Living in NY I of course listen to Mike and the Mad Dog daily. I really thought they had some interesting things to say in reaction to the Yankees losing.
First they talked about how A-Rod tried way to hard to be a "leader" instead of letting Jeter handle it (who they thought handled this year exceptionally well). They talked about things like how Jeter is always on the top step of the dugout after a good play is made...pumping his fist and shouting encouragement like a Captain does. Then they talked about how A-Rod would go right up there after Jeter got up and would try to do the same thing... coming off as a "phony" to some of the guys on the team...trying to emulate Jeter too much.
They talked about how A-Rod showed how Un-Yankee he is by knocking the ball out of Arroy's golve and worse than that... stood on second with his arms out saying "What did I do?" when he was called out. Could you ever imagine Jeter doing that. They thought he's too in love with his own ego.
They talked about how A-Rod shouldn't have prolonged the Varitek fight... how he should've just jogged to first and now said anything just like the numerous amounts of times Jeter is hit.... because he was risking the safety of his teammates after it wasn't clear if it was intentional or not.
They also mentoned something which I was thinking about at the time it happened. A-Rod may have singlehandedly lost us the series (can't put the blame on him.... it was a team loss) when in Game 5.... 8th inning.... Cairo leads off with a double... Jeter moves him over to 3rd...and A-Rod is up with one out... runner on third... infield back... and a 2 run lead. All A-Rod had to do was hit a fly ball... or a moderately hit ground ball and we have a much safer lead. What does he do? He looks as if he's swinging for Deluth, Minnesota and ends up striking out swinging. Now we have a 2 run lead instead of a much safer 3 run lead.
Then they talked about how Matsui has really fit in the with Yankees Fab Four... Jeter... Bernie... Mo... and Posada. How he has carried himself with pride... class... and professionalism... never making a scene with a questionable call... been a good teammate... and has handled the media with intelligence.
They also think he is the best "pure" hitter in the AL... which I don't have trouble agreeing with after the first 3 games of the ALCS.
Some thoughts I thought I wanted to add was how Joe Torre... has proven his genious over the last decade... had miscalculated how he should use the bullpen. Sure Quantrill and Gordon have rubber arms... but Quantrill would've been a huge part of the postseason.. and I think his overuse during the season... especially after his opening day knee injury... caused his performance decline the last month of the year.... leading to Toree not trusting him in the playoffs. The overuse of Gordon also lead to his failure in the playoffs.
But nonetheless... any game with Mo on and mound and 3 outs to get with any lead... is surprising when he doesn't seal the deal.
Besides that... for a near $200 million payroll.... it seems so wrong that the hopes of our playoffs have rested on guys like Kevin Brown (who iI despise after his immature antics.... and his selfish behavior).... Javier Vazquez who is still unproven under the big spotlight...Estaban Loaiza who was a career journeyman... Felix Heredia who was picked up on waivers... and others...make me question how we got into this situation.
I have been a Yankee fan since I was 6... and I can't remember a team that has inspired more optimism and hope into me than this team with 61 come from behind wins. Sure... thats probably due to crappy Starting Pitching but still... this was a fun team to watch.
I really long for the old days of Tino... Paulie... Brosious... Stanton... Cone... Wells... Pettitte... the real El Duque...etc.
I really think this year's failure stems to not resigning Pettite. Cashman claimed Pettitte no matter what wasn't resigning but I think he's just covering up for not sealing the deal. Cashman was so obsesses with the Vlad/Sheffield deal and the A-Rod deal it seemed as if he ignored Pettite which in turn lost them Clemens.... thats 2/5 of what could have been a great rotation.
Mussina
Pettitte
Clemens
Leiber
Brown/Vazquez/Duque
How can you not be optimistic with that.
Also... how much would our postseason chances have been raised if we had landed Wells? For those that don't knowWells somehow cleared waivers and a deal was in place that looked like this:
Padres get:
Estaban Loaiza
Kenny Lofton
Yanks Get:
David Wells
Jay Payton
This would have been HUGE for us. Wells has a rubber arm and can pitch almost every day... which would include out of the Pen to face Ortiz.
Having Jay Payton would have added to our other major flaw... which was our lack of depth. The Red Sox beat us by having a deep bench.. using Mienteqichkwejhfkfhsd (did I almost spell it right?) as a late inning defensive replacement... Dave Roberts who's stolen base and subsequent run off Rivera won the series for the Sox., among many others.
This year did not feel like a "team" to me. It felt like 7 or 8 dedicated classy guys... mixed in with "Superstars"... divas...journeymen... and others.
I love the Yankees more than anything.... sometimes the only thing I lookk forward to is watching them play every day... and I stull haven't grapsed the fact that we just completed the greatest choke in thehistory of professional sports.. but I had a fun year with my favorite team...even though it ended like this.
Anyways that ends my rant of what went wrongt this Yankee season. Actually if I wanted to mention everything... my fingers would fall of for typing too much.
Thoughts?
