PLAYOFFS START FRIDAY

[Webster29]

OK baseball fans,   Wild Card games start Friday with Baltimore @ Texas and StL @ Atlanta.   Any thoughts or comments???

Being a Yankee fan I was very happy to see them win another AL East flag.   But it wasn't easy.   My kudos to Baltimore.   I never expected to see them hang in as long as they did.   I always thought going into August that they would fade and be the birds of old.   

I would be surprised if the Yanks do make it to the WS.   I just don't think they have the pitching to get them through a tough short series.   If they are to be successful I think their offense will have to explode and carry them.   
                                                                                                                                                                     
What would you think of a Beltway WS???

[jimv]

Bill, I'd love to see a Nats/Orioles WS.

[drakew]

The best way to complete a regular season is to clinch on the last day, and do it by totally obliterating the Red Sux!

[robrunner67]

The best way to complete a regular season is to clinch on the last day, and do it by totally obliterating the Red Sux!

.       Yes and the blood was still flowing today with Valentine getting canned!

[Giant Obsession]

Two games in, this is the same playoff Yankees of the last two years......Swisher and Aroid......zip.  Granderson watching fly balls drop as he plays the deepest CF I have ever seen in baseball.

Regular season...all we worry about "is our pitching good enough".  Playoffs...our pitching is fine....but still no ability to manufacture runs.

Game 3 against a right hander, we should start Chavez at 3rd, Gardner is left and shift Suzuki to right.  At best Girardi should drop them to 7th and 8th in the lineup.....not 3rd and 5th.

But Joe will keep doing the same lineup and in 2-3 games we shall be departing for the golf course.

[Webster29]

MIKE   YA OTTA LOVE IT    I SURE DO    THEY PULL A ROD FOR PH IN BOTTOME OF 9TH AND HE HITS TIEING HR THEN WINS IT WITH HR IN 12TH     

[Sem]

Unbelievable, wasn't it? 

Although I think it was the right move, pinch-hitting for A-Rod, it was still a pretty ballsy thing for Joe G. to do.

[Webster29]

I understand Ibanez is the first player in MLB history to hit a HR during the first 9 innings and a 2nd in extra innings in the playoffs.   That sort of surprised me.

[Webster29]

DIFFERENT STORY TONIGHT    YANKEES GET PRETTY GOOD PITCHING BUT COULDNT HIT WATER IF THEY FELL OFF THE TITANIC

[Sem]

Offensively Cano, Granderson, and Swisher have not shown up. 

Quite like the regular season: no HRs = no win.

NY pitching has been very good, hopefully CC keeps that going this afternoon.

[Giant Obsession]

MIKE   YA OTTA LOVE IT    I SURE DO    THEY PULL A ROD FOR PH IN BOTTOME OF 9TH AND HE HITS TIEING HR THEN WINS IT WITH HR IN 12TH   

I did love it....UNTIL THE NEXT GAME last night.   Same situation in the bottom of the 8th with 2 on and a very tough righty on the mound.  Leave him in and another K.  THEN pinch hit for him in the 11 th with no one on.

Girardi makes no sense outside of the blind misguided loyalty he has to Arod, Swisher, and Granderson.....again a combined 1-14 last night.

Hitting is a premium in the playoffs and sometimes you gotta mix it up and look for hitters capable of delivering.  Jayson Nix going 2 for 3 in Game 4 and Ibanez HRs just do not seem to light the candle in Girardi's brain.

At least we will see Ibanez as DH in Game 5, beyond that I have no doubt the lineup will remain with Swisher, Arod and Granderson.  Unless C.C. turns into Game 7, 1962 Ralph Terry the die is unfortunately cast I fear.

[files58]

The failure to hit with RISP has been a huge issue with this team all year long. As a die-hard fan I find it frustrating and disturbing. I am not blaming Cashman etal., it is tough to put a team together with the pressure of having to always put a superior product on the field. There is a fundamental hitting problem. A few less homers and more doubles and singles would go a long way. Granderson struck out 28.5%, or 1.2 times pergame during the season and in this series 9 times. All those completely non-productive at bats. No advancing a runner, no sac flies, killing rallys, no taking walks to get on base. When a player hits 43hrs and only drives in 106 runs that is a problem. Am I being unrealistic to believe that a power/run producing hitter should have 3-4 rbi for every homer hit? He is Dave Kingman with a glove. Tex refuses to hit the other way. If he did the shift may end. With AROD who knows, has he just lost it, is it his eyesight, reflexes? Swisher is a FA after this season, I don't see him returning.

[Giant Obsession]

The failure to hit with RISP has been a huge issue with this team all year long. As a die-hard fan I find it frustrating and disturbing. I am not blaming Cashman etal., it is tough to put a team together with the pressure of having to always put a superior product on the field. There is a fundamental hitting problem. A few less homers and more doubles and singles would go a long way. Granderson struck out 28.5%, or 1.2 times pergame during the season and in this series 9 times. All those completely non-productive at bats. No advancing a runner, no sac flies, killing rallys, no taking walks to get on base. When a player hits 43hrs and only drives in 106 runs that is a problem. Am I being unrealistic to believe that a power/run producing hitter should have 3-4 rbi for every homer hit? He is Dave Kingman with a glove. Tex refuses to hit the other way. If he did the shift may end. With AROD who knows, has he just lost it, is it his eyesight, reflexes? Swisher is a FA after this season, I don't see him returning.

You just hit on all of it.  Tex is equally as frustrating as Arod, but what a marvelous glove.  After years of watching a scared Giambi not make the 3-6-3 throw I want him at first.  But I can not understand his refusal to to hit the other way.  His average is steadily declining.  Granderson....a waste.  if he has speed he does not use it.  Plays way too deep in Centerfield, and now we get an average in the .230's.  I could live with .260 - .270.  i find it hard to watch Austin Jackson without crying.

The REAL bottom line is our minor leagues are devoid of any discernable potential talent.  How many of them did you see called up Sept. 1. ----2 ----Wow.  Melky mesa, who forgot where 3rd base is...and some lefthanded pitcher that we cut a few days later when we activated Gardner.   I never knew Andruw Jones was so valuable.

Kind of sad that the Oakland A's, a team with less payroll than Arod and Tex combined gave the Tigers such a battle.  We never would have.  This team is a tree with 5-6 good limbs that is rotting from the inside.  And it kills me....52 years a fan.