What's Missing in the Bronx?
Yankee fans expected a longer and more successful post-season run than the one that ended Tuesday night. Losing in the Divison Series marks 2018 as less successful than '17 -- where the club finished one win shy of the World Series. And being eliminated by the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium makes it doubly or triply painful.
How could it go so wrong for a team that set a new single season record for home runs? Why, after 100 victories in 162 games, did these Yanks win only two of the next five? How, with the roster as healthy as anytime this season, did they play three mostly listless games against their forever rivals?
Winning is more than just collecting talent. There's strategy and in baseball, always that dash of good luck. For a variety of reasons, the Yankees are heading home, while the Red Sox are on their way to Houston.
Brimming with home run power, the Yanks began to have trouble building rallies. Too often, they seemed to be waiting for someone to clear the fences. Not there's anything wrong with Judge, Stanton, Andujar or Gregorius crushing a long one. The problems intensified when Boston's mostly effective pitching caused the home runs to dry up. There was no "plan B."
The good news is that the remedy is obvious: obtain one (or two) effective starting pitchers, and a traditional #3 hitter (good contact, low strikeout total, home runs not as important). Paul O'Neill, Don Mattingly, Thurman Munson, Lou Piniela come to mind. Please don't say, "That's 20 to 40 years ago." The strategy, the plate approach still works. "Keep the rally going... make good contact." Just ask Jose Altuve -- whose Astros are about to host the Red Sox. Freddie Freeman of the Braves, Nolan Arenado of the Rockies and the soon-to-be-free agent Manny Machado also symbolize the classic number-three batter. Miguel Andjuar might develop into that kind of hitter; maybe that's where Gleyber Torres eventually lands. Regardless, the Yankees need to prioritize that spot in the order as much as the guys hitting 2nd and cleanup.
Luis Severino had three distinct seasons -- a dominating first half; 11 fair-to-awful starts; and three effective ones to close out the year. Then, a short-but-impressive wild card game outing and a puzzling failure against the Red Sox, where he might not have loosened and warmed up properly. He won't turn 25 until February, so patience might be the best remedy. The rest of the rotation now includes Masahiro Tanaka, who won 12 during the regular year and made the Yankees best start of the post-season; Sonny Gray who seems totally unconfortable pitching in the New York fishbowl (shades of Ed Whitson); and free agents CC Sabathia, Lance Lynn and JA Happ. Say all that you want about manager Aaron Boone not going to his bullpen quickly enough in the ALDS, but the Red Sox served up better starting pitching when it counted.
A strong lefthanded stater is always worth more in Yankee Stadium. Patrick Corbin of the Diamondbacks is also a free agent, and coming off his best season -- as well as an upstate New York native who has expressed interest in coming to the Bronx. And if the Yankees go back to writing big checks, Miguel Andujar, the surprising Luke Voit or one of several remaining minor league prospects could bring pitching help.
No one expects GM Brian Cashman to sit on his hands. A season that offered more promise than it delivered will likely send him back to the drawing board -- especially as the Yankees enter the final year of their first decade since the 1910s when the club has yet to make it to the World Series.
How could it go so wrong for a team that set a new single season record for home runs? Why, after 100 victories in 162 games, did these Yanks win only two of the next five? How, with the roster as healthy as anytime this season, did they play three mostly listless games against their forever rivals?
Winning is more than just collecting talent. There's strategy and in baseball, always that dash of good luck. For a variety of reasons, the Yankees are heading home, while the Red Sox are on their way to Houston.
Brimming with home run power, the Yanks began to have trouble building rallies. Too often, they seemed to be waiting for someone to clear the fences. Not there's anything wrong with Judge, Stanton, Andujar or Gregorius crushing a long one. The problems intensified when Boston's mostly effective pitching caused the home runs to dry up. There was no "plan B."
The good news is that the remedy is obvious: obtain one (or two) effective starting pitchers, and a traditional #3 hitter (good contact, low strikeout total, home runs not as important). Paul O'Neill, Don Mattingly, Thurman Munson, Lou Piniela come to mind. Please don't say, "That's 20 to 40 years ago." The strategy, the plate approach still works. "Keep the rally going... make good contact." Just ask Jose Altuve -- whose Astros are about to host the Red Sox. Freddie Freeman of the Braves, Nolan Arenado of the Rockies and the soon-to-be-free agent Manny Machado also symbolize the classic number-three batter. Miguel Andjuar might develop into that kind of hitter; maybe that's where Gleyber Torres eventually lands. Regardless, the Yankees need to prioritize that spot in the order as much as the guys hitting 2nd and cleanup.
Luis Severino had three distinct seasons -- a dominating first half; 11 fair-to-awful starts; and three effective ones to close out the year. Then, a short-but-impressive wild card game outing and a puzzling failure against the Red Sox, where he might not have loosened and warmed up properly. He won't turn 25 until February, so patience might be the best remedy. The rest of the rotation now includes Masahiro Tanaka, who won 12 during the regular year and made the Yankees best start of the post-season; Sonny Gray who seems totally unconfortable pitching in the New York fishbowl (shades of Ed Whitson); and free agents CC Sabathia, Lance Lynn and JA Happ. Say all that you want about manager Aaron Boone not going to his bullpen quickly enough in the ALDS, but the Red Sox served up better starting pitching when it counted.
A strong lefthanded stater is always worth more in Yankee Stadium. Patrick Corbin of the Diamondbacks is also a free agent, and coming off his best season -- as well as an upstate New York native who has expressed interest in coming to the Bronx. And if the Yankees go back to writing big checks, Miguel Andujar, the surprising Luke Voit or one of several remaining minor league prospects could bring pitching help.
No one expects GM Brian Cashman to sit on his hands. A season that offered more promise than it delivered will likely send him back to the drawing board -- especially as the Yankees enter the final year of their first decade since the 1910s when the club has yet to make it to the World Series.
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