Well, it's all over but the crying in the Bronx. After scorching the league following a 21-29 start, the Yankees made the playoffs for the 12th straight time, got the matchup they wanted, then got SPANKED! The Tribe pitched better, hit better (holy shit how many 2 out hits/rbi's did they get?!), and all around took it to the Bombers. It's a sad ending to what was shaping up to be a promising season - after collecting themselves so well, A-Clod burning it up on the way to probably another MVP season, the pitching coming around...well, it all kinda fell apart. Time to move on to Hockey season.
But before this, let me prognosticate about the future of the Yankee players:
Torre is gone. Too bad, but King George is gonna get rid of him.
Roger Clemens showed that he's old, slow, and no longer intimidating on the mound. He won't be back with the Yankees, although he MIGHT convince another team to piss away a boatload of money on his 6-6 record.
Andy Pettite will exercise his option and return to the team.
Jorge Posada will be resigned.
Mariano Rivera will be resigned, but I'm not really sure I care. Let the Sandman go, bring in Joba as the closer!
A-Rod is interesting...as fantastic a player as he is, it's really tough for me to justify his asking price (upwards of $30M a season?!) given the fact that he SUCKS ASS in the post-season. Even though he was dominant in the regular season like you'd expect, and he'll deservedly earn the MVP this year, Yankees are measured in POST-SEASON performance. I said this last year - until you shine and succeed and contribute in the post-season, you are NOT accepted. I think that they will retain A-Rod, but my feeling is that they should trade him for a top pitcher or let him go and use his salary to sign a top free agent pitcher - Rodriguez needs a market that has no expectations of him, a market that, like me with Mrs Thew, "just happy to be there". In TX and Seattle, they praised and worshipped him in the regular season, then didn't give a crap when he flopped in the post-season, they were just happy to make the playoffs. Not so in the Bronx - time and again you hear "our measuring stick is championships, not playoffs". He's a great player, but he's not a Yankee and not a good fit personality wise. Don't dispute his title of best player in the game, but I still think he's not a Yankee in his mind.
New York will survive and thrive. Jeter, Cano, Cabrera (how well did THIS guy play?), Abreu, Matsui, Damon, Hughes, Kennedy, Wang (even after his post-season debacle), these people will carry the load next year, the Yankees will once again be in the thick of the post season.
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An arbitrator ruled that the Falcons can recover $19.9M of their signing bonus to Michael Vick. Good.
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This is the problem with unions today. Thousands of workers at the Chrysler plant walked off the job today in a protest over an incomplete labor contract; I don't understand the mentality of crippling your employer so they can pay you more salary and benefits. Aren't you killing their business and revenue, so they will have less money to pay, therefore crippling yourself? Someone please explain this to me.
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