East Notes: Means, Mets, Yankees, Strasburg

Not trying to be sarcastic, Ducky…..

I think it’s because fans ARE watching the Yankees. They don’t play good baseball – poor fundamentals, poor defense, poor situational hitting, poor baserunning. Sure, they can bully their way to victory by K’ing and HR’ing against the Tigers, Orioles and other rebuilding teams as well as those in a downtrend. But against the better teams there has to be multiple ways to win a game…speaking of the Sox.

Casey had the 50’s-early 60’s Yankees playing solid baseball. Two of his protégé’s went on to be great managers – Billy Martin and Whitey Herzog. The Yankees you went to see played solid baseball. So did a number of teams in the Jeter era. Martin, Torre and Girardi worked on demanding strong fundamental play (I loved watching the Yankees when they managed). But this new era of statistics – HR, W, K – under Cashman and Boone is not fun to watch, and experienced fans know full well that when the stretch run approaches and the playoffs began, no one HR’s, K’s and W’s themselves to the WS.
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You had a post a week or so ago saying the teams that outhomered other teams won in the playoffs last year. I haven’t looked it up, but that may well be true. What you didn’t factor in is the pitching. In 2020 the Yankees finished 5th in MLB in HR’s, while the Rays finished 14th. Yet you’re saying the Rays outhomered them in the playoff’s. Why? Because teams can fatten up their stats during the season against the weak sisters. But come the playoffs it’s a different game (in all sports). Even Billy Beane admitted years ago that the stats worked well during the season, but not the post-season (A’s seldom win post-season series). Pitching, the defense that supports it, stringing hits and walks together, along with smart baserunning wins those games. The Yankees don’t do those things with any consistency.

No I’m not. I’m talking baseball. Thought that was what you wanted.

Ever hear “”Good pitching stops good hitting”? The sayings been around every Fall for 65 years that I remember. Don’t tell me about “bygone eras” – that’s BS.

Tell me the last 2 teams that got to the WS by HR, K’ing and W’ing their way there while playing 2nd rate D, having so-so pitching, doing poor situational hitting, and running the bases poorly?

Baseball is baseball. Last year it was the Dodgers and Rays. The year before it was the Nationals and Astros. Before that the Dodgers and Red Sox. All those teams played strong fundamental baseball (although the Astros cheated).

The great thing about any art form – baseball, music, acting, etc. – is that even people that don’t understand it know what’s good and what’s bad even if they can’t explain why. They watch or listen a bit and pick up on what’s right. I’ll tell you politely that I’ve been getting “Yankees Suck” comments from Yankee fans for 2-3 years now – in person, on Internet videos, chatrooms, etc. Now you write a post saying that they need to change their attitude. Uh, no.