2012 ALCS: Yankees Exit Meekly from Postseason Against Detroit
October 18, 2012 · Clarence Baldwin Jr · Jump to comments
Article Source: Bleacher Report - New York Yankees
In the book of Matthew, the King James Bible says, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”
While I’m not one to dispute the word of God, evidently “meek” has a different meaning in baseball. The Yankees played a meek brand of baseball against the Detroit Tigers and were summarily dismissed in four games. If you take away Jose Valverde’s ninth inning meltdown in Game 1, New York scored all of two runs in the remaining 38 1/3 innings. You’re not beating the ’62 Mets with that production.
It was so bad in the end that Curtis Granderson and the newest poster boy for Yankees excess, Alex Rodriguez, were both benched in the clinching game. Rodriguez hit .125 in the series and was more productive with Australian models than at the plate. There were no big miracles or stirring comebacks. No, as a matter of fact, the Yankees looked ready to go home after leaving New York. And Detroit was more than happy to oblige them.
So for the first time since the 1980 American League Championship Series, the Yankees were swept out of the postseason. New York fans can’t blame evil bugs or any calamities. No, this team simply was not good enough to reach the World Series. Detroit was really good, but time revealed that the Yankees were a deeply flawed team.
The starting pitching still isn’t championship-caliber after C.C. Sabathia. And Sabathia was knocked around today in the clincher, giving up six runs in 3.2 innings. When the leaves change and the weather chills, there are too many empty swingers instead of professional hitters. Long gone are the Bernie Williams, Paul O’Neils and even Hideki Matsuis. In their place are Granderson, Russell Martin and Nick Swisher. The results, even against Baltimore, were mostly underwhelming.
Where do the Yankees go from here? There’s been a lot of empty chatter about dealing Alex Rodriguez to Miami in the offseason. Honestly, the Yankees would be lucky to make that deal, even if it meant eating some of the contract themselves. It would speak more to the bad management of the Marlins if that happened.
You can live on home runs in the regular season against Kansas City, Cleveland, Toronto, a bad Boston team, etc. Not in October. Derek Jeter is going to be coming off a broken ankle and will be 39 in June 2013. Mariano Rivera wants to return, but how will missing an entire year effect a soon to be 43-year-old closer? There are legitimate questions that big Yankee money may not be able to fix in the offseason.
At the center of that is the fact that money might purchase name talent, but it can’t hide the fact that the Yankee Mystique has largely vanished since 2001. New York is frequently a playoff participant, but almost as frequently a quick exit (2002, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2011). Another “name” like Josh Hamilton brings more in the way of cache, but is not exactly what this team needs to capture title No. 28.
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