This Postseason Is Everything The Yankees Aren't

I've watched a fair amount of the MLB postseason so far, but last night was the first night I really sat down and WATCHED the games for extended periods of time.  With every series in action and the week's fantasy football matchup win already locked up, the timing was perfect.  As I sat watching 3 close, competitive, great games I was struck by a jarring reality; the Yankees really don't deserve to be in the postseason.  OK, maybe it's not that jarring when you remember how bad most of their team numbers were this season, but jarring in a sense that goes beyond the numbers.

It's more than just the numbers, it's the way the teams in the playoffs have built their rosters to contend.  There are bits and pieces everywhere of what the Yankees used to be, what they've gotten away from, and what they've never been.  The collection of teams in the playoffs and the various paths they've taken to get there are a perfect example of just how far off the mark the Yankees are with their business and baseball models.

2012 ALCS Game 4 Preview: The Hour Is Getting Late

It's officially do-or-die time for the New York Yankees.  Their backs are against the wall, there is no tomorrow, and they've got to do the impossible.  They have to take it one game at a time, and overcome the odds, but they're playing with house money tonight so all that's left is to go out and do it.

Did I cover all the cliches for the 0-3 hole the Yanks are in?  Good.  Glad that's out of the way.  In all seriousness, the Yankees are in the best possible situation they could be for a must-win game tonight.  They're got their ace on the mound, they've got their 2 best relief pitchers rested and available for 2 innings apiece if needed, and they've got a lineup that at least showed the ability to battle last night against the best pitcher on the planet.  That doesn't change the fact that a win tonight only guarantees them one more day of must-win-ness, but it's something.

It's as simple as it could possibly be.  The Yankees need to win tonight or their season is over.  No stats needed to support that, no arguments for or against anything, and no looking ahead to the next situation.  Win tonight or it's curtains.

Updated Starting Lineups (4:25PM)-

NYY: 1) Ichiro- LF, 2) Swish- RF, 3) Cano- 2B, 4) Teix- 1B, 5) Ibanez- DH, 6) Chavez- 3B, 7) Martin- C, 8) Gardner- CF, 9) Nunez- SS

DET: 1) Jackson- CF, 2) Infante- 2B, 3) Cabrera- 3B, 4) Fielder- 1B, 5) Young- DH, 6) Peralta- SS, 7) Dirks- LF, 8) Garcia- RF, 9) Laird- C

Pitching Matchup-

CC Sabathia (17.2 IP, 12 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 16 K in 2 postseason starts) vs. Max Scherzer (5.1 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 8 K in 1 postseason start)

2012 ALCS Game 3 Preview: Weak And Powerless

I don’t know if it makes me overly pessimistic after only watching 1 game of this series so far, or realistic because of how bad the Yankee offense looked in Game 2, but I admittedly have little faith in this team tonight. The manner in which they carried themselves on Sunday, more than the negative results they produced, was very disconcerting and signaled a dying team. There was no energy, no emotion, no life from a team playing an incredibly important home playoff game, and that doesn’t bode well for the Yankees in the rest of this series. Now the half-empty, boo-filled Yankee Stadium didn’t help matters at all, so maybe a change of scenery will help guys relax, but relaxed or not, facing Justin Verlander tonight is going to be a tough task. Yes, the Yankees have hit him before, but they’ve done that when they’re healthier and swinging the bats much better than they are right now. With the way they’re not hitting and the way Verlander is pitching, a complete game shutout seems like a very realistic possibility tonight.

In the most literal definition, tonight is not a do-or-die game. If the Yankees lose, they still have a chance to run the table and win this series in 7 games. But realistically, a Yankee loss tonight pretty much seals this deal up and in all likelihood ensures that this series doesn’t make it back to New York. If the struggling hitters have just been waiting to make their adjustments at the plate, tonight would be the night to do it.

