Alex Rodriguez is such a Yankee legend, Jazz Chisolm Jr. wears his uniform number.

I was listening and chuckling when ARod described the fifth inning as the worst meltdown he had seen in forty years. (Technically, he said "one of the worst.")

For one thing, have I got some 2024 Yankee clips to show you!

Most perplexing of all is the obvious observation that this dude was front and center in the Yankee collapse in the 2024 ALCS.

While I totally agree with all the postmortems ... WHY IS THIS THE FIRST I'M READING ABOUT IT? ABOUT THE YANKEE LACK OF FUNDAMENTALS? ANYWHERE BESIDES MY OWN BLOG?

This is why I thought the Yankees wouldn't get past the Royals.

Indulge in a Lupica gloat session.

Same template.

The current Yankees aren't as good as the Torre-era Yankees. 

What was your first clue over the past 20 years?

"Sure, they had the best record in the American League and won against garbage teams in the AL playoffs," that kind of thing.

It doesn't matter.

The Dodgers are better and the NL is better. The best teams don't always win the World Series, however, and I thought it was exciting and fun to make it.

Sorry if I had fun being a fan of a baseball team.

If winning the World Series is the only way to define success, then only the Dodgers were successful in 2024.

The oddball hypocrisy is his dismissal of the Dodgers payroll compared to, well ... I don't need to prove the case. 

I mean, he is kind of re-imagining the Torre-era Yankees after years of dismissing them as MLB-ruining Steinbrenner Stormtroopers.

But the really oddball thing is his insistence of rebuking an argument that no one is actually having.

No one is saying the Yankees are better than the Dodgers. No one is patting themselves on the back for almost winning.  No one is elevating this era to the dynasties of the past.

Where are you hearing these things, kind Sir? The voices in your head?

It's the World Series and the defensive ineptitude is making headlines.

Soto is a Gold Glove finalist, but I don't see it. 

Volpe already has one Gold Glove and is a finalist for another. I don't really agree. Maybe there's a defensive drought at shortstop in the AL?

Verdugo is a finalist and probably deserves it.

The best defensive starting OFer on the Yankees, in my opinion, is the one who isn't a finalist. Go figure. Or draw your own conclusions about the veracity of the Gold Glove award.

As for Gleyber, what else can be said about the man who consistently refuses to do the easy things?

It's a tad convenient to "blame" one play or another. The Dodgers had lots of scoring opportunities, only hit a couple of sac flies, and didn't cash in until the final at-bat.

But as a mind exercise, imagine the following: "If Gleyber Torres can catch a relay throw from the outfield, the Yankees will win Game One of the World Series."

So you sign up for that bargain, and you still lose.

 

Unearned runs and ineptitude with RISP.

I totally missed the deal with the ninth-inning intentional walk. I somehow missed the consequence of Verdugo throwing the ball from the stands. I thought runners were still on first and second.

It's still a risky move because, with the bases loaded, you can't afford a walk or a HBP.

Which means Cortes is under more pressure to throw a first-pitch strike.

Which means ... well, it happened.

I agree with Klapisch that Cole should have stayed in longer.

 I can't say for sure that Hill would have gotten Freeman out, but that is also a fair criticism of Boone.

 I'm still traumatized by the ridiculous walk to Muncy. Cousins has to challenge Muncy instead of just giving away an at-bat. But this is the high-reward/high-risk Yankee bullpen.

We all saw what happened. The sloppy play in the field is very standard operating procedure for this team, especially in big spots, and it comes back to haunt them quite often.

Jazz manufactured a run in the tenth, which was a long-awaited pleasant surprise.

But the Yankees are precisely who they are. They hit one home run and almost won the game. They needed two home runs.

Giancarlo earned the MVP of the ALCS. My observation is not a criticism of his performance or of his MVP credentials.

It's just a really good microcosm of modern baseball.

A DH who batted .222. in the series end up being the obvious choice for MVP.

Of course, since all four hits were home runs, his slugging percentage for the series was .889.