(BTW... Go 2005 Yankees! and congrats to the Red Sox for not giving up....although I still do wish the curse lives on
First they talked about how A-Rod tried way to hard to be a "leader" instead of letting Jeter handle it (who they thought handled this year exceptionally well). They talked about things like how Jeter is always on the top step of the dugout after a good play is made...pumping his fist and shouting encouragement like a Captain does. Then they talked about how A-Rod would go right up there after Jeter got up and would try to do the same thing... coming off as a "phony" to some of the guys on the team...trying to emulate Jeter too much.
They talked about how A-Rod showed how Un-Yankee he is by knocking the ball out of Arroy's golve and worse than that... stood on second with his arms out saying "What did I do?" when he was called out. Could you ever imagine Jeter doing that. They thought he's too in love with his own ego.
They talked about how A-Rod shouldn't have prolonged the Varitek fight... how he should've just jogged to first and now said anything just like the numerous amounts of times Jeter is hit.... because he was risking the safety of his teammates after it wasn't clear if it was intentional or not.
They also mentoned something which I was thinking about at the time it happened. A-Rod may have singlehandedly lost us the series (can't put the blame on him.... it was a team loss) when in Game 5.... 8th inning.... Cairo leads off with a double... Jeter moves him over to 3rd...and A-Rod is up with one out... runner on third... infield back... and a 2 run lead. All A-Rod had to do was hit a fly ball... or a moderately hit ground ball and we have a much safer lead. What does he do? He looks as if he's swinging for Deluth, Minnesota and ends up striking out swinging. Now we have a 2 run lead instead of a much safer 3 run lead.
Then they talked about how Matsui has really fit in the with Yankees Fab Four... Jeter... Bernie... Mo... and Posada. How he has carried himself with pride... class... and professionalism... never making a scene with a questionable call... been a good teammate... and has handled the media with intelligence.
They also think he is the best "pure" hitter in the AL... which I don't have trouble agreeing with after the first 3 games of the ALCS.
Some thoughts I thought I wanted to add was how Joe Torre... has proven his genious over the last decade... had miscalculated how he should use the bullpen. Sure Quantrill and Gordon have rubber arms... but Quantrill would've been a huge part of the postseason.. and I think his overuse during the season... especially after his opening day knee injury... caused his performance decline the last month of the year.... leading to Toree not trusting him in the playoffs. The overuse of Gordon also lead to his failure in the playoffs.
But nonetheless... any game with Mo on and mound and 3 outs to get with any lead... is surprising when he doesn't seal the deal.
Besides that... for a near $200 million payroll.... it seems so wrong that the hopes of our playoffs have rested on guys like Kevin Brown (who iI despise after his immature antics.... and his selfish behavior).... Javier Vazquez who is still unproven under the big spotlight...Estaban Loaiza who was a career journeyman... Felix Heredia who was picked up on waivers... and others...make me question how we got into this situation.
I have been a Yankee fan since I was 6... and I can't remember a team that has inspired more optimism and hope into me than this team with 61 come from behind wins. Sure... thats probably due to crappy Starting Pitching but still... this was a fun team to watch.
I really long for the old days of Tino... Paulie... Brosious... Stanton... Cone... Wells... Pettitte... the real El Duque...etc.
I really think this year's failure stems to not resigning Pettite. Cashman claimed Pettitte no matter what wasn't resigning but I think he's just covering up for not sealing the deal. Cashman was so obsesses with the Vlad/Sheffield deal and the A-Rod deal it seemed as if he ignored Pettite which in turn lost them Clemens.... thats 2/5 of what could have been a great rotation.
Mussina
Pettitte
Clemens
Leiber
Brown/Vazquez/Duque
How can you not be optimistic with that.
Also... how much would our postseason chances have been raised if we had landed Wells? For those that don't knowWells somehow cleared waivers and a deal was in place that looked like this:
Padres get:
Estaban Loaiza
Kenny Lofton
Yanks Get:
David Wells
Jay Payton
This would have been HUGE for us. Wells has a rubber arm and can pitch almost every day... which would include out of the Pen to face Ortiz.
Having Jay Payton would have added to our other major flaw... which was our lack of depth. The Red Sox beat us by having a deep bench.. using Mienteqichkwejhfkfhsd (did I almost spell it right?) as a late inning defensive replacement... Dave Roberts who's stolen base and subsequent run off Rivera won the series for the Sox., among many others.
This year did not feel like a "team" to me. It felt like 7 or 8 dedicated classy guys... mixed in with "Superstars"... divas...journeymen... and others.
I love the Yankees more than anything.... sometimes the only thing I lookk forward to is watching them play every day... and I stull haven't grapsed the fact that we just completed the greatest choke in thehistory of professional sports.. but I had a fun year with my favorite team...even though it ended like this.
Anyways that ends my rant of what went wrongt this Yankee season. Actually if I wanted to mention everything... my fingers would fall of for typing too much.
Thoughts?
(BTW... Go 2005 Yankees! and congrats to the Red Sox for not giving up....although I still do wish the curse lives on
Comment