Updated Starting Lineups (4:20PM)-

NYY: 1) Gardner- LF, 2) Ichiro- RF, 3) Teix- 1B, 4) Cano- 2B, 5) Ibanez- DH, 6) Martin- C, 7) Chavez- 3B, 8) C-Grand- CF, 9) Nunez- SS

DET: 1) Jackson- CF, 2) Berry- LF, 3) Cabrera- 3B, 4) Fielder- 1B, 5) Young- DH, 6) Dirks- RF, 7) Peralta- SS, 8) Avila- C, 9) Infante- 2B

Pitching Matchup-

Phil Hughes (6.2 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 8 K in 1 postseason start) vs. Justin Verlander ( 16 IP, 7 H, 1 ER, 5 BB, 22 K in 2 postseason starts)

2012 ALCS Game 2 Preview: Falling Away From Them

After the jubilation of Friday night's victory in Game 5 of the ALDS, the Yankees didn't have much time to celebrate.  They had to shift their focus to the Detroit Tigers, their opponent for the ALCS, and start working out some of their offensive kinks if they wanted to have a chance at winning this series.  Andy Pettitte took the ball last night and pitched pretty well, but another double dose of offensive futility and some absolutely abysmal bullpen management by Joe combined to waste Andy's start and put the team in a 4-0 hole heading into the 9th inning.  Some A+ drama sparked by 2 2-run homers off the bats of Ichiro and Raul Ibanez (who else?) tied the game, but only really delayed the inevitable as the Yanks ended up losing 6-4 in extras and losing even bigger when Derek Jeter broke his left ankle.  There's a lot to recover from heading into tonight's game, but the Yankees have to make the recovery and have to wake the fuck up offensively.  Going down 2-0 heading into Detroit would make this series damn near over already.

Starting Lineups-

NYY: 1) Ichiro- LF, 2) Cano- 2B, 3) Teix- 1B, 4) Ibanez- DH, 5) Martin- C, 6) A-Rod- 3B, 7) C-Grand- CF, 8) Swish- RF, 9) Nix- SS

DET: 1) Jackson- CF, 2) Berry- LF, 3) Cabrera- 3B, 4) Fielder- 1B, 5) Young- DH, 6) Dirks- RF, 7) Peralta- SS, 8) Avila- C, 9) Infante- 2B

Pitching Matchup-

Hiroki Kuroda (8.1 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K in 1 postseason start) vs. Anibal Sanchez (6.1 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 3 K in 1 postseason start)

2012 ALDS Game 5 Preview: The End Or The Beginning

And this is exactly what I hoped wouldn't happen so that I wouldn't have to write this as my Game 5 preview.  The personal commitments I alluded to yesterday are a wedding that I'm in this Saturday.  And while that's a beautiful thing and an honor to be a part of and all of that stuff, it still royally screws up my plans to watch and write about the most important thing in the world every October, Yankee playoff baseball.  Rehearsal and rehearsal dinner is tonight, and the wedding itself is its typical all day/all night affair on Saturday, so at best I'm going to get to watch the first half of tonight's game, miss the end, and if the Yankees do advance I'll also miss Game 1 of the ALCS.

As for that whole "advancing" thing, what do you really say about this team?  If you would have said before Game 1 that the Yankee starters would combine to allow just 8 ER in 30.2 combined IP, that should have worked out to a slam dunk 3-1 series victory.  And if anybody in the lineup not named Derek Jeter or Mark Teixeira would have shown up in this series that's exactly what would have happened.  But the station-to-station problems and RISP Fail that plagued the offense all season has been kind enough to stick around for the playoffs, and now it all comes down to tonight.

Updated Starting Lineups (2:30PM)-

NYY: 1) Jeter- SS, 2) Ichiro- LF, 3) Cano- 2B, 4) Teix- 1B, 5) Ibanez- DH, 6) Swish- RF, 7) C-Grand- CF, 8) Martin- C, 9) Chavez- 3B

BAL: 1) McLouth- LF, 2) Hardy- SS, 3) Jones- CF, 4) Davis- RF, 5) Wieters- C, 6) Machado- 3B, 7) Mark Reynolds- 1B, 8) Ford- DH, 9) Andino- 2B

Pitching Matchup-

CC Sabathia (8.2 IP, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 K in Game 1) vs. Jason Hammel (5.2 IP, 2 ER, 4 BB, 5 K in Game 1)

2012 ALDS Game 4 Preview: What More Can I Say?

I honestly don't know what to say after last night.  Or even after the first 3 games of this series.  It's been the highest of highs and the lowest of lows as a fan and as a writer these last 4 days, and to be perfectly honest I am drained.  The Yankees certainly looked like the were fixing to break our hearts last night, but some more Raul Ibanez fireworks, this latest round some of the biggest Yankee postseason fireworks in recent memory, changed all that.  Now the Yankees come into tonight's game with the series lead, the momentum, and the emotional edge with the way last night's game finished up.  Baltimore's got a tall order in front of them to try to keep this series alive tonight, and putting their playoff lives in the hands of a pitcher they basically picked off the scrap heap, even if he did pitch well in the Wild Card game, is a tough spot to be in.

