"Now, what is this site about, how Joe Torre ruined pitchers' arms? Is that it?"
-Michael Kay, August 18, 2009

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Loss ends ugly road trip

The Yankees lost 4-2 this afternoon after winning an extra-inning thriller last night.

They went 3-7 on their 10-game road trip that took them to Texas, Anaheim and Minnesota. In the seven games they lost, they held the lead at one point or another in five of those games.

That, folks, is a sign of a bad baseball team.

The Yankees are only seven games above .500 and will begin a three-game home series against Kansas City on Friday. They will then embark on a six-game road trip.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a forgettable road trip, certainly not a playoff contending team. I am not expecting any miracle seasons like they had in the past at this point. At least those Yankees played with heart.

What Hank Steinbrenner said about (winning) next year is something I would rather see. I don't want to see them make the playoffs this year just so they can get another first round elimination. I'm tired of that. Let them recover, regroup, retool, rest, anything to make them stronger next year.

Anonymous said...

"At least those Yankees played with heart."

You know, this is one of the meaningless cliches that people keep throwing at this team that annoys the heck out of me. How do you know that these guys aren't playing with a lot of heart? Melky looks like he is trying hard to me. He just sucks, that's all. Jeter and Abreu and Ivan Rodriguez are trying hard to perform well. But their skills are simply declining and so they aren't as good as they used to be. Betemit and Ensberg and Duncan weren't inept hitters off the bench because they didn't have the heart or passion to win. Those 3 guys just suck and aren't that capable of hitting major league pithing. And then there is the pitching. Heck, Sidney Ponson is our number three starter. That should tell you all you need to know about how crappy our pitchers are. Kennedy and Hughes have been terrible. Is that because they lack heart? I highly doubt it. Rasner and Ponson are fringe major leaguers at this point, yet we are relying on crappy players like them to anchor the middle of our rotation. They don't suck because they lack heart. They suck because they aren't as effective at baseball as the opposition is. This is so simple, I don't understand why most people don't get it.

It isn't a matter of heart. These guys look to me like they want to win and they are trying hard to accomplish that. But a lot of the players just aren't that good, and some of the good ones have been injured, like Wang and Posada and Matsui. Why do so many people confuse lack of performance with lack of heart? There is a huge difference.


"I don't want to see them make the playoffs this year just so they can get another first round elimination."

And this is just such an irrational thing to say. Once you get in the playoffs, anybody can win it. Heck, look at the 2006 Cardinals. They were such a mediocre team, but they got lucky and won the world series. I'm not saying that you should rely on luck, but what I am saying is that once you are in, your chances of winning it all aren't much different from everybody else's, so you have no reason for hoping they don't make the playoffs. And how would getting eliminated in round one exclude them from being able to "recover, regroup, retool, rest" for next year? That makes no sense. Please explain that one to me.

Right now the Yankees don't look like they are good enough to be a playoff team. But it isn't because they lack heart or passion to win.

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