Poll: ALDS Yankees/Tigers

[DJBeasties]

My gladness for both Tampa Bay and NYY losing are for my own selfish reasons, but I don't usually go poking a bear unless provoked. My tail is still between my legs and fingers crossed that Theo Epstein stays. I will say that I think the Tigers are going to win the whole thing now.

I thought for awhile it would be Milwaukee but I am on board with this 2011 Detroit Tigers team.

[chancellor]

How about Dave Dombrowski landing Doug Fister and Delmon Young in mid-season deals? Where would the Tigers be without those two?

Good moves, indeed. I guess I have enough respect for Dombrowski where I expect pretty smart moves on average out of him. But I can't imagine any scenario where I imagined Doug Fister as a hero.

Now, maybe Bodz had a tequilla-induced hallucination where Fister led Seattle to the ALDS in game 5....

[Hornsby]

Next time you all want to bash on Yankee fans, look at the reaction/behavior is this thread, compared to the behavior of Yankee fans in the Wild Card thread in response to our rival's biggest, most embarrassing, most humiliating, most damaging loss in some time, if not ever. There was no gloating whatsoever, maybe a slight bit from Bob, but mostly it was simply head-shaking. Inside we may have been ecstatic, but if ever there was a time to rub their noses in it, that was it, DJBeasties even braced himself for it, but it never came.

This was simply a lost series to a good team involving mostly good performances from both sides. Other than ARod and Tex, there's nothing to be ashamed of. If those guys bat just .250, the Yanks win this series. If they see the video of Posada looking out on the field knowing it's his last time as a Yankee, while everyone else heads into the clubhouse, they better know it's on them, they let him down. He stepped up when no one expected him to, and they didn't. That may be why he behaved the way he did earlier in the year when he was getting bumped out of the picture, he knows he's declining and doesn't have the physical ability of those guys, but he knows he cares about winning more than they ever will.

While I acknowledge it is always the goal, you can't win them all and this was never a team I expected to win it all, despite the fact the reason I doubted them, the pitching, is not the reason they didn't win.

Yeah, you Yankee fans are the epitome of great sportsmanship. Give me a break.

The reason that almost all of the other fan in here (read: Non Yankee) enjoy seeing the Yanks lose, is that everyone hates Goliath. And nowhere in any competitive endeavor does a more outrageous advantage exist than the Yankees monetary edge over the rest of baseball. The only thing the other clubs have going for them is the Yankees inability to consistently capitalize on that advantage, and the absolutely ludicrous contracts that they give out in moments of panic. Good luck with that left side of the infield for the next 3 seasons, and good luck re-signing CC...I'm sure they will, but it's gonna cost them a whole lot more.

And if the rest of us enjoy the demise of the Yankees with more zeal that you think is appropriate, tough hop. It's a new day tomorrow for you to get excited for the rebuild that will come in the off-season.

[chancellor]

and good luck re-signing CC...I'm sure they will, but it's gonna cost them a whole lot more.

Is CC opting out of his contract?

[BuckyBuckner]

Is CC opting out of his contract?

I think he will, or they will save time by just giving him an extension.

[senorsheep]

Yeah, you Yankee fans are the epitome of great sportsmanship. Give me a break.

The reason that almost all of the other fan in here (read: Non Yankee), is that everyone hates Goliath. And nowhere in any competitive endeavor does a more outrageous advantage exist than the Yankees monetary edge over the rest of baseball. The only thing the other clubs have going for them is the Yankees inability to consistently capitalize on that advantage, and the absolutely ludicrous contracts that they give out in moments of panic. Good luck with that left side of the infield for the next 3 seasons, and good luck re-signing CC...I'm sure they will, but it's gonna cost them a whole lot more.

And if the rest of us enjoy the demise of the Yankees with more zeal that you think is appropriate, tough hop. It's a new day tomorrow for you to get excited for the rebuild that will come in the off-season.

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I'd hate them even more if their organization was capable of intelligently managing their preposterous resource advantage. LOL

[onejayhawk]

If one gazillion dollars can buy you two postseason wins maybe two gazillion can buy you four. Ah, schadenfreude, how I sometimes enjoy thee.

Doesnt schadenfreude denote gloating over misfortune? I dont see any misfortune on the Yankees part.

J

[revo]

Doesnt schadenfreude denote gloating over misfortune? I dont see any misfortune on the Yankees part.

J

No? Spending $207m on payroll and losing perhaps $25m per home playoff game the rest of the way isn't disastrous? Maybe you're used to the Astros not being in contention every year, but the Yankees expect to go deep in the playoffs every season.

[TopChuckie]

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I'd hate them even more if their organization was capable of intelligently managing their preposterous resource advantage. LOL

3 thru 9 in overall payroll didn't even make the playoffs. 1 and 2 both got knocked out in the first round. Team management is not to blame the for Yanks season coming to an end, the randomness and balance that is a short series in the game of baseball is why the Yanks didn't win this year and why they don't win every year as you seem to think they should be able to do. If you're going to bash, at least try to have a valid point. Do they have a financial advantage? Yes. Should that financial advantage result in a World Series Championship every year if properly managed? Don't be ridiculous. The Yanks make the playoffs every year, usually winning their division, they accomplish what their financial advantage should afford them, and that's a lot more than can be said about most other teams.

