1. Denial - It's only 20 games. It's only 30 games. It's only 40 games. Look at their pythagorean record ...
2. Anger/Resentment - Joe Torre needs to be fired. Bobby Abreu sucks. Robinson Cano sucks. Johnny Damon sucks. Jason Giambi sucks. Kyle Farnsworth sucks ...
3. Bargaining - If the Yankees can just get to .500, then when Hughes and Clemens are in the rotation with Moose, Wang, and Pettitte they’ll be unstoppable ...
4. Depression - The Yankees fall to 21-28 with their loss to the Toronto Blue Jays tonight.
5. Acceptance - The 2007 Yankees are a bad baseball team. With their payroll and their performance they'll go down in history as one of the biggest flops ever ...
I finally accepted the truth tonight. The 2007 Yankees are not going to make the playoffs. I'll still watch the games whenever I can, and I will still root for them to win every night, but I have no expectations any more. ...
I'll just hope they win when I watch, and if they don't win that day, I'll hope they win the next one. ...
As you know I've said that I'll bury the Yankees when they are in the grave with the stake in their heart. Today, the grave is finished and the coffin is being lowered inside. The stake is being sharpened.
The Sox have a chance over the next six days to shovel the dirt.
i'm not counting them out in may, obviously they suck but they still have an absurdly potent lineup, and if those bats start getting hot theres no reason they wont be able to reel off 12-13 wins in a row (besides pitching)...
this is great, but im not counting them 100% out until, as s1c said, the dirt is over the coffin.
i think early june is still too early to tell if thats true, but no doubt with each game we pick up on em, the coffin keeps getting lower and lower...
if we had this lead at the beginning of september, i'd be saying their done, but i just cant count out a lineup like that so early in the year.
i also cant count out a team thats willing to spend billions for a world series. it wouldnt surprise me in the least if they tried to buy santana from the twins this year.
they're definately going to spend big bucks upgrading 1B and 2B after they see the brooms in fenway this weekend...*knocks on wood*
SoSHer Gene Conleys Plane Ticket, in a discussion of "1978 v 2007":
"I'm sure someone can access the statistics, but I would venture to guess that for a team who has played .438 ball over the first two months of the season to suddenly go on a .630 tear for the next two months is a rare occurrence indeed.
The Yankees have played well below their capabilities, to be sure. But they are a team with an aging, inconsistent and injury-prone pitching staff and a lineup which, while undeniably intimidating, is also full of older hitters some of whom may have aleady left their best days behind them (Giambi, Damon -- maybe Abreu) and others who are hitting better than they ever have and will probably cool somewhat (Jeter maybe, Posada almost definitely). A-Rod may well put together another MVP-level season, but it won't be enough on this team. The Yankees ain't "storming" anything. ...
But the bottom line is, as of today, the AL East is theirs to win or lose. No one's going to rise up and take it from them."
"A-Rod may well put together another MVP-level season,"
Or he may keep hitting .242, as he's done in May.
In his last 31 games (out of 49 total), make that .230 with 10 RBI. Why doesn't the guy use someone who's done well all year, not just the first 18 games of the season?
From Jim Molony of MLB.com Factoid of the week: Managers and players say it repeatedly: The key to winning isn't a long winning streak (though it certainly helps), it's simply winning series. The Boston Red Sox, with the best record in baseball, are certainly evidence of that. The Red Sox have played 18 series and have won 13, lost three and split the other two. Boston's longest winning streak so far is five games, but the Red Sox haven't had a three-game losing streak yet and have lost as many as two in row just twice, the most recent coming April 23-24.
And Tim--winning 13 games in a row is quite rare. Example: The Red Sox have won 13 or more games in a row twice in the last hundred years. Like you said, if they were some amazing pitching team, it would be more likely. But only a little bit. If they win 13 in a row this year I'll give you a million dollars.
Here's my issue with the current Yankee fan reaction at this whole mess - what the feck would they be doing if they followed any other team? Every other team has good and bad times, and you still watch them regardless. After 2 bad months, the first two of the year, Yankee fans are going suicidal.
It's like when I load up FIFA Manager 07 and play with Chelsea. I'm not looking for a challenge, I just want to spend a gazillion dollars, get Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney and win the league by 20 points. I have no dedication and no connection to this team, it's just fun to squish the opposition.
How messed up are Yankee fans that after 2 months they're not even going to watch their team anymore? It's incredibly sad. I was still watching those painful Mark Loretta, starting 1B games last year when we were eliminated.
Yeah, and I sat there scoring every pitch of the 19-8 loss in 2004 ALCS 3.
They seem to have forgotten what it means to be a fan. Are you a "Yankees" fan or are you a "win" fan?
This leads in to what I think fueled a lot of their anger at us pre-2004. I always wondered why do they hate us? What did we ever do to them? They always won!
