Pretty much not at all.
From top to bottom in the lineup, it's filled through and through with the least charismatic uninspired players of possibly all-time. Nick Swisher even seemed subdued this year.
Good for the Rangers, they're playing the hot hand, they've got the whole "chemistry" thing going for them, as do the Giants. Hopefully they meet them in the World Series. If anyone deserved to win this ALCS, it wasn't the New York Yankees.
Now the Yankees have a few issues - who to bring back and for how much and for how long?
Potential Free Agents:
Derek Jeter
Andy Pettitte
Jorge Posada
Mariano Rivera
Lance Berkman
Kerry Wood (Team Option)
Can you let Derek Jeter go? The Yankee captain? Can you afford to pay him what he probably deserved or has earned?
The answer there is: the Yankees are fucked. Jeter has lost more than a step at Shortstop, comes with an absurd price tag (currently $22+M per year), and put up career lows in Batting Average, On Base Percentage, Slugging Percentage and respectively, OPS. Don't resign Jeter, you alienate arguably the best Yankee of this generation. Resign him and you handcuff yourself. If Cano could move to Shortstop and Jeter to Second Base, they might be in business. They HAVE to resign Jeter, but it should be a 6 year deal maximum; Jeter should retire a Yankee.
Andy Pettitte. Sign him to another 1 year contract, why not. If he wants to come back, siick. Problem is that he costs $11.5M. If you could get him around $10M, great, but for $1.5M, what's that going to get you? You'll just piss Andy off. It will be interesting to see how this goes.
Mariano Rivera has to be a Yankee. In 2001, 2002 and 2003 I thought he was done. He's amazing. His mechanics are impeccable. He's 41 years old, he has used the same pitches for over a decade, and he's still borderline un-hittable. He should retire a Yankee. Sign him up for a minimum of 3 years, hope he retires after two and call it a day.
Jorge Posada is one of the "core four", which doesn't get much play these days, but last year was all the rage. Jorge is not a good catcher, not anymore. There is no room on the roster for 9 DH players. I think they Yankees have more Designated Hitters than any other team, even though I think Boston has always been viewed as that because they pay Papi crazy money. After dumping Damon, and Matsui, I never thought they'd sign 7 more guys to take their place. Posada can't catch, well. This one is going to be interesting, because when it comes down to it, he can't hit that well anymore either, career low in Batting Average, but apparently can run like the dickens now, career high in Stolen Bases with three. Let me think about that for a minute . . . speed demon catcher, sign me the fuck up!
Berkman, too expensive. He was an every other day DH until Tex went down, then played two games in a row. I say get rid of him. They shouldn't have let Johnny Damon go is my official position. Actually, Damon should have signed that 2-year deal. I would have rather had Johnny Damon that Berkman-Johnson-Thames tandem.
Joe Girardi. Yeah, his contracts up too. No, there's no Cubbies for him to go to now. Beyond that, who else is going to take his place? Resign the guy. I don't think he's a great coach, better for the NL, but whatever. What other bright ideas are you going to get?
I think I am rooting for the Rangers. I hate their claw and antler thing, but I think I would rather have that than see fat bastards Juan Uribe and Pablo Sandoval win the World Series, and of course I don't want H20 winning anything. I hope they lose tonight. Peace out.
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