and I am not defending my team. Second, Joe Torre is not
responsible for this collapse. I remember in mid-season when all
the experts were hailing Torre as the Manger of the Year, that
this is clearly his best job of coaching because of all the injuries
and off-the-field issues that the team dealt with: the injuries to
Matsui and Sheffield, the steroid controversy (still) surrounding
Giambi, Pavano and his idiocy, Cano’s stint on the DL, etc. I will
not defend the 25 Yankees who lost to the Tigers, but I WILL
defend Joe Torre, who is clearly one of the best mangers of this
generation. However, there is no denying that we lost this series
as much as the Tigers won. Taking nothing away from Detroit
because they were clearly the better team and I will be rooting
for them in the ALCS, but we clearly played below our talent. I
won’t call if a choke job or a collapse because those words imply
that we had a big lead and gave it up. We won Game 1, and then
were dominated for 3 nights by 3 pitchers (4 if you count Zumaya,
which we should) who shut us down. We didn’t collapse, we
never had a chance to begin with. So we look forward to next
season…and if Torre is the first to go, you can bet there will be a
lot more moves to come. But there is no getting around the fact
that our pitching needs help. When healthy and rested, I like our
bullpen with Farnsworth, Proctor, Bruney, and (should be) Dotel
leading into Rivera, but until the day comes that any of those
guys can start and pitch for 6 innings, we need pitchers.
Mussina should be back starting on Opening Day, followed by
Wang and Unit. Since Pavano should be led to an alleyway and
shot in the head, he’s not the fourth starter. Maybe we explore
trading K-Rod for a front-line pitcher, but Cashman is too smart to
receive less than strong value for him even if we have to pay
half his contract for him to play in Anaheim (Ervin Santana/Howie
Kendrick anyone?) or in Chicago (Carlos Zambrano anyone?) I
could go on and on about this, but my point is that anything that
Brock has to say is deserved. We suck, and we got our asses
kicked.
Short “Stock Down” this week…but there is only one thing that I
needed to bitch about. And since there is only one thing listed
here, my article continues to suck, and I blow. Men.