Playoff Talk: Yankees vs Angels

[J.R.]

I think this will be another very interesting and exciting series. I feel it will go a complete five games.

New York jumped out to a nice lead in the first two innings of game one and backed by a strong performance by Mike Mussina the Yankees look well in control of this first game.

.

[Mel]

I had to miss a lot of the game.

But I kind of assumed the Yankees were going to lose as Mussina has been a bad luck charm much of this season. So needless to say I'm happy with the win.

[Mel]

So the Skanks pushed it to a game 5. Thanks to bad weather. After the Yankees win last night... both teams rushed to get on redeye flights back to Cali for tonight's game 5 showdown. It was estimated by one writer that, with the help of the time zone change, the teams were all back to the hotels / homes turning in for some sleep by about 5 AM Pacific time at best.

Now, the winner of tonight's game (after celebrating with champagne and all that fun stuff)... will have to do the same act and hustle on to a redeye flight over to Chicago. But this time the time zone change works against them... losing 2 hours in the process.

With that, they'll have no choice but to be fresh and ready for Tuesday night's ALCS opener against the ChiSox.

There has been some talk that due to the way this turned out... They would flip-flop the AL and NL CS nights... so the NL would start Tuesday and the AL would start Wednesday, giving an extra day of rest to the NYY/Angels winner.

That is obviously music to the ears of the winner of tonight's game 5. However, the Houston Astros would be livid to lose a day's rest for their pitching staff after completing an 18 inning marathon on Sunday.

Chicago is not too keen on the idea either. They are ready as ever to dive head first into the ALCS, feeding off their domination of the RedSox. They do not want to sit idle for another day while their opponent gets a much needed day of rest.

Personally - I don't think the schedule should be changed... but if they did want to allow an extra day's rest for tonight's winner. The only fair way to do it is to push back both CS's by one day (AL starts Wednesday, and NL starts Thursday). If they did that, no team would have much cause to complain... except perhaps Chicago, because they lose an edge that they rightfully earned by making quick work of Boston. They earned the right to be the better rested team... the Yanks and Angels did not.

[Mel]

I can't find any word on this, but I'm sure all pitchers from both teams who cannot be used tonight have flown straight to Chicago. It's not unusual for teams to send pitchers separately ahead of the team to the next city, so they'll be better rested for their starts.

In fact both of tonight's starters (Mussina and Colon) never even left California to attend games 3 and 4 in New York. So the pitchers should be fresh tonight.

Also Randy Johnson who pitched game 3, either didn't make the games 1,2 trip at all... or got flown home a day early to prepare and rest for his game 3 start (I forget which).

[The Insider]

Yanks are gone... which begs the question, is Steinbrenner gonna give Torre the axe? He threatens it almost every season if the Yanks lose, and they did so was this loss really in the hands of the manager?

[J.R.]

It's a sad night for me. My World Series champions pick is eliminated. :cry: =}

This was a great series and like I said it did go the distance. Momentum was back and forth between teams this whole series and made predicting individual games difficult. Randy Johnson did not perform well enough against the Angels' bats in the two appearances that he made, while the Los Angeles pitching staff was great. Shawn Chacon and Mariano Rivera were the only Yankee pitchers that had a good series.

It's going to be really tough for LAAA now. They'll play their third game in as many nights in as many different cities against a team that holds the A.L.'s best record and has had plenty of rest.

[Iced Tea]

Randy Johnson did not perform well enough against the Angels' bats in the two appearances that he made, while the Los Angeles pitching staff was great.I thought Randy Johnson had a good game tonight.

As for the series, I'm so happy the Yankees lost. I hate the Yankees with a passion that is only surpassed by my hatred of the rotten Avs. :D

The Angels will probably lose to the White Sox but at least they beat the stinkin Yankees. :D

[KB in Kelowna]

I remember earlier in the summer there was talk that Clemens would be traded to either the Yanks or Bosox, with the feeling being he would like one more chance at a World Series. Funny how things work out :)

[J.R.]

I thought Randy Johnson had a good game tonight.Yes, he did. My mistake. I retract my previous comment on Johnson. I thought he had given up two or three runs. It was actually Mussina pinned with those runs.

[Mel]

Yanks had their chances to pull it out last night. They just didn't do it. Pitching was not the problem. Throught out the late innings they only needed a few runs to get right back in it and failed. A-Rod did not come through. He did no damage in this series.

Matsui was another big 0-fer who left 6 or 7 baserunners stranded. He's a FA now and I bet the Boss will take that into account.

Players who did get the job done was Jeter, Giambi and Sheffield. But the guys around them couldn't move runners.

All in all, considering the pitching problems went down hill starting all the way back in April, the boss should feel lucky to have won the division and made the playoffs and almost even made the ALCS. (They would never have got further than that).

He may take it out on Torre, but he does the best he can with what he's got... and not too may people question his decisions. I have a feeling GM Brian Cashman may take the fall. But that too would be crazy... if it wasn't for Cashman digging up guys who would turn out to be heroes this season (Aaron Small, Shawn Chacon, Robinson Cano, Chin Mein Wang, and Bubba Crosby etc.) the team would have finished well out of first place.

Steinbrenner will probably can someone though. Which is a shame. They just didn't have all the tools to go all the way this year. I don't think it's anyone's fault.