I'm hoping for a nice easy game tonight.  I could really use it, and not just to catch up on sleep.  There are some personal obligations on the horizon for Friday and Saturday night that I was hoping wouldn't interfere too much in my postseason viewing/writing plans, and those obligations become a lot less intrusive if the Yankees take care of business tonight.

Updated Starting Lineups (3:55PM):

NYY: 1) Jeter- DH, 2) Ichiro- LF, 3) Teix- 1B, 4) Cano- 2B, 5) A-Rod- 3B, 6) Swish- RF, 7) Martin- C, 8) C-Grand- CF, 9) Nix- SS

BAL: 1) McLouth- LF, 2) Hardy- SS, 3) Davis- RF, 4) Jones- CF, 5) Wieters- C, 6) Thome- DH, 7) Reynolds- 1B, 8) Flaherty- 2B, 9) Machado- 3B

Pitching Matchup-

Phil Hughes (16-13, 4.23 ERA/4.56 FIP, 7.76 K/9) vs. Joe Saunders (9-13, 4.07 ERA/4.08 FIP, 5.77 K/9)

2012 ALDS Game 3 Preview: Take The Power Back

The Yankees could have and should have won Game 2 easily.  That's a fact.  Lost in all the "A-Rod sucks" discussion and talk of RISP Fail, pinch runners, and Derek Jeter being a terrible shortstop is the fact that the Yankees had more hits, more baserunners, and more scoring opportunities than the O's.  If just 2 or 3 plays in that game go differently, the Yankees could have very easily won a 5-1, 6-1 game and the Orioles know it.  They did what they had to do to salvage some semblance of a chance in this series and the pressure is still on them tonight to win a game and negate the homefield advantage that is now clearly in the hands of New York.  Game 3 tonight could be the swing game in this series, and the Yankees need to put Game 2's failures behind them and come out ready to score some runs tonight.

Updated Starting Lineups (2:30PM)-

NYY: 1) Jeter- SS, 2) Ichiro- LF, 3) A-Rod- DH, 4) Cano- 2B, 5) Swish- RF, 6) Teix- 1B, 7) C-Grand- CF, 8) Martin- C, 9) Chavez- 3B

BAL: 1) McLouth- LF, 2) Hardy- SS, 3) Davis- RF, 4) Jones- CF, 5) Wieters- C, 6) Thome- DH, 7) Reynolds- 1B, 8) Flaherty- 2B, 9) Machado- 3B

Pitching Matchup-

Hiroki Kuroda (16-11, 3.32 ERA/3.86 FIP, 6.84 K/9) vs. Miguel Gonzalez (9-4, 3.25 ERA/4.38 FIP, 6.58 K/9)

2012 ALDS Game 2 Preview: Put 'Em Down

Game 1 was about as textbook a win as the Yankees could have on paper. They scored a few early runs and wore down the opposing starting pitcher in the process, get him out by the 6th inning to get into the bullpen, struck late against the 'pen, and got a standout starting pitching performance from the ace of their staff. Last night’s game was incredibly important in terms of not letting the whole “lower-seeded team starting at home” thing become an advantage for Baltimore, and now they find themselves with their backs against the wall tonight, trying not to go down 2-0 with the series heading to New York. They send a struggling Wei-Yin Chen to the mound, not exactly an ideal starting pitcher to have out there in their situation, and he’ll be opposed by a guy who’s been in more big playoff games than he can probably count in Andy Pettitte. The cards are stacked in the Yankees’ favor again tonight, and they can push the upstart O’s to the brink if they play them right

Updated Starting Lineups (4:30PM)-

NYY: 1) Jeter- SS, 2) Ichiro- LF, 3) A-Rod- 3B, 4) Cano- 2B, 5) Swish- RF, 6) Teix- 1B, 7) Martin- C, 8) C-Grand- CF, 9) Nunez- DH

BAL: 1) McLouth- LF, 2) Hardy- SS, 3) Davis- RF, 4) Jones- CF, 5) Wieters- C, 6) Reynolds- 1B, 7) Thome- DH, 8) Machado- 3B, 9) Andino- 2B

Pitching Matchup-

Andy Pettitte (5-4, 2.97 ERA/3.48 FIP, 8.24 K/9 ) vs. Wei-Yin Chen (12-11, 4.02 ERA/4.42 FIP, 7.19 K/9)

