Monday, July 30, 2007
Wants and Needs
I really want the Yankees to win the AL East. Really, really want it. It would be totally awesome if they did it, and I really, truly believe they can do it.
Still, I wonder, why?
This year there is the obvious motivation of the team having been 14 1/2 games out of first place in May, a deficit no team has ever come back from but one, a team known as the “Miracle Braves”. Coming back after everyone had declared the Yanks dead and buried would be great, because there’s nothing better than to shove a loudmouth’s own words down their throat.
A major reason is because the Red Sox are leading the division, and frankly it feels better to beat the Red Sox and worse to lose to them. If the Blue Jays and Red Sox were to switch places, I might feel better about that.
But really, a division title these days means very little, even against the Red Sox. If the team wins the division and looks terrible in October again, will anyone spend the offseason gloating about the comeback? No, because the end of the season would be a letdown, and that’s what would stick in our minds. If they finished 10 games back, but won the Wild Card and played well in the postseason, perhaps even winning it all, then we’d feel pretty good about things (really good if they won it all, of course).
So really, the focus should be on making it to October. If the Yanks make it to the playoffs and Boston doesn’t advance past the first round (or loses the ALCS to the Yanks), you won’t hear much, if any, gloating by BoSox fans, because their season would feel as much a failure to them as the Yanks’ season would feel. And trailing the Indians by 4 games with 2 months to go, the Yanks have a good shot at it.
Jason Giambi will be back really soon which likely sets up an OF/1B rotation with Damon, Matsui and Phillips, while probably giving the team a big offensive boost. Phil Hughes will be back this weekend, pushing Kei Igawa out of the rotation, and Joba Chamberlain might give the team some help out of the bullpen. Who knows what they’ll do before the deadline, but it’s most likely they’ll fiddle with the bullpen, probably swapping out Farnsworth and Proctor, whose replacements can’t be much worse than they’ve been lately.
They have one series each left against the Mariners and Indians—home vs. the M’s, at Jacobs Field for the Tribe. Their schedule down the stretch looks a little easier to me than Cleveland’s or Seattle’s. I think they should be able to make up the four games. Of course, I also think they can make up the 8 games against Boston, so take that into consideration.
It’s fairly inexplicable to me that the Yanks have had so much trouble against the O’s this year. I’ve seen the O’s play several times in person, and they’re just not very good. Not Tampa Bay or Kansas City bad, but not good. But against the Yanks, the pitching is untouchable, the offense unstoppable. It’s excruciating. They’ll need to turn that around, or they’re screwed.
But one series doesn’t ruin the season, even though they’ve dropped a game and a half to Boston in the last four games. It just makes the road ahead a little harder. Hopefully the return of Giambi and Phil Franchise can make it easier.
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