• The Post-Mitchell Report Andy Pettitte continues to underwhelm. It must be his age.
• Don’t blame A-Rod. Blame yourselves. For better and worse, you knew what he was about when you cheered him on last year. You wanted him back so badly that he actually felt welcome in NY. Well, you blew your only chance to get rid of him. Now sit back and relax for the next nine seasons as you enjoy the good, bad, and ugly from baseball’s best player.
What about last year’s comeback? shouts the Y.U. faithful. Or the year before that? Read off the names in this lineup, says the ‘Best team on paper’ theorist. You can’t count this team out! Okay, we won’t.
Let’s say the Yanks do come back and make the playoffs (Sorry, when did that become the mission statement?).
What does it say about this year’s team (and the ones before it) that it can’t seem to pick itself up until it is time to panic? It says the Bombers are at times lackadaisical and unfocused, if nothing else. It says they have the ability to play clutch baseball for spurts and then nonchalant ball when it doesn’t seem to matter quite as much.
They call baseball a marathon - not a horse race. But every year this group of Yankees has to desperately whip itself along for the final stretch. So when the Co-Chairman says that next year this group (with the addition of a couple of big free agents) will win IT, that seems to be a big leap of faith.The core of this team will remain intact and will be a year older. And we’ve seen enough to know that this core is talented but fundamentally flawed.
If history says that you can’t count this team out, then it also says that this is a group that coasts for large parts of the season and turns it on at (hopefully) the right moment. But time has shown this is not a formula for fulfilling the mission statement.
Even though the Co-chairman gave Girardi a free pass the other day, the skippper should be taking a lot of heat for the failures of Cano and Cabrera. Girardi was touted as being a stern motivator and disciplinarian. But the kids look more lost and aloof than ever. In general, Girardi has received a free pass numerous times this year. The team that was supposed to be in such great physical shape has suffered an inordinate number of injuries (not all his fault of course, but what about all the early leg and groin injuries?). The team that was supposed to play Girardi’s brand of small ball is still waiting for the three-run homer (not a good idea in the post-Mitchell Report era). The team that was supposed to be infused with youthful vigor seems more bogged down by aging veterans and journeymen than ever. And worse still is Girardi’s penchant for over thinking the game. Having the balding kid swing instead of bunt, continuing to use the ineffective Mo during non-save situations…. these are just a couple of the often inexplicable in-game moves that Girardi has made. True, he always has an explanation. But even this early on in his Yankee career, it is clear that all to often he simply over thinks the game. And unlike Torre, he can’t seem to calm this team down long enough to put together a meaningful penant drive. Say what you will about your ex. But you have to figure he’d find a way to extract more wins out of his team than this.
• Wait until next year? When did the Yankees morph into the Chicago Cubs? It’s ironic that just a few days after Kennedy was called out on YES for his foolish talk, Hank’s drivel goes completely ignored by the network.
• Next year when Jeter is voted the most overrated player in baseball by his peers, remember Wednesday’s coverage of his injured left foot. Rick Sutcliffe declared on the air that “He must really be injured!” as if to imply that most players won’t play through any kind of pain. The Post described him as having a ‘heavy limp’ and spoke of his ‘vow’ to play on Friday. If Jeter were seriously hurt, he would be headed to the DL where the truly injured go. Instead, he’s playing on Friday. So can we do without all the heroic descriptions and heavy breathing?
It’s interesting to see how everyone is piling on the kid after his post-game comments last night. True, he seemed out of touch with what happened on the field. But it just reflects a lack of maturity and the fact that he is not (and may not ever be) ready to pitch for the Yankees. We’ll say this for Kennedy - at least he didn’t descend into Pettitte inspired self-pity and loathing. It’s clear that is exactly what Kim Jones and the others wanted to hear, probably because they’ve been trained by the master over the years. So we’ll offer Kennedy some polite applause for his totally unique brand of nonchalance. It may not be what the fans in Y.U. wanted to hear. But it was honesty. And in this era of trite and uninspired sound bites from ballplayers, we’ll certainly take it.
• Sorry, but if Al Leiter and Aaron Small are the best the Yanks can come up with for Old-Timers’ Day, how about canceling it for a few years until more players from the 90s can participate? We realize that many of the great ones have passed on but why not use the day to honor real legends as opposed to veritable journeymen? And as we say every year, please cancel the game. No one really wants to see it. And one day, someone is going to get hurt.
• Any day now the Rays will start fall apart. Right?
• Y.U. continues to rejoice over the departure of Manny Ramirez. Banished YES-man and current web scribe David Justice even wrote a gleeful little piece all about it. Call us old fashioned but we still think pitching is the primary reason teams win the World Series. So maybe the question is not whether the Sox have enough offense but rather do the Yankees have enough pitching?