I finally realized that somewhere in their minds, buried deep, was the knowledge that if their team put them through what the Sox put us through, they would have thrown in the towel and walked away from baseball years and years ago.
All of which is just to say that the Yanks should be aiming at the wild card. No one's dumb enough to say it's impossible for them to overtake us, but they would need a lot of help from us. After all, .500 ball from us the rest of the season still means 91 wins, and we can do better than that even if we do suffer some injuries. The Yanks' reeling off six or seven wins at some point isn't going to break our stride.
And agreed that their problems, although they involve a lot of bad luck in terms of injuries, are deep and unlikely to evaporate.
Pitching: there's a good likelihood that Clemens is reasonably effective, Petite continues to pitch well, and Wang gets it together. But can you expect the young guys to be suddenly lights out? They may be in the future at some point, but this season good-outing-then-bad-outing is about all they can expect out of them. And is that bullpen going to transform itself? Hell, no. Even with a trade acquisition that works out improbably well, it would be phenomenal for them even to rise to the level of an average 'pen.
The lineup has defensive problems -- see the Replacement Level posting on Damon's range. Their conclusion is that he's playing hurt. Our reaction, of course, is: when has he not played hurt? But you can only play hurt for so many seasons in a row. They need to think about the next couple of years and put him on the DL.
And hitting? Of course, it should never surprise anyone if they score a lot of runs. And it's hardly fair to point out (correctly) that Posada will come down to earth when there's other that will do better in his stead, A-Rod certainly among them. Matsui will near his MLB average year, but whether or not they get production from the following is going to make a big difference in whether or not this season ends up as an embarrassment for them: Giambi, Abreu, Cano. That and whether a Helton or Texeria picks them up later in the season.
Although I don't do the "in your face" thing to Yankee fans, I would like to see them not make the playoffs at all. It was tough last year when it became obvious we weren't going to make it, but after a few days' funk I accepted it. Why? Because this isn't fucking hockey. It's difficult to make the playoffs in baseball even with the wild card (which I support). No team should expect to be there every year. And if there's one thing you get from Yankee fans, it's that sense of entitlement. In my local bar, they were still saying, "Oh yeah, I'm sure we'll get the wild card, but this sucks..."
At least they were still saying that before this weekend.
My question is, were Celtics fans like this in the 70s and 80s? I hope that, even though were the most successful sports franchise in North America, that we didn't lord it over others like it was our job.
Celtics fans seemed proud of the legacy, inwardly, instead of using it to taunt others. Sure the Lakers and Sixers rivalries were heated, but I hope we wouldn't yell "16 banners!" at a Milwaukee Bucks fan.
Ferrari fans, however, are pretty much wankers. Forza Alonso.
Sadly, no.
Also a match on "brace".
ReplyDeleteSo, a propos of nothing, and showing how weird baseball can be, I've looked up the 'bot's overall numbers vs. numbers when I am present.
ReplyDeleteOverall: 1.038 RA, 86.6 IP, 11 runs
Sean time: 13.5 RA, 3.3 IP, 5 runs
Not Sean time: .64 RA, 83.3 6 runs
That's.. weird.
Redsock, thank you for posting these images - it makes my mornings.
ReplyDeleteSir: It's becoming a daily event!!!
ReplyDeleteSG at Replacement Level:
ReplyDeleteFrom Denial to Acceptance
1. Denial - It's only 20 games. It's only 30 games. It's only 40 games. Look at their pythagorean record ...
2. Anger/Resentment - Joe Torre needs to be fired. Bobby Abreu sucks. Robinson Cano sucks. Johnny Damon sucks. Jason Giambi sucks. Kyle Farnsworth sucks ...
3. Bargaining - If the Yankees can just get to .500, then when Hughes and Clemens are in the rotation with Moose, Wang, and Pettitte they’ll be unstoppable ...
4. Depression - The Yankees fall to 21-28 with their loss to the Toronto Blue Jays tonight.
5. Acceptance - The 2007 Yankees are a bad baseball team. With their payroll and their performance they'll go down in history as one of the biggest flops ever ...
I finally accepted the truth tonight. The 2007 Yankees are not going to make the playoffs. I'll still watch the games whenever I can, and I will still root for them to win every night, but I have no expectations any more. ...
I'll just hope they win when I watch, and if they don't win that day, I'll hope they win the next one. ...
***
Sean, you better do an impartial, critical analysis of your lucky gear.
ReplyDeletePretty good post from SG, but his conclusion just sounds like somebody who's ran out of stuff to throw at the TV.
ReplyDeleteGotta "keep the faith"!
ReplyDeleteI would call those a NY Trash Trifecta.
ReplyDeleteAs you know I've said that I'll bury the Yankees when they are in the grave with the stake in their heart. Today, the grave is finished and the coffin is being lowered inside. The stake is being sharpened.
