And so it ends not with thunder and lightning, but with a dull thud and a whimper. In the final game of the regular season, the Yankees fell to the Rangers 6-1 in the final game at Globe Life Park in Arlington last Sunday. They did clinched the division and overall played a remarkable regular season, one that saw them overcome a ton of injuries to key players to put up more than 100 wins. Yet, the die hard fan in me can’t help but ask, “What about the postseason?” Sure, the Yankees are a great team. But the teams they’ll be meeting in the playoffs are all scary, and anything can happen in a short series. There are no shortages of pitfalls that might jeopardize the Yankees path to their 28th World Series title.
It all starts tonight. I have said for most of the second half that the Yankee rotation was pretty bad. I will admit that the apparent successful comeback of Luis Severino goes a long way towards alleviating such worries. A Sevy-Paxton-Tanaka top three, especially with Tanaka in his usual playoff form (not what we saw last Sunday), would be one of the best among this year’s postseason contenders., Lets face it, the offense has carried them all year, but when you get into the playoffs your facing only the top pitchers on a playoff opponent. You can’t expect to score 5-6 runes against the likes of Verlander, Scherzer, Berrios, Kershaw, Morton and others, so we need those 3 pitching at their best or our Word Series run will be over quickly. Our defense isn’t one of our strong points. Their collective Def rating is 22nd in MLB, with only the Twins below them among playoff-bound teams. Individually, some Yankees have had great defensive years - Aaron Judge, Brett Gardner, and Didi Gregorius come to mind. However, taken as a whole, the Yankees come out to be a fairly unimpressive defensive unit. Urshela has show brilliant flashes at times, but over all he’s no better than average at the hot corner. As great as Gleyber Torres has been, at best, has a average glove. Our first base D isn’t impressive. The Yankees’ recent offensive performance against the Tampa Bay Rays and the Texas Rangers has left a bad taste in my mouth. To be fair, it isn’t exactly easy to have good at-bats against Charlie Morton when all of his secondaries have wipeout movement and he’s locating his heater on the black. Against the Rangers, Lance Lynn just shut them down. Way to many strikeouts by Judge, Encarnaction and now Stanton. The Bombers have to practice selective aggression perfectly; that is, they have to be ready to put good swings on hittable pitches at all times, while refraining from expanding the zone, or becoming trigger happy and thus falling prey to pitches that look good at first and end up in the opposite batter’s box. And please, with two strikes, don’t guess. think fast ball and react. Not look. Protect the plate (see Don Mattingly). The bullpen had it’s ups and downs ,but overall they are as solid as any playoff team, maybe better. They finished second among contenders in innings pitched. We all know about the bench. Those “next man up” guys other than Urchela (who will probably start), are as good as any in baseball. The question remains…who will be on the post season roster? LeMahieu, Gregorius, Urshela, Torres,Stanton, Judge, Gardner, Romine, Sanchez, Encarnacion, are obvious.(should I include Voit?). Ford and Wade deserve to be there as well, but that depends on how many pitchers they carry. With so many days off during the post season, I would guess 12 pitchers should be enough. which leaves room for those two. Well find out later today.So…Who wins the ALDS match-up with the Twins? The Yankees of course! The Twins have power and a first-rate bullpen. Twins fans wouldn't be wrong in wishing there were another starter here. Michael Pineda's suspension was a killer. It looks as though both Ehire Adrianza and Max Kepler could return from injuries in time for this series. That could make a difference. The chase for 28 starts tonight. Yankees in 4.
5 Comments
randy
10/4/2019 09:50:13 am
Twins in 4!*#@$!!!
Reply
Stan
10/4/2019 10:21:30 am
Feel more confident now that Randy made his prediction......
Reply
john o'connell
10/4/2019 09:53:17 am
they can lose to the twins, but probably won't.
Reply
Sportyguy
10/4/2019 11:24:32 am
Why so negative on the Yankees?
Reply
john o'connell
10/4/2019 01:20:58 pm
if you mean me, why would you say that? think they can beat minn., but not houston. Leave a Reply. |
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