run to first base. But that isn't really news, because he jogs to first base just about every at-bat.

Joba Chamberlain recorded one out, and that was a fly ball that travelled over the fence

Why is Joba Chamberlain pitching in the 8th inning of a close game?

Why is Joba Chamberlain pitching in the 8th inning?

Why is Joba Chamberlain pitching?

Why is Joba Chamberlain?

Why?