Regular readers of the blog may remember what I wrote about a week and a half ago. I said that Torre was failing his biggest challenge as a Yankee manager, and that George was right in ripping Mel Stottelmyre. With the Yanks playing well again, was I wrong? Should i retract what I wrote? My answers: No and no.
Torre and Stot are not responsible for this streak. Torre held meeting after meeting for the first 6 weeks of the year, but to no avail. And Stot's pitchers shutting out the .230 A's is meaningless. And hot streak and all, Pavano and the Unit still have numbers that are worse than last year. So why are the Yankees winning every night?
Aside from the fact that the Yanks are playing against awful teams, which I've mentioned time and time again, the fact is that almost every single Yankee is on a hot streak. We've all heard about Tino's resurgence, but over the last 7 days, the Yanks as a team are batting at an incredible .342 clip. Jeter is showing some tangibles, batting at a .414 clip. Robinson Cano is playing like Jackie Robinson right now. Shemp and Womack are back, both at .296 clips over the week, and the only cold Yankee in the last week is A-Schmuck, batting .190 during this span. Heck, even Bambi and Giambaby have had big hits this week. Last week, everyone was waiting for Ruben Sierra to come off the DL. Now, everyone's forgotten about him. That's what happens when everyone gets hot.
Any team that has all of its players on hot streaks will do well. Okay, maybe not the Royals. But all hot streaks come to pass, after a while. The Yanks will not hit .342 the rest of the year. What separates the great teams from good teams is the ability to win when not everyone is hot. When you have to rely on big hits in big spots. Think about last year's ALCS. The Yanks were on a hot streak for the first 3 games, but once they lost their rhythm, they fell apart. Perhaps a little more lineup depth (Tony Clark? Not gonna cut it) and some better bats on the bench would've saved the Yankees.
With a lineup full of hot hitters, anyone can manage the team. The question is, can the Yanks win when they have more than just one cold hitter in the lineup? We'll find out.
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6 comments:
It is sad that you spend your life despising the one team that shows you and your crappy Red Sox team, who the real winner is.
and...these crappy teams you are talking about are the ones that have beaten you 2 out of 3 and in this series have already beaten you once. You need to realize that yankees fans dont care about you lowly red sux fans....but it is funny to read to your screwed up interpretation of baseball in general
well..it looks like it's been exactly one day since giambi's next RBI.
and of course pavano and unit's numbers are worse. theyre adjusting to new leauge and the DH.
you say the mariners and As are awful (which is true) but even they can win a series against the Red Sox (and not just because of a lucky hit by olivo).
the yankees are soundly defeating the As and the mariners, and no matter how crappy the opponent is, 10 in a row is always impressive.
2000. Need I say more?
Alex: unlike most other Yankee fans, you raise some decent points. Here's my take:
- okay, so maybe I was wrong on Giambi. But someone tell him to save some of his few hits for October, when they'll really be needed.
- the big adjustment for Pavano isn't so much the league, especially in the age of interleague and video analysis.Iit's more about adjusting to life without a pitcher's park. And with 10 HR allowed so far, it doesn't look good. Though i must admit he looked right at home in the pitcher-friendly confines of Safeco.
As for the Unit, he's adjusting by going from fireballer to finesse artist. He's done pretty well so far, but the intimidation factor has gone down.
And why the heck should a $200 million team beating teams with less than half the payroll impress me? Why? When the Brewers win 10 in a row, that's impressive. But for the yanks to do that is not impressive - it's called meeting expectations.
And right now, i'll be first to admit that the sox stink. There's no excuse for them not beating these scrubby teams. This year, they've reminded me of the '04 team: some weeks they'll amaze you, some weeks they'll nauseate you. And we all know how '04 turned out.
what's worse?
"spend[ing] your life despising the one team that shows you and your crappy Red Sox team, who the real winner is."
or actually bothering to contribute comments to that blog?
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