So for the 11th time in 12 years, the Yankees finished the season without winning a World Series championship. To many Yankees fans, that constitutes a crisis. To others, it’s just mathematical reality.
Here are five thoughts on this development:
1. My friend Michael Rosenberg of Sports Illustrated wrote this column the other day, and it rings very true to me. I don’t know whether it’s a reflection of the modern communication age or not, but from my correspondence with Yankees fans, there seems to be more customer unhappiness with the club than ever.
Is this fixable? The easy answer is, “Sure, it’s fixable. Win more World Series.” Beyond that, though, I’m not sure if anything can be done. The Yankees have tried to rely more on their farm system and less on importing big names in recent years – a practice fans usually appreciate – and that hasn’t helped create goodwill in the least. Really, the Yankees’ acquisition of Ichiro Suzuki seemed to be received more positively than any other recent move I can recall, and that was a Seattle money dump that paid off only in the last 17 games of the regular season and a little bit in the postseason.
The whole thing reminds me of the exchange that network executives have with young viewers in this episode of “The Simpsons”:
Man : How many of you kids would like Itchy & Scratchy to deal with real-life problems, like the ones you face every day?
Kids: [clamoring] Oh, yeah! I would! Great idea! Yeah, that’s it!
Man : And who would like to see them do just the opposite — getting into far-out situations involving robots and magic powers?
Kids: [clamoring] Me! Yeah! Oh, cool! Yeah, that’s what I want!
Man: So, you want a realistic, down-to-earth show… that’s completely off-the-wall and swarming with magic robots?
Kids: [all agreeing, quieter this time] That’s right. Oh yeah, good.
Milhouse : And also, you should win things by watching.
2. I wrote today about Alex Rodriguez and his future, or lack thereof, with the Yankees. I continue to think he’ll be a Yankee next year, and that the way things ended increase the likelihood of that occurring.
Emotions are at a peak right now. By the time this decision is made, they’ll have died down considerably. A-Rod might have an inflated sense of himself and his current abilities, and he has made more than his share of questionable decisions. But he is very in tune with perceptions in the baseball world, and while playing in Miami would have its appeal, he’d also be relegating himself to baseball Siberia, a place where even two World Series titles have barely registered. Yes, that’s partly because of the way the team ownerships have behaved down there, dismantling the 1997 team immediately and the 2003 team a couple of years later, but you still don’t get the sense that Miami is capable of being an MLB hot spot, ever.
3. My colleague Joel Sherman wrote that the Yankees need to diversify their offense. During yesterday’s post-game scrum, as Joel detailed in his coverage, Brian Cashman passionately defended the team’s philosophy in building an offense. At one point, he mentioned that when you acquire “big, hairy monsters,” you get guys who not only hit home runs, but also give you walks, singles and doubles.
When you compare this 2012 Yankees offense to the last Yankees team that won the World Series, the 2009 group, you see slight but notable dips in their offensive rankings among the AL. The ’09 Yankees led the league in runs, home runs, on-base percentage, slugging percentage and walks. They were second in batting average, third in doubles and seventh in stolen bases.
The ’12 Yankees led the AL in homers, on-base percentage and slugging percentage. They were second in runs scored and walks, fourth in doubles, tied for fourth in batting average and 11th in stolen bases.
We’re not talking night and day here. But they got a tick or two worse in a few places and better nowhere, so it’s worth noting. That certainly would equate to fewer ways to beat an opponent in October. Not that it accounts for the complete offensive meltdown that occurred, but it’s something to contemplate.
4. For all the fist-shaking and lamenting that goes on concerning the Yankees, it’s worth wondering: How much of the post-2000 drought is attributable to Yankees mistakes, and how much is attributable to the fact that the rest of the industry has caught up both financially and intellectually?
I think it’s far more the latter. The Tigers have a healthy $132 million payroll. The Cardinals built a terrific farm system thanks in large part to current Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow, who excels at statistical analysis, and current St.Louis GM John Mozeliak recovered impressively from losing Albert Pujols to the Angels and Tony La Russa to retirement last winter, acquiring Carlos Beltran on a good free-agent deal and hiring the inexperienced Mike Matheny.
Those 1996-2000 Yankees were built terrifically, but there just wasn’t the industry-wide savvy you see now.
5. We’ll discuss this ad nauseam throughout the winter, and there’s still an NLCS to finish and a World Series to be played, but if you’re asking me today, “Which of the Yankees free agents will be back next year?” my answer is Raul Ibanez, Russell Marti and Andy Pettitte. I’ll likely switch on that about 900 times between now and the start of spring training, but that’s what I’m going with right now.
–Have a great day.