Much will be made all season about how the Yankees will gel as a team; and with reason. They have plenty of new acquisitions, plenty of farmhands ready to make a difference, and then that guy who creates controversy regardless of what he does. Anything can happen with so many different personalities in one place. It's legitimate for the media to find variables in team chemistry for this team, just don't tell that to the actual team. They went to play pool today.
This is a really interesting year for the team and not just because they have legitimate shots at both winning a World Series and still missing the playoffs. It's the year after their worst season since 1993, it's the year they had the most repairing in the off-season, the year they have had the most controversy the earliest into the season, and the first time in over 20 years we're seeing a manager who didn't succeed in his first season.
Joe Torre's transition was seamless part because he made brilliant decisions all year round and part because he had all the pieces in place to make those decisions easier. There was no wonder if he can handle the job because he won a World Series in his first season.
We know Joe Girardi can manage a game, but just like the team, he has adjustments to make with himself to do the full job successfully. So far, it looks like both facets of a successful team are making large strides to fix their issues. Today was one of those examples.
The can't miss blogging beat writer, Pete Abraham, has done an excellent job covering the day so far and he brings up an interesting point, which will shortly lead to me taking the point a lot further.
Joe Girardi is pulling a lot out of Tom Coughlin's playbook. When you think about it, the Yankees have a similar landscape to the Giants of a few years ago.
The star player with the huge expectations has never done well in big spots. He can't lead a team, he hasn't been embraced by the fans and he's never won a playoff game.
The older guy(s) who grew up on the team hasn't been out of the first round of the playoffs in more than half a decade.
The coach semi-lost touch with the players because the team is mostly veterans and he's too strict.
The team didn't win because they lost to their division rivals so they didn't have a shot at winning the big one. They failed expectations again.
After years of poor drafting, the players they wisely signed are only now becoming the right age.
Their big acquisitions need to step up or they have no chance.
Most importantly, they have no shot at making a post-season run because their biggest rival is the "better" team who has won more recently and the other team in their conference (division) is young, upstart and poised to make it a two team race where the New York one is on the outside looking in.
Anyway, you get the point. This batch of Yankees has a list of names relatively unproven when it comes to big performances.
But that's where people miss the point. Rationale says since the players have never done well in October in the past, the team will not do well. Well if you still consider that rationale, then you simply haven't been paying attention. Last year, the Phillies won the World Series. It was the year after they were swept by the Rockies in the NLCS. Tampa Bay lost the big matchup after having never reached the postseason in franchise history. Barely any of those guys had experience. In football, the Giants did go on to win that Super Bowl and they did it over one of the more clutch teams in this decade. Peyton won a Super Bowl after consecutive failures and he did it by beating the team who usually beat him. The Cardinals pulled a Rays.
In fact, if you're a Red Sox fan, besides seeing how much past playoff experience means very little last year, you might recall a team made up of 24 players who weren't from the farm system. They went on to beat the team who had knocked them out of the playoffs the previous season and in two of the past five years.
Chemistry is built upon by winning in the face of adversity. Success in the playoffs is built around having opportunities to execute. To say Chien-Ming Wang and CC Sabathia will hurt the Yankees in October is actually conveying the opposite of how you think about the situation. It's a crutch. It's a convenient way to ignore facts. Especially when you base it around two Wang starts and five Sabathia starts.
Sample size is everything when you're talking about October. Wang and Sabathia are proven in the regular season, which is more or less 30-34 starts per season. They have consistently gotten it done in a format where it has been repeated many times every game is actually important. More often than not, those guys win. Same with Pettitte until he was injured last year, and Burnett when he stays healthy.
Want proof sample size is everything?
Jon Lester has a 2.25 career playoff ERA over five starts, yet a 4.96 ERA in the ALCS. If not for two shutouts and a couple of solid relief appearances, he would be terrible in October mainly because Tampa knocked him around in game three last year. One start can prove to destroy an entire reputation, yet Red Sox fans don't see it that way with Lester and rightfully so. They can identify sample size. He is still considered "clutch" and an "ace" because for one year, he put it all together. Otherwise he just knew how to win games, and if you consider that the only quality of an "ace" than the Yankees have at least three of them.
Then you have Chien-Ming Wang.
In 2007 he had a 19.06 ERA against the Indians. He was blown out in game one then blown out again in game four on three days rest, a position he does poorly in even in the regular season. He was set up to fail in that second start.
Before that?
In 2006 he pitched 6.2 innings and gave up three runs in a win over the Tigers. The only win of that series for the Yankees. In 2005 he gave up one run in 6.2 innings against the Angels, but took a loss. Two solid starts, two terrible ones, but we remember the terrible because it happened most recently. Yet if you base a guy's entire career based on facing one team, you're insane. If you discount the Yankees because they have guys who haven't done well in October, you're running scared. The only team you can do this for is the Cubs because that entire franchise is unsure of how to perform in big spots. It's a 100 year issue. Players can rise in big occasions at any time, plain and simple.
Anyway, the point of all of this is that Girardi has done the right thing so far this off-season and I maintain that all the Torre and A-Rod controversy will bring this team together, even if artificially. When you get paid to spent six months with a bunch of people, you're more prone to find a way to get along.
Then again, who knows how much of this is media hype to begin with? Actually, nobody in the media is even saying the Yankees don't get along. They don't even say they don't get along with A-Rod. Whenever situations like this come along I always think of the movie, 61. Maris and Mantle supposedly hated each other and fractioned the clubhouse, when in reality they were close friends and lived together. If the Yankees start the season with a hot start, all the acquisitions and all the chemistry will seem validated, if they start slowly, none of these question marks will disappear in the media. It's that simple.
But don't be foolish and think anything past players and their on-field execution, or unstoppable injuries will stop this team.
To wrap it up, here are links via Pete Abe's blog about today:
Here are pictures from the events today. Not to discredit myself, but Rivera won both tournaments. He's that clutch.
Here are player reactions about today, and a major reason I am slowly developing a crush on Mark Teixeira. You certainly can't critique these new guys and their attitudes on the team.
Finally,here's the full list of guys competing for a playoff spot. But, as we have learned, when you have a solid bullpen better than one divison rival, and with almost as many unknown names as the other, you're guaranteed for failure. Especially when those relievers are all healthy now and there are more options.
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