So, the question some may ask of Yankee fans is the following: Is making the playoffs as a Wild Card this year a successful season? SU would say it’s not a successful season. Did they surpass my expectations? Yes, because the roster that Cashman gave Girardi was old and overly left-handed. Think about it. If not for unexpectedly strong years by Texeira and A-Rod, they would likely be a sub-.500 team. Can anything happen in the playoffs for a wild card team? Of course, and we have seen that time and time again of late. But without Tex’s right-handed bat in the middle of the line-up, they are really vulnerable to left-handed pitching as we have seen in August and September.
What is more troubling is that the Yankees face the same pitchers over and over again and are unable to make an adjustment to improve their performance. David Price, RA Dickey, Rodriguez on the Red Sox, the list goes on and on. SU believes that whoever the Yankees face in the wild card game, that team will throw out any left-handed pitcher – even a 4th or 5th starter. Tanaka will keep the game close but in the end, it will be another frustrating loss. The good news is that we got a glimpse of some youngsters this year and hopefully there will be more of a commitment to play them next season. There is a reason that the Yankees are not selling out these last home games – the team is uninspiring. Stay tuned for SU’s fearless baseball playoff predictions as well as a comparison with our preseason picks. Always interesting especially if we were reasonably close.
SU has had some time in the car of late and flipped back and forth between Michael Kay and the Imperious One, Mike Francesa. I have always been a Michael Kay fan but now that he shares time with Don Lagrecca and Dave Rothenberg, they just babble on about non-sports related things. They have become unlistenable and that’s too bad. It’s too bad because I am forced to listen to “Miked Up” and him talking in triplicate. Truth be told, the way he repeats everything is actually entertaining and I am starting to think he may be doing this on purpose for people like me. Definitely hitting rock bottom.
SU is excited about the Michigan football resurgence as they have once again cracked the top 25. I am still not thrilled with the QB, Jake Rudock, as he is a poor man’s Ryan Fitzpatrick at best, but the defense is solid and Jim Harbaugh has brought back the enthusiasm from the fan base. It’s shaping up to be an exciting college football season as no team is that dominant and the SEC is not quite the sure thing of years past.