The Mets have a "better future" than the Yankees, for sure!

The Mets didn't give up in Game Five of the ALCS.

Even after having a bad record in 2023, the Mets didn't give up in 2024. 

Gee.

The Yankees, on the other hand, one game away from the World Series, have no pitching and their superstar, Aaron Judge, is a bum.

This is why the Mets are better.

But we already knew that based on the Mets beating the Yankees 4-0 in the regular season and Lupica explaining this to us the past thirty years or so.

Lupica has always told us the Mets are better, and he is right.

Also, the Mets have a better future than the Yankees. Obviously.

Not sure how this conclusion reached ... details are for FanGraphs dorks ... but it's obvious to anyone who believes in Truth and Justice and Grittiness.

So if the Mets are better than the Yankees; and if the Yankees get further than the Mets in the playoffs; then the only conclusion is that the Yankees overachieved or the Mets underachieved.

This hasn't happened yet.

Next week is difficult to predict, much less the nebulous "future."

But if that happens, then that's the only conclusion one can logically reach.

I have zero confidence in Stroman.

If he's described as a secret weapon, then I suspect the Yankees will be hoist by their own petard.

That's from Shakespeare.

Because I'm super smart.

An 80% save percentage isn't very good.

I'm not being serious.

One out to go is tough to take, but the Yankee bullpen wasn't going to have an ERA of 0.00 forever.

A real Joe Namath over here.

A modern-day Mark Messier, don't you know?

Messier famously got a hat trick after he guaranteed a playoff victory. Symbolic and inspiring.

Jazz is batting .138 in the 2024 playoffs.

I know it's just his preferred way of communicating and psyching himself up. It's just clownish to me if you don't deliver.

"Not ... crisp."

"Rizzo did not start Game 3, as manager Aaron Boone went with utility infielder Jon Berti against the left-handed Matt Boyd.

While it was an adventure at time [sic] for Berti, he got through most of the game without a crucial mistake. Boone would later use Rizzo as a defensive replacement in the later innings and the veteran first baseman was not as crisp."

The Yankees are heavy favorites, evidently.

12-1?

OK, fine.

I hope 12 out of 13 experts are correct.

So the Guardians are not a third-round bye?

“They’re way better than anything the Yankees will have faced this year,” Sal said of Cleveland. “The bullpen, the defense, even the lineup, while it’s not as deep as the Yankees, it’s far better than what the Yankees saw with the Royals. So they’re gonna face their toughest challenge.”

He is correct in the sense that the perception is incorrect. The perception is that the AL Central are a bunch of farm teams for the coasts and that the Yankees have an easy path to the World Series.

As for the Yankees' lineup, it's lots of things.

It's effective, as explained many times before, mostly due to walks and home runs. They hit into too many double plays, have trouble hitting situationally, and have a slumpy way of forgetting how to hit with RISP.

One thing it is not is deep.

Even with Gleyber doing the job from the leadoff spot and, in my opinion. a competent catcher who is due for some productivity from the cleanup spot ... the Yankee lineup is basically two great hitters and that's about it.

“They don’t have the starters that Kansas City had...but the Yankees don’t hit in the postseason! That’s been the given. I wish I could say I was encouraged with the first four games of the Yankees postseason...but the Guardians can pitch and play excellent defense, and I don’t think they’re gonna be intimidated at all by the Yankees. This is gonna be a very difficult series...I think the Guardians can win this series very easily.”

The Yankees also have a tendency to beat themselves.

They mostly played "clean" in the first round of the playoffs.

I foresee an infuriating situation where the Guardians score a few tide-turning runs that the Yankees give away. A walk on a pitch clock violation; a catcher's interference; a wild pitch; and an error on a tailor-made GIDP.

 

 

There's a word for fly balls that are almost home runs but caught by the outfielder.

They are known as outs.

Almost fair balls are foul, almost strikes are balls, almost wins are losses.

Besides, I'll take my chances in an extra-innings battle of the bullpens.

When Erik Kratz talks, people listen.

