'Kudos & Wet Willies,' ALCS Post-mortem Edition

Speaking of closers, I think Mo deserves a half-Kudos. He did his job in the limited appearances he had.

and I do not see the Yankees spending money on the bullpen

I will stop intentionally walking people with two outs. Bit him twice. I don’t care what the numbers in his book says. Two outs, man on third and they walk the guy ahead of you and give you a chance with runners on the corners… good hitters don’t like that disreeepeck. Vlad is a good hitter. To score two runs Hambone needs to hit a homerun. Much less likely than Vlad getting a double or better to score those two PLUS get himself in scoring position which opens up a huge inning. Which is exactly what happened. Regardless, the Rangers outplayed the Yankees. They deserve the pennant. Lets go Phils or Giants, don’t want Lee winning a ring, getting all sentimental and doing something dumb like staying in Arlington next season.

What does it mean to have “a real feel for the situation” and how does he get it? Ouija boards? Tarot? Witchcraft?
If he had gone by “gut feel” and his moves had blown up, he would be criticized for ignoring the obvious stats.
Since I don’t see where he has explained any of his moves, we are just guessing the extent to which he went by the book, and most of the criticisms I have seen are based solely on the results. I’m not saying he’s perfect – I don’t understand the Robertson move either – but most of the failures came from the players’ inability to execute. When your hitters don’t hit and your pitchers don’t pitch, nothing is going to work.

everyday "Catch"er

It hurts but Texas was much better in the ALCS… Stats do not lie

Add Lee & Crawford to our primary cast of regulars & we will be back on top in 2011.

Rangers winning is good for baseball but once is enough

Ron Washington wasn’t Manager of the Year.
Francona was, just to be compettitive till the end.

How come there is no mention of the hitting guru coach, Kevin Long here on any of the comments?
The Yankees ran hot and cold all season and particularly slumped at the end of the year.
The Yankees situational hitting for the most part all season was awful.
Why is he getting a free pass?

I also agree that the Yankee team is very old and needs a serious youth infusion.
Cashman should have tinkered more with this team. The championship team from last year was an older team than the last 2000 team that won.
Cashman should have recognized this.

I recognize Pettite’s terrific contribution in the playoffs and lifetime as a Yankee, but would have no problem seeing Cliff Lee seeing his money next year. No matter what the Sports Pope (Francesca) says.
I have also had it with Swisher. Trade him and or (Mugsy – my Dad’s name for him) Gardner for a decent young starter and/or reliever.
Then sign either Jayson Werth or Crawford.
It also would not surprise me to see the yankees try and swap A Junk for another pitcher with salary i.e. Derek Lowe.
Bullpen needs some tinkering. I have seen enough of Gaudin and please someone other than Boone Logan to get lefties out.

How come there is no mention of coaching here? We all know it starts at the top with Girardi and he is flat out the worst manager ever to manager in MLB. He couldn’t even put in his own player, Arod, into the Allstar game, the only one not to play. What do Dave Eireland and Kevin Long get paid to do? Simple. Help pitchers pitch and hitters hit. They have failed miserably. Granted, no one can make Bengi Molina win the batting title (except AJ Burnett!) but really, what have they done? NOTHING! They have taken their players backwards. They need to take some, actually, a lot of, heat. Old man George would not have put up with this crap. He fired Billy Martin 3 times. He would have fired Girardi at least once and I doubt he ever would have rehired him.