[senorsheep]

3 thru 9 in overall payroll didn't even make the playoffs. 1 and 2 both got knocked out in the first round. Team management is not to blame the for Yanks season coming to an end, the randomness and balance that is a short series in the game of baseball is why the Yanks didn't win this year and why they don't win every year as you seem to think they should be able to do. If you're going to bash, at least try to have a valid point. Do they have a financial advantage? Yes. Should that financial advantage result in a World Series Championship every year if properly managed? Don't be ridiculous. The Yanks make the playoffs every year, usually winning their division, they accomplish what their financial advantage should afford them, and that's a lot more than can be said about most other teams.

So you don't think the glut of overpriced contracts for fading stars had any impact on their ability to upgrade their rotation this year? You believe that their payroll is as efficiently and effectively managed as it could be?

[BuckyBuckner]

So you don't think the glut of overpriced contracts for fading stars had any impact on their ability to upgrade their rotation this year? You believe that their payroll is as efficiently and effectively managed as it could be?

Surprisingly, pitching wasn't the problem in the playoffs so what upgrades could they have made in their rotation?

[revo]

3 thru 9 in overall payroll didn't even make the playoffs. 1 and 2 both got knocked out in the first round. Team management is not to blame the for Yanks season coming to an end, the randomness and balance that is a short series in the game of baseball is why the Yanks didn't win this year and why they don't win every year as you seem to think they should be able to do. If you're going to bash, at least try to have a valid point. Do they have a financial advantage? Yes. Should that financial advantage result in a World Series Championship every year if properly managed? Don't be ridiculous. The Yanks make the playoffs every year, usually winning their division, they accomplish what their financial advantage should afford them, and that's a lot more than can be said about most other teams.

C'mon now.

As the New York Post's Mike Vaccaro put it very well yesterday:

"Impossible as it is to remember, that 1996 Yankee team wasn't even the highest-salaried team in its own division (Baltimore was) let alone baseball. The back-to-back-to-back champions of 1998-2000 somehow won more than 300 regular-season games (and, more important, 33 postseason games) without All-Stars at every position, with enough dirty-uniform guys that even as they piled up titles, they could still be considered gritty.

Those days, of course, are dead.

The Yankees started changing course after that title in 2000, started collecting stars and bloated contracts, passed those financial burdens on to you, and that's where this all really starts, right? Forget the one championship in the last 11 years; if you want to root for the Yankees now it costs you. It's a commitment to attend a game in May against the Athletics, let alone anything more meaningful. And customers who get gouged expect bang for their buck.

And look: It isn't just fans. Honestly? The Yankees didn't commit a horrific felony this season. They won 97 games. They played a very good series against a worthy opponent. The Tigers won their three games by a total of four runs. Whatever happened to tipping your cap to an adversary who just got the best of you?

Except this is what team president Randy Levine said to ESPN yesterday: "We are the Yankees. When you don't win the World Series, it is a bitter disappointment and not a successful year."

That is absurd, and beyond arrogant, and it's why fans expect nothing short of yearly supremacy, an impossible goal. And it explains why yesterday there was such fury percolating on talk-radio, in email inboxes, all across New York. This is the sickness that befalls you when you brand yourself not only beyond reproach, but beyond failure in a game defined by it."

That's the reason why non-Yankee fans hate the Yanks and their fans -- because they expect greatness. The arrogance. The whining. The "let's replace an All Star making $100m with another All Star who will make $200m just because he went 1-for-14 in the playoffs" attitude. Owning 27 titles yet seeing fans in the stands praying to their lord like they haven't seen a World Series win in a century. A manager who changes his uniform number to rub it in everyone's nose.

If Yankee fans and management are going to rub this kind of nonsense in our face, then they shouldn't complain when we take great joy in seeing your team get ousted.

[chancellor]

So now what do the Yankees do?

Surprisingly, pitching wasn't the problem in the playoffs so what upgrades could they have made in their rotation?

Fair question. All I know is Cashman has a very tough dish of reality he needs to eat and then figure out how the Yanks can adapt. IMO, the Yanks are built well to win a division, but poorly to win playoff series. Specific issues:

- Arguably, they lack the front end of a rotation needed to make a deep playoff run. This worsens significantly if they lose CC.
- Most of their middle of order power hitters have glaring weaknesses due to health issues (ARod), surprisingly early decline (Teix), and never-fixed problems (Swisher). I hadn't watched the Yanks much this year, but I was shocked to see how easily good pitchers ran through Teix and ARod.
- They have limited ability to manufacture runs, and their order is stacked in such a way to squash any limited ability they do have.

[wannabegriffey]

Posada is the first example of what is going to happen many times to the yanks over the next few years, ie. bloated expiring contract with little production.

[DMT]

C'mon now.

As the New York Post's Mike Vaccaro put it very well yesterday:



That's the reason why non-Yankee fans hate the Yanks and their fans -- because they expect greatness. The arrogance. The whining. The "let's replace an All Star making $100m with another All Star who will make $200m just because he went 1-for-14 in the playoffs" attitude. Owning 27 titles yet seeing fans in the stands praying to their lord like they haven't seen a World Series win in a century. A manager who changes his uniform number to rub it in everyone's nose.

If Yankee fans and management are going to rub this kind of nonsense in our face, then they shouldn't complain when we take great joy in seeing your team get ousted.

Bullseye