2012 ALDS Game 1 Preview: On The Road Again

In a continuation of one of my favorite traditions from one of my favorite Yankee blogs, the now defunct Fack Youk, we'll once again be doing our AB4AR playoff game preview series with a musical theme/connection for each game.  Tonight's is the road, specifically Baltimore, where the Yankees find themselves again despite outlasting the Orioles for the AL East title.  Bud Selig's desire for more dollars has created this screwy 2-3 format for the division series, and the Yanks will just have to roll with the punches and try to get a win tonight to eliminate any potential advantage Baltimore could gain by starting the series on their home turf.  Starting lineups below and keys to tonight's game after the jump.

Updated Starting Lineups-

NYY: 1) Jeter- SS, 2) Ichiro- LF, 3) A-Rod- 3B, 4) Cano- 2B, 5) Swish- RF, 6) Teix- 1B, 7) C-Grand- CF, 8) Martin- C, 9) Ibanez- DH

BAL: 1) McLouth- LF, 2) Hardy- SS, 3) Jones- CF, 4) Wieters- C, 5) Reynolds- 1B, 6) Machado- 3B, 7) Davis- DH, 8) Ford- RF, 9) Andino- 2B

Pitching Matchup-

CC Sabathia (15-6, 3.38 ERA/3.33 FIP, 8.87 K/9) vs. Jason Hammel (8-6, 3.43 ERA/3.29 FIP, 8.62 K/9)

Yanks-O's ALDS Preview: The Prediction

(Used courtesy of The Baltimore Sun)

The rosters are set, the comparisons and contrasts have been made, the advantages, on paper at least, have been analyzed, and the lineup cards for tonight are in the process of being filled out.  The only thing left to do from a blogger standpoint is put my fictional internet money on the line and make a pick.

Truth be told, it didn't take a lot of time to come to this conclusion.  I've felt the Yankees are the better team all along and I still think it's a matter of time until the rabbit's foot Baltimore has been carrying around in its back pocket all season falls out.  And if you're wondering why I haven't said boo about the 2-3 setup for this series that starts the Yankees out on the road despite having a better record than Baltimore and winning the division over them, there's an answer for that too.  I don't think it's going to matter much after tonight because I believe CC Sabathia is going to come out firing tonight.  I think the extra rest his 2 DL stints gave him is going to do him a world of good this postseason, and I think he comes out tonight and dominates to win Game 1 and set the stage for the rest of the series.

Yanks-O's ALDS Preview: 3 Things That Will Decide The Series

(Hey, remember this?)

There wasn't nearly as much drama and work involved as I was personally hoping for last night, but the Orioles sent the Rangers packing and the Yankees now know who they'll play in their divisional round matchup tomorrow night.  As a divisional rivals, the Yanks and O's saw plenty of each other this season.  They played to a 9-9 stalemate in their season series, with the Yankees taking 5 of the first 8 and Orioles winning 6 of the last 10.  That record and those trends mean little now, as the slate is wiped clean for this 5-game series.  But they can give some insight as to the type of things we should be looking for to make predictions and a decision on who will ultimately win.

These teams have a lot of similarities, and there aren't many points of comparison where one has the clear advantage over the other.  The Yankees are the deeper and more talented team on paper, but the O's have played with that undefinable "it factor" all year long, and that is reflected in their undeniably impressive 1-run game and extra-inning records.  I expect this to be a close series and a competitive series, and after the jump are the 3 things that are going to decide who wins.

CC And Cano Preparing To Carry The Postseason Load

(Oh so smoove.  Courtesy of the AP)

Big time players make big time plays in big time games.  That's a generic sports cliche that, despite my friends and I readily ignoring it when it was repeated to us over and over by our college dropout assistant coach during over sophomore lacrosse season, does ring very true.  There's a reason Reggie Jackson is called Mr. October, there's a reason that nickname was altered to Mr. November for Derek Jeter in 2001, and there's a reason that Aaron Effing Boone will always be a legend in New York despite having a relatively mediocre Major League career.  The Yankees have a lot of big time players on their roster, at least in name, but too often this season those players have come up small in big time games.  2 guys who have stepped up as the pressure has risen these past few weeks are CC Sabathia and Robinson Cano.  Not surprisingly, they are the best pitcher and best position player on the team, and their timing could not have been better.