MARK TEIXEIRAThe slugging first baseman has just four RBIs in the 17 postseason games combined the past two seasons and is coming off an injury-plagued season.
NICK SWISHERHoping for a solid playoff performance entering free agency, the outfielder has yet to post more than two RBIs in any of his three postseasons with the Yankees.
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All right, now that we’re into that postseason portion of our schedule, this means Nick Swisher automatically turns back into a pumpkin, right?
This means that Mark Teixeira, having just returned from his left calf injury, will never find his way.
And it of course means that Alex Rodriguez, a little hot and a lot cold since coming back from his injury, will disappear like the engaged guy at the start of “The Hangover.”
No?
Well, not necessarily. The arrival of the 2012 playoffs means that we’ll be talking once more about whether some players are inherently “clutch” and some aren’t. For the Yankees, the Division Series — and possibly beyond — presents yet another opportunity for their players to change their labels.
“I think you’re judged a lot more during the postseason on how you do, and you’re remembered a lot more in the postseason for how you do,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said Wednesday. “Sometimes I think it’s somewhat unfair because during the course of the season, it’s not unusual for a [pitcher] not to have a good start. You may only get one start in the playoffs.
“A guy has a 2-for-20, that’s not that unusual. But when it’s in the playoffs, it’s magnified, and I think people pay a lot more attention.”
Said Terry Francona, the former Red Sox manager who spent this season as an ESPN commentator: “When you go through the marathon with them, you know them. By the time you get to the playoffs, you hope they all get hot, but you know what you have going in. Somebody’s going to go 1-for-20, and somebody’s going to get hot.”
Francona added: “Some guys’ swings, to be perfectly honest with you, are a little longer. Maybe they make some of their numbers on the 3, 4 and 5 [starting pitchers]. That’s all part of it. But I think by the time you get there, you know what you’ve got.”
Do the Yankees know what they’ve got in Rodriguez, Swisher and Teixeira, the three primary scapegoats from last year’s Division Series to Detroit? Neither Swisher nor Teixeira has clocked a strong full postseason for the Yankees, while A-Rod has been terrible since his mammoth 2009.
Swisher, in particular, seems poised for a leap. With the Yankees fighting for their playoff lives, the impending free agent put together a superb .390 on-base percentage, along with a .430 slugging percentage, while also bouncing between right field and first base (to fill in for the injured Teixeira) in his last 31 games.
True, they technically were regular-season games. Yet if you watched enough of them, you could appreciate their intensity.
“Do I consider what we’ve been going through as playoff baseball? Absolutely,” Girardi said.
Maybe the three days off will prove too much time for the excitable Swisher to contemplate his new-found clutchness. Or maybe this is just the new Swisher, ready to treat October as his final platform for a huge contract. Shoot, for the entire season, he put up an outstanding .301 batting average, .406 OBP and .589 SLG with runners in scoring position.
The important component to appreciate is that past October struggles don’t guarantee future woes, just as even Derek Jeter has endured his share of lousy postseason series. October isn’t the character test it’s made out to be. Or, to be more precise, October choker isn’t a permanent condition.
“If Mike Lowell wouldn’t have hit in ’07, I wouldn’t have looked at him any different,” Francona said of the 2007 World Series Most Valuable Player. “I wouldn’t have thought, ‘Oh, he can’t play.’ He picked a time and got hot.”
That’s all it takes. Pick a time, get hot and change the baseball world’s perception of you. Again, in some instances. The ghosts of past failures aren’t real, as long as A-Rod, Swisher, Teixeira and others in this boat decline to acknowledge their existence.