[Iced Tea]

TSN (http://www.tsn.ca/mlb/news_story.asp?id=139445) says
Bronx Bummer: $203 million for nothing

Associated Press

10/11/2005 6:33:51 PM

NEW YORK (AP) - George Steinbrenner didn't spend $203 million US for this.

He paid out a major league-record amount to get the New York Yankees their first World Series title since 2000. Instead of another ring, he wound up with underachieving Bronx Bums, pinstriped pariahs who flopped for the fifth straight season.

''We don't play to just make it to the playoffs, we've been to the playoffs before. We play to win, and we fell short again,'' captain Derek Jeter said after the Yankees were eliminated by the Los Angeles Angels on Monday night. ''The season is not a successful season by no stretch of the imagination.''

Some of Steinbrenner's biggest boppers vanished in the autumn wind, with Alex Rodriguez getting no RBIs in the playoffs.

Forget all those chants of ''M-V-P!'' Any slip at Yankee Stadium next year will be greeted by cries of ''D-O-G!''

Rodriguez said it himself.

''I played great baseball all year, and I played like a dog the last five days,'' he woofed. ''This is as low as it gets.''

Steinbrenner, who in addition to the salaries must dole out another $33 million or so in luxury tax, only hinted at his displeasure Tuesday, releasing a statement just as players returned to Yankee Stadium at about noon following mechanical problems that delayed the charter flight home. It is the first time since before the 1994-95 strike that the Yankees missed the World Series in consecutive seasons.

''Our team played hard, but we let our fans down,'' he said. ''We will do better.''

Players were shocked that their season was over.

''It was about as depressing a room (as) I've ever seen,'' pitcher Al Leiter, who probably will retire, said Tuesday outside Yankee Stadium.

After an 11-19 start, the team's worst since 1966, the Yankees won the AL East by the thinnest of margins, on a tiebreaker over Boston after both finished 95-67.

On Friday, the Chicago White Sox completed their three-game sweep of the World Series champion Red Sox, baseball's second-biggest spender at $127 million. Three days later, the Yankees were felled, joining their rival like a pair of cut down redwoods.

Gary Sheffield didn't have an extra-base hit in the playoffs. Hideki Matsui batted .200 and was hitless in his last nine at-bats.

You can bet change is a-coming.

Bernie Williams could be gone, ending 15 seasons in pinstripes by hitting a harmless flyout in Monday night's 5-3 loss at Anaheim in the decisive Game 5 of the AL first-round series.

General manager Brian Cashman, his eyes red following the loss, might leave when his contract expires Oct. 31. Even manager Joe Torre, who led the team to four World Series titles from 1996-2000, could be swept away as the stench of another October wipeout is cleansed. The Yankees have become the AL's version of the Atlanta Braves, winning division titles but little else.

''We didn't succeed. That's the bottom line,'' Jeter said.

High-priced Kevin Brown, Jaret Wright and Carl Pavano were nowhere to be seen when October came around, all broken down. Randy Johnson and Mike Mussina each had one good outing and one bad one, not enough from two of the highest-paid pitchers in the game.

Oh, what pallor in these pinstripes.

''I left my guts on the field, I left my heart out there, so I'm not going to hang my head,'' A-Rod said.

He doesn't have to. Others will do it for him.

Baseball's highest-paid player at $252 million over 10 years, he led the AL with 48 homers during the regular season and topped the Yankees with 130 RBIs, stats that could earn him his second AL MVP award in three years.

But in the post-season he pulled off a vanishing act worthy of Judge Crater, hitting .133 (2-for-15). Last year he had a 2-for-17 flop in the final four games of the AL championship series collapse against Boston.

A similar fold by Dave Winfield in the 1981 World Series - he went 1-for-22 against the Los Angeles Dodgers - prompted Steinbrenner to label the future Hall of Famer ''Mr. May,'' a moniker Winfield didn't shake off.

''I've got to take a long look in the mirror because I didn't do my part,'' Rodriguez said. ''I mean, you win and lose as a team, but I didn't show up.''

Sheffield, 1-for-17 as the Yankees folded last year, was 6-for-21 with two RBIs. Jorge Posada, Tino Martinez and Williams combined to go 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position - the Yankees were 10-for-45 (.222) as a team.

New York only got as far as it did because of unexpected performances from Chien-Ming Wang and Aaron Small, both in the minor league system when the season began, and Shawn Chacon, rescued from Colorado in July.

The middle relievers?

Just the thought of them made the Yankee Stadium crowd boo when Torre went to the mound to remove Chacon in Game 4. In the final two games, Torre bypassed Tanyon Sturtze and Scott Proctor, a sign of his distrust.

Defence in centre field was atrocious. Boston's Johnny Damon, who can become a free agent, and Minnesota's Torii Hunter, who might be traded, are two possibilities New York is likely to examine.

New York has two key players eligible for free agency. The Yankees are likely to try to re-sign Matsui and must decide whether to keep Tom Gordon, whose effectiveness as Mariano Rivera's setup man declined.

Williams was honoured with repeated ovations during the regular-season home finale and during Game 4 Sunday. At 37, he no longer is good enough to be an everyday centre fielder, but he could remain as a backup and occasional DH.

''It was a very challenging year for me, the ups and downs, being in different roles,'' he said. ''I really don't know what the future holds right now, but I'm going to reflect on this year being a very pivotal year in my career.''So glad that the Yankees are gone from the playoffs. Happy to see that throwing big gobs of money around every season can't win a championship. :D

Steinbrenner still needs to pay $33 million in luxury taxes. :laughing: