2013 AB4AR "Best Of The Month" Awards: September 2013

There was hope.  After 5 months of mostly bad baseball, there was still hope for a late Yankee playoff run in September, hope that they themselves helped inspire with a 17-12 run from mid-August to mid-September.  But in the end everything that plagued them in the first 5 months came back to kill the hope in the final 2+ weeks of the regular season.  Injuries, extended stretches of dormant offense, and to put it mildly, incredibly uneven starting and relief pitching.  The Yankees went 6-9 in their final 15 games of the season, including 2 separate 4-game losing streaks, to eliminate themselves from postseason contention and render the final handful of games meaningless, save for the career celebrations of Mo and Andy.

It was a long season, one with more bad than good.  But there were still some noteworthy performances in September, and after the jump you can check out the final batch of monthly AB4AR awards honoring those performances.

Oh Yeah, The A-Rod Suspension Appeal Started Yesterday

(Courtesy of the AP)

(Originally published at IIATMS/TYA)

For as much news as his initial connection to the Biogenesis Clinic made, and as much as the MSM hyped him up as a villain when the suspensions were handed down and he was the only one to appeal, the opening day of the Alex Rodriguez appeal hearing yesterday didn't generate much buzz.  A-Rod himself was there with his legal team, as was former Biogenesis head Anthony Bosch, but for the most part the coverage seemed to be limited to just that and a few quick words from A-Rod and Joe Tacopina on their way out.  I don't know if it was because there was the AL tiebreaker game last night or if everybody was super stoked about Saints-Dolphins on MNF.  I even forget about it myself before I saw a few things come across Twitter late yesterday morning, which is surprising considering the results of this appeal are the most important part of the Yankees' offseason.

Don't Get Worked Up About Joe's Contract Situation Either, People

I understand that Robbie Cano and Joe are very important parts to the Yankees' future plans, guys.  But can we not get overboard excited about what their contract "demands" are and what they may or may not do this early in the offseason game?  Please?

I'll admit, there were a lot of little things happening yesterday that could have made it appear as though Joe was jumping ship.  He wouldn't commit to coming back to the Yankees beyond saying he had to sit down and discuss it with his family, Buster Olney reported that it would take a significant raise from his current $3 million salary to bring him back to New York, his hometown Cubs fired Dale Sveum after 2 relatively unproductive seasons, and the roster he could be looking at in 2014 could be worse than what he just got done managing.  Still, if you think his decision is that simple to leave a potentially sinking ship to return home and become a hero, it's not.