This column is dedicated to all the loyal Yankees fans out there who had their hearts torn out for an agonizing sixth straight season. I'm no fan of the Bronx Bombers (although I'm a huge fan of Sal Fasano), but they were my postseason team.
I managed to provoke the ire of every fifth person last week with comments like, "We have Moose going today, so I'm not worried" or "Yeah RJ isn't at the top of his game anymore, but Jeter and Posada will make sure we stay on top."
It was a landmark week in bandwagon history.
But now, like my Phillies, the Yankees folded more quickly than the CBA under Isiah Thomas. It was appalling to watch as A-Rod went 1-14 while the starting pitching in Games 3 and 4 got lit up like a Christmas tree.
It's understandable that the Yankee community is fuming. There's an expectation that with all the money spent and success achieved during the regular, the team should be able to produce in the postseason.
And I have one thing to say to all of New York.
Relax.
There's no reason to fire Joe Torre. There's no reason to ship A-Rod off to Kansas City in exchange for their Triple-A team.
Only three managers in baseball history have more World Series rings than Torre: Joe McCarthy, Casey Stengel, and Connie Mack. Two of those managers (McCarthy and Stengel) managed guys named Ruth, DiMaggio, Gehrig, Berra, and Mantle. Torre has taken his team to 11 postseasons, second only to Bobby Cox and Tony LaRussa.
Getting rid of Torre for Lou Piniella (one World Series win, five postseason appearances) or Joe Girardi (one better-than-expected season in Florida) would be the dumbest move this side of selling Babe Ruth.
Why should the team completely abandon one of the most potent offenses in years? The Yankees were truly the Bronx Bombers this season, scoring 930 runs. By comparison, the 2001 Seattle Mariners, who won 116 games, scored 927 runs. The last time a Yankee team scored that many runs (965 in 1998), it won 114 games.
Obviously the A-Rod experiment isn't working out as planned, but who is really to blame? Yes, his batting average was at its lowest since 1999, his slugging percentage dipped considerably, and his fielding percentage stunk. But the guy goes out there every day and gives his all only to get lambasted in the media and by the fans for not being a true Yankee.
Hey Yankee fans, if you pay a guy $25 million per year, maybe you should try supporting him for a change rather than booing him when he strikes out, which didn't happen much more than usual (139 times, the exact same amount as last season). He actually hit .302 with runners in scoring position-higher than Posada, Giambi, Matsui, Sheffield, and Damon.
The problem, which doesn't take Peter Gammons to diagnose, is clearly pitching. When the back of your rotation consists of a 6'10" goon with bad back and two glorified, overpaid, and injury-prone arms (Jaret Wright and Carl Pavano), it's obvious that you're going to struggle in a short series.
And, predictably, the Yankees got beat by good pitching for the second straight season and watched helplessly as their pitchers couldn't keep pace.
So why did the Yankees do so well over the course of a full season and then collapse in the playoffs? Like one of my Yankee-supporting (and hell-bound) friends stated, over the course of a season, their lineup will eat average pitching alive.
But it takes more than a good lineup to win in the postseason.
The last time the Yankees won a World Series title, they had a rotation of Pettitte, Clemens, Cone, and El Duque to take down opposing lineups. Somehow, guys like Pavano and Wright just don't carry the same credentials.
They can explore free agency, shelling out money for an overpriced Barry Zito or Jason Schmidt. Or they can wait until the trading deadline next year and make a brilliant move like trading a prospect like Ted Lilly for Jeff Weaver.
The long-term solution, though, has to come from bringing up products of the farm system like Phillip Hughes, Christian Garcia, Jeff Marquez, or Tyler Clippard. The team that beat the Yankees had four of their five starting pitchers this season (Verlander, Bonderman, Robertson, Maroth) spend significant time with their own minor league teams.
If Brian Cashman wants to keep his job, he'll talk The Boss out of firing Joe Torre, signing Alfonso Soriano and Aramis Ramirez, and trading Alex Rodriguez to Anaheim for Paul Byrd and Scot Shields.
But there's a reason why the Yankees haven't won a title since 2000. Maybe this offseason, they'll finally throw a strike at their real problem.
