Well, the Yanks were sloppy all season and it came back to bite them in agonizing, burn-in-your-brain-forever misery last night.
Surely, this was a Yankee series created by the fantasies of all true Yankee-haters. But our Bombers found cruel and unusual ways to lose this thing. You could call them chokers, but they’ve been sloppy like this all year. They weren’t in Game 6 or Game 7—their mistakes cost them them that chance. We’re left with 4 loses that could have all gone the other way, particularly Game 1 and Game 5.
Yup, nothing but pain and disgust for us Yankee fans.
Dag.
Congrats the Dodgers.
Just to cheer everyone up, it appears that the Yankees have made it known that they intend to exercise Boone-y's 2025 option.
I'm a day late with this, but something to think about when considering the decision in #1
However, because this is FanGraph, it’s worth putting into context just how dreadful the Yankees were at running the bases this season: At -16.9 BsR, they were the worst baserunning team in the majors. That mark is also the lowest for a pennant-winning team since the 2012 Tigers were worth -17.5 BsR. They took the extra base 36% of the time, the second-lowest rate in the majors. They were thrown out at the plate 18 times, third most in the AL and sixth most in the majors. Gleyber Torres accounted for six of those outs at home, tied for the major league lead, while Juan Soto led the Yankees with 11 outs at any base, second most among all big leaguers.
Yankees batters hit 278 singles this season with a runner on first base. That runner made it safely to third base 72 times, which works out to a 25.9% advance rate, the second-worst mark in the majors. They hit 159 singles with a runner on second base. That runner scored 85 times, for a rate of 53.5%, the lowest in the majors.
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-yankees-are-hoping-bad-baserunning-wins-championships-too/
Bitter and crushed. If this game happened in mid-April I'd be grumbling for days. I still cant' believe they were bounced from the WS due to a comedy of bullshit. Oi! Anyway, as always it was fun hanging with you all during the season and seeing some old names once the Serious started. Thanks to AB and the gang for keeping the Banter alive. Cheers.
My comment from the last thread
“Less (information from the) analytics (department)* and more fundamentals
*otherwise lt’s fewer analytics and more fundamentals (and yes, it would bother me.)”
[2] Launch angles and spin rates etc. are all fine and good. But you have to have the fundamentals down first. How often was it second and third, no outs, and there were no runs?
Sign Soto.
So I know I'm the Bronx Banter equivalent of the guy who goes to church on Christmas and Easter but not much else. I'll show up for opening day and the playoffs. And over the last 7 years, I've complained about Boone non-stop. He's just a terrible manager.
Defensively the Yankees can't field, they don't back each other up on the diamond, they often throw to the wrong base, and they don't cover the right bases.
Offensively, [2] Cult is right that they are TERRIBLE on the base paths. Also, they can't bunt. While no one advocates playing small ball, there are times when it's needed like when they had a chance to win a game a few years ago in Baltimore with a ghost runner if only they'd bunted him over, but they didn't and lost and later had to play a playoff game in Fenway instead of Yankee Stadium. They also strike out way too much and hit into double plays a ton.
Heh, I had a dream last night, I was at abandoned lot turned into a makeshift ball field. I was with a bunch of kids and a Yankee infielder. I told him it was time to start groundball practice. Wonder what could have caused that dream.
[5]
Thanks for bringing up the bunting; I don't think I bitched about it in a banter here, but I did on another site during the season ... it was just pathetic (I can't remember who the flailing failures were), they held the bat at the wrong angle and just stabbed at the ball with the barrel.
I think Soto and Volpe might just be have been the only capable bunters on the team this year.
Oh ... and Cole opted out.
Yankees can keep him by adding another year (@36 million) to his contract, but is that a slam dunk decision?
[8] I’d do it in a heartbeat. Who else is there to be a #1 starter?
In the clear light of five days later, I am still beyond salty about this series. Going in, I had no illusions they’d win, and I’ve spent the plurality of the time since 2009 in a zone of not caring or being to tired to bother (three kids, two of which arrived on the same day…) but each loss was winnable, two of them inexcusably so. And the same organizational inertia grinds on.
We all knew this roster was incompletely structured and yet it founds its way to the most wins in the AL. Partial thanks to the GM and Manager. But at some point with a payroll like this you can’t fall back on the old trope that getting to the playoffs is the goal and anything beyond that is a crapshoot.
Maybe not having a “players manager” is a detriment to attracting free agents, but guys like Torres could’ve sure used a swifter kick in the ass at times. Demanding crisper fielding or less-stupid baserunning is not the realm solely of a hardass manager.
I think Cashman backed into one by accident this year and Boone is getting too much of a pass for sloppy on field play. And you know they’ll extend him so he’s not a lame duck and Cash isn’t facing a new manager decision in the last year of his own contract. If I was Hal I would dump both and tell Judge and the rest of the core that (apologies to Vince) winning IS everything while they’re paying multiple dudes $30mm per year. Not that he cares.
Pay Cole, but not before letting him know it wasn’t an easy decision. Pay Soto. And ensure everyone else is ready to come to spring training and actually work. Judge on down to Well et al.
Cole is staying