detentionlectureYANKEESAs the postseason soldiers on, the eliminated teams are facing an offseason filled with golf rounds and hot-stove strategery.
But we're not going to let them get off that easy. No sir. No way. In an attempt to bring some closure between franchise and follower, we're giving a blogger from each team the opportunity to detain their squads for the equivalent of a Saturday morning detention stay.
Up next in our series is our own Rob Iracane. He's now looking forward to an October filled with hay rides and caramel apples at New Jersey's best pumpkin farms.
Hey, New York Yankees! Yes, you! Though this series is 29 teams long, you're really the only franchise in professional sports that deserves an angry postmortem any time you don't win the championship at the end of your year's run. No other team has the same whopping advantage as you Yankees, both financially and historically. Since you first won the whole bag of donuts back in 1923, you've been able to come out on top nearly once every three years! Ridiculous!
So when you fail to bring home a trophy for the second straight season, I have no choice but to bring you all into my office and question your commitment to excellence. Superintendent Steinbrenner (Hank, not Hal) is steaming and you'll eventually have to answer to him. For now, you'll have to sit down, strap in, and listen to a devoted fan.
The punishable offenses: Well the regular season was simply fantastic. You get an A+ for winning the division and clinching homefield advantage in the American League portion of the playoffs early enough to take a nosedive during the last week of September and keep the Boston Red Sox out of the postseason. Kudos! {YSP:MORE}
But that ALDS loss to the Detroit Tigers, what a stinker! First and foremost, I'd like to focus most of my negative criticism towards Mr. Alex Rodriguez. A-Rod the lightning rod, it just rolls off the tongue too easily. Sir, you collected but two hits in five games and, despite Gold Glove-caliber defense at the hot corner, your three RBI just could not cut the mustard.
So while there are other negative forces that pushed the Yankees out, like Mark Teixeira, Russell Martin, Jorge Posada and Nick Swisher combining for just two RBI, or CC Sabathia's inability to shutout the Tigers in relief, or Joe Girardi's neglect to get his best non-Mariano reliever (David Robertson) into any of the first four games, or Luis Ayala's mere existence on the earth, I'm going to keep giving the stinkeye to Mr. Rodriguez as the sacrificial goat.
Deal with it, Alex. You're used to negative criticism. You can handle being in the limelight for better or for worse. And frankly, Yankee fans are stuck with the guy for a whopping six more years, so all the torches and pitchforks aren't going anywhere. Perhaps it's best to protect the rest of the team by focusing all the negative attention on one guy, despite his continued ability to contribute positively to the team, both offensively and defensively.
yankees1010
Partners in crime: It's just not fair to condemn outside forces or uncontrollable circumstances when you've underperformed a bit. But sports ain't the real world, so let's spread the blame around some and lighten your punishment, Yankees players.
First, that short porch in right field that is actually shorter than the old short porch in the old Stadium worked against you this postseason. As per Hannah Ehrlich at River Ave Blues, the Tigers hit two home runs during the division series that were so short that they wouldn't even be home runs in 28 other ballparks. You nearly got your own short-porch tater in the eighth inning of Game Five when Derek Jeter hit a long fly ball that was caught by Don Kelly just shy of the right field scoreboard.
But for you Yankees folks, luck was seemingly only on your side in the two blowout wins, just not in those three close losses. Heck, you outscored the Tigers 28-17, including 23-9 over the last five innings of each game! You fell short by just four runs in the three losses. Four runs. Three losses. Some call it failure in the clutch but I blame the evil goddess that is the Five Game Playoff Series.
You guys just didn't have enough time to prove your mastery of the American League. Five games is too short! There's too great a possibility that luck takes over and this team is built on money, not luck. You, the New York Yankees, are more of a seven-game series sort of squad so I can't be too mad at you.
arod1010Something to build on: Money. Boatloads of money. Dump trucks filled with cash. But please, don't sleep on those thousand-dollar bills. Many other teams have lots of money and most of them have missed the playoffs the past two seasons. Think of your classmates, the Red Sox, Mets, Dodgers, and Cubs. All that precious revenue, down the drain!
Instead, use your money wisely; make sure general manager Brian Cashman has a new contract in place as soon as the World Series is over. After that, don't let CC Sabathia walk away from his big contract. If he wants more money, give it to him. He's an ace!
Then work on the incoming freshman class. After a bombastic September, Jesus Montero is guaranteed to be in the opening day lineup next year. Hopefully, one of the young pitching pair who dominated Double-A this year, Dellin Betances and Manny Banuelos, will be ready by spring training to make the big league team in 2012.
And now that the Kei Igawa reign of terror has finally ended in Scranton, it's time to dip into the Japanese free agent market again. Yu Darvish, a 25-year-old right-handed ace for the Nippon Ham Fighters, is ready to upgrade to the MLB. With the 2012 free-agent pitching market otherwise looking sad, he should make the transfer to the best team in the world.
Shape up or ship out: There are not many free agents among your group. Backup infielder Eric Chavez is probably retiring. Designated hitter and future Hall of Famer Jorge Posada probably should retire. The only other important free agents were picked up off the scrap heap in 2011, starting pitchers Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia. You want a job next year? Take another bargain basement salary and it's yours.
Among the 2012 payroll obligations on the edge of being expelled, however, is A.J. Burnett. Thanks for actually showing up in Game 4 of the ALDS, sir. However, your post-All Star break performance in 2011 was horrendous and if you keep up that nonsense in 2012, we may be forced to put you on an ice floe and push you out to sea.
Otherwise, you are a talented and well-paid group of fellas; I have confidence you'll be back in the postseason in 2012. There's little doubt that you'll collect another division title. But damn, you'll need to find a way to get over the hump in the dang Division Series, avoid bad luck, and move forward to those seven-game series you've dominated so much over the years.
Principal Iracane
@iracane
Iracane at the Stew
Read more of Big League Stew's Detention Lecture series here.
