The Arbitrary ChuckJerry

The Yankees just completed a collapse of historic proportions last night by relinquishing a 3 game lead against the Boston Red Sox. It was painfully obvious that the Yankees got complacent after that third game where they blew out the Sox. Up to that point in the series A-Rod, Sheffield, and Matsui were hitting over .500 combined and they all might as well have been hitless over the last four games. Those were the guys who needed to continue producing in order for the Yankees to have won.

On top of that the bad pitching for the Yankees finally caught up with them at the end of the season. All they needed was to get one more win out of their pitching staff and they couldn't do it. Their starting pitching was shaky all year. Their most consistent starter was John Lieber who did all that could have been expected of him in this series. He pitched a fantastic game 2 and left game 6 with a lead that the bullpen blew. Mussina also pitched well this series and can't be slighted. After that, though, the entire pitching staff as well as Torre's and Stottlemyre's handling of it was downright bad.

Kevin Brown just sucked. Any more explanation would be a waste of words. Javier Vazquez pitched really well all year except that he seemed to give up at least one home run in every start. This Boston series was no different. El Duque was awesome through July and August and even September and he actually carried that team through the summer, but he was out of the game because of shoulder troubles and then the shoulder got tired. It's not even worth mentioning Esteban Loaiza. We all knew that their starters were no good which is why I'm surprised they didn't try and shore up their bullpen.

All year the Yankees would play 6 inning games and then turn it over to QuanGorMo, as the ridiculously corny Yankee announcers referred to Quantrill, Gordon, and Rivera. These three guys led the league in relief pitching appearances and everyone wondered through the summer if they were being used to much. It turned out that they were being used too much. Quantrill has sucked since mid-September. Gordon was obviously tired and overused and pitched well for the first inning of all his outings but can't be expected to turn in a solid two innings every night. The same goes for Mariano Rivera. He was solid for his first inning of work in every outing, but can't still be expected to throw two innings on consecutive days. This is especially true for both of these guys considering the amount of work they put in over the regular season. Tanyon Sturtze pitched well and should have pitched more.

For the life of me, I don't know why Felix Heredia was still even on the team, let alone in these games. He was the Yankees only left-handed pitcher and never pitched for more than one batter at a time. After that one batter he could be counted on to suck if he stayed in.

The only Yankee who played up to his potential was, not surprisingly, Derek Jeter, who had some clutch hits and always seemed to be on base only to be left on base by A-Rod, Sheff, and Matsui from game 4 on. In Game 6 he had the Yankees only big hit, a bases clearing double that scored 3 runs. Bernie Williams also played relatively well, but he's about 50 years old and can't carry the team any more. Williams also didn't do much after game 3.

As a Yankee fan, I'm absolutely going to route for the Red Sox in the world series no matter who they play. They've already overcome a seemingly insurmountable piece of baseball history by coming back from 3-0. Prior to this series win, no team in that position had ever even forced a 7th game. David Ortiz is a fucking monster and I hope he keeps up his hot hitting. Manny Ramirez is a bitch, but maybe he'll get some RBIs. Schilling is awesome and has been awesome for years. Pedro is also kindof a bitch, but not to the extent that Ramirez is, and is pretty gritty when it comes down to it. Also if the Sox win the Boston fans won't know what to do with themselves. They'll have to stop being martyrs and just be fans like everyone else.

I would be very surprised if the Yankees didn't sign Carlos Beltran after this season. I would also be very surprised if they didn't pay him upwards of $150 million. I can't really see any other teams making a push for him other than maybe the Red Sox or the Astros. Beltran has been Jeter-like in his playoff performance this year and would provide the Yankees with a superstar that actually has heart, which can't be said to be true at this point for A-Rod.

Gary Sheffield carried this team all year and was the AL MVP in my opinion. He played the entire season with a shoulder that was in constant pain and needed surgery, but he still put up huge numbers. He had a stretch of four bad games at the end there, but I'm not ready to go around questioning his heart or his mettle.

The Yankees have a severe lack of role players and character guys at this point. Miguel Cairo, who played well, mind you, is about all they have in the way of role players. I guess Williams and Lofton are both role players at this point, but neither really has that mindset. Incidentally, Jorge Posada might as well have been invisible during this series. Also the Yankees need to decide what to do with first base, which is just kindof a mess right now.

Literally the worst moment of my career as a sports fan was when the Yankees lost the World Series to the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 9th inning of the 7th game. I was really upset for about 6 minutes and then I got over it. With this series, I was upset for the 2 minutes after Johnny Damon hit that grand slam and I was already over it by the time the game was over.

I guess that's it. I feel better now.