He is certainly entitled to his opinion. The proof is in the pudding and I don't think he's correct in this instance. In any case, the "ex-Yankee" angle is just click bait. When you think of ex-Yankees, Kratz falls somewhere between Mike Jerzembeck and Henry Rodriguez.

It's both. Why can't it be both? It's obviously both.

"You can blame the enigma that is Carlos Rodon, he of three lights-out innings before imploding in the fourth, all you want for the Yankees’ Game 2 loss, but the fact is, he had one bad inning and the bullpen was aces for five behind him."

I mean, he sort of kept his team in the game, if that counts for anything. I suppose it does.

It wasn't a complete disaster. I've seen worse.

But "one bad inning" always means it's a bad start. You don't get credit for almost getting out of an inning.

"To Boomer & Gio, it was the other side, where the Yanks had just five hits entering the ninth and squandered multiple opportunities, that bears the brunt of the loss."

Sure.

Two runs isn't enough.

So in yesterday's game, the offense was bad and the starting pitcher was bad.

The bullpen was excellent. Both games. Zero runs combined.

" '... he pitched much better this year than he did in previous years, and you would think that he’s gonna be a guy that's gonna at least get us through six innings – but they used eight pitchers last night.' ”

Did he pitch much better this year?

He got a lot of wins.

He surged at the end of the year to get his ERA down to around 4.00.

I certainly did not think he would get through six innings.

He pitched 175 innings in 32 starts. A lot of those starts against non-playoff teams. Do the math, kind sir.

The other aspect which unfortunately played out is that the guy seems to be a head case, which is bad news in the playoffs.

Et tu, Clase?

Most Yankee fans envision a disastrous blown save in the playoffs by a second-rate "closer" and they blame Cashman for his unwillingness to spend extravagantly on ... who?

"We don't want another Aroldis Chapman nightmare."

So who's the reliable closer?

There aren't any left.

Score some runs, play good defense, and don't rely on one player to be infallible.

This is a convoluted way of saying it ...

 ... but look around what is happening in the playoffs.

Mariano Rivera isn't walking through that door.

The Yankees already have a good bullpen. It's a strength of the team, not a weakness. That includes Holmes, even though he deserved his demotion.

 

Diaz just blew a save for the Mets in the eighth inning. I'm not surprised at all. We shouldn't forget that he also blew a save in the first game of the Braves doubleheader, setting the stage for Lindor's memorable home run. I don't think Diaz was expected to get a seven-out save today, but he couldn't even get through the eighth.

Now we'll see if the Phillies "closer" can close it out in the ninth.

Hader was "hittable" in the first round, even though most of the runs allowed weren't charged to him.

 

Devin Williams: 1.25 ERA in the regular season, 21.60 ERA in the postseason.

 

I believe in Clase. I also think he's one of a kind of all the current players in MLB. 

So unless you can imagine a scenario where the Guardians are going to trade Clase to the Yankees, the Yankees should feel quite comfortable going with what they've got.

It's just ten innings.

Nine and two-thirds, to be precise.

But the postseason ERA for Clay Holmes is 0.00.

The distrust and anger directed towards this player is overwrought and misguided.

Also, I will predict right now that, at some point in his career, he will allow at least one run in the postseason.

When it happens, the Yankee fans will pounce with a collective, "Told ya so."

Kudos to Peter Sblendorio at the Daily News for noticing that Clay Holmes pitched well in yesterday's game.

Stroman out.

My blog post from September 17:

"So that's five. If you want to put Stroman on the playoff roster, that's six, though I'm not sure why you would do that.

In what possible scenario is Stroman going to be more reliable out of the bullpen than Holmes? In which pitching statistic is Stroman better than Holmes?"

Opinions!

One big surprise over at MLB.com:

"Although the Dodgers won the NL West by five games with MLB's best record (98-64) and have a high-powered lineup featuring Shohei Ohtani (making his postseason debut after the first 50-50 season in MLB history), Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, our experts think the Padres are headed for their second NLDS triumph over Los Angeles in three years."