Truth be told Yankee fans, you were warned by SU. Some have accused SU of going negative on the Yankees but my job is to tell it like it is. SU has watched enough games in the second half of the year, and their performance in the post-season is not surprising. The offense in the 2nd half of the year was carried by Aaron Judge – he covered up for the mediocre and less than mediocre performance of Donaldson, Stanton, Rizzo, LeMahieu, etc. Really the whole team. They only played .500 ball for the last 2.5 months of the season and would have been worse than that except for Judge and the starting pitching.

Well, now Judge is not hitting and is a bit jumpy at the plate. As they say, “trying to do too much.” Stanton has chipped in with some timely home runs and you actually feel like he can get a hit (although he is well below .200 for the post-season which puts everything in perspective). Rizzo as well along with Bader cam get a hit. The rest of the team? Not so much as in no.

The Yankees were fortunate to get past the Guardians as their pitching carried them. And the pitching has been great vs. Houston which is a top offensive team that does not strike out.

SU never calls for managers to be fired. And I like Aaron Boone. But as SU pointed out earlier, in tight playoff series, the manager in baseball can actually make a difference with his moves. I am not talking about the offense and the line-up. None of these guys hit and you can pull the names out of a hat – as long as you put Donaldson 9th or on the bench. But one could make the case that Boone cost the team game 3 vs. Cleveland with the Clark Schmidt move, game 1 vs. Houston (with the Clark Schmidt and Frankie Montas moves) and to some small degree last night with taking Cole out in the 6th inning at 94 pitches. Clay Holmes has still not pitched in this series. Last time I checked, he was their best reliever. SU would have left Cole in but if you felt compelled to take him out, Holmes gets ground balls. Was he not the obvious choice there? Ultimately, when you get 1 hit until the 9th inning, it’s a non-issue but still.

It’s true that Cashman made moves to bolster the roster with left-handed hitters with Carpenter (great move) and Benintendi. Also, DJ LeMahieu got hurt although while he was better than in 2021, he was not great in 2022 and hit about .200 with RISP. He is owed a lot of money for the next 3 years (uh oh). What would have been interesting is that if all of these guys were healthy, who would sit? Donaldson. Would have been fun to see how that played out.

The Frankie Montas trade was the worst one. He gave them nothing. Many want Cashman gone. SU would keep him but take a totally different approach and bring in contact hitters – like the old Yankee teams. For $40 million a year, can you bring in 2 -3 solid players instead of re-signing Judge? Something to consider.

But hey, the series is not over yet and it’s starting to rain now as SU predicted. If we get enough rainouts in a row, you can start Cortes and then Cole in games 4 and 5. Or MLB will have them play through in the rain tonight and we can start the off-season early. What’s sad is that Boone is still changing up the batting order and line-up on October. Speaks volume about the offense.