ReplyDeleteThe Sox have a chance over the next six days to shovel the dirt.
i'm not counting them out in may, obviously they suck but they still have an absurdly potent lineup, and if those bats start getting hot theres no reason they wont be able to reel off 12-13 wins in a row (besides pitching)...
ReplyDeletethis is great, but im not counting them 100% out until, as s1c said, the dirt is over the coffin.
i think early june is still too early to tell if thats true, but no doubt with each game we pick up on em, the coffin keeps getting lower and lower...
if we had this lead at the beginning of september, i'd be saying their done, but i just cant count out a lineup like that so early in the year.
i also cant count out a team thats willing to spend billions for a world series. it wouldnt surprise me in the least if they tried to buy santana from the twins this year.
they're definately going to spend big bucks upgrading 1B and 2B after they see the brooms in fenway this weekend...*knocks on wood*
PS: in a results based business, they need to start getting the job done.
ReplyDeleteyeah yeah potent yeah yeah ...
ReplyDeleteSoSHer Gene Conleys Plane Ticket, in a discussion of "1978 v 2007":
"I'm sure someone can access the statistics, but I would venture to guess that for a team who has played .438 ball over the first two months of the season to suddenly go on a .630 tear for the next two months is a rare occurrence indeed.
The Yankees have played well below their capabilities, to be sure. But they are a team with an aging, inconsistent and injury-prone pitching staff and a lineup which, while undeniably intimidating, is also full of older hitters some of whom may have aleady left their best days behind them (Giambi, Damon -- maybe Abreu) and others who are hitting better than they ever have and will probably cool somewhat (Jeter maybe, Posada almost definitely). A-Rod may well put together another MVP-level season, but it won't be enough on this team. The Yankees ain't "storming" anything. ...
But the bottom line is, as of today, the AL East is theirs to win or lose. No one's going to rise up and take it from them."
"A-Rod may well put together another MVP-level season,"
ReplyDeleteOr he may keep hitting .242, as he's done in May.
In his last 31 games (out of 49 total), make that .230 with 10 RBI. Why doesn't the guy use someone who's done well all year, not just the first 18 games of the season?
From Jim Molony of MLB.com Factoid of the week: Managers and players say it repeatedly: The key to winning isn't a long winning streak (though it certainly helps), it's simply winning series. The Boston Red Sox, with the best record in baseball, are certainly evidence of that. The Red Sox have played 18 series and have won 13, lost three and split the other two. Boston's longest winning streak so far is five games, but the Red Sox haven't had a three-game losing streak yet and have lost as many as two in row just twice, the most recent coming April 23-24.
ReplyDeleteAnd Tim--winning 13 games in a row is quite rare. Example: The Red Sox have won 13 or more games in a row twice in the last hundred years. Like you said, if they were some amazing pitching team, it would be more likely. But only a little bit. If they win 13 in a row this year I'll give you a million dollars.
ReplyDeleteHere's my issue with the current Yankee fan reaction at this whole mess - what the feck would they be doing if they followed any other team? Every other team has good and bad times, and you still watch them regardless. After 2 bad months, the first two of the year, Yankee fans are going suicidal.
ReplyDeleteIt's like when I load up FIFA Manager 07 and play with Chelsea. I'm not looking for a challenge, I just want to spend a gazillion dollars, get Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney and win the league by 20 points. I have no dedication and no connection to this team, it's just fun to squish the opposition.
How messed up are Yankee fans that after 2 months they're not even going to watch their team anymore? It's incredibly sad. I was still watching those painful Mark Loretta, starting 1B games last year when we were eliminated.
Messed. Up.
Yeah, and I sat there scoring every pitch of the 19-8 loss in 2004 ALCS 3.
ReplyDeleteThey seem to have forgotten what it means to be a fan. Are you a "Yankees" fan or are you a "win" fan?
This leads in to what I think fueled a lot of their anger at us pre-2004. I always wondered why do they hate us? What did we ever do to them? They always won!
I finally realized that somewhere in their minds, buried deep, was the knowledge that if their team put them through what the Sox put us through, they would have thrown in the towel and walked away from baseball years and years ago.
They were/are envious of our loyalty.
All of which is just to say that the Yanks should be aiming at the wild card. No one's dumb enough to say it's impossible for them to overtake us, but they would need a lot of help from us. After all, .500 ball from us the rest of the season still means 91 wins, and we can do better than that even if we do suffer some injuries. The Yanks' reeling off six or seven wins at some point isn't going to break our stride.
ReplyDeleteAnd agreed that their problems, although they involve a lot of bad luck in terms of injuries, are deep and unlikely to evaporate.
Pitching: there's a good likelihood that Clemens is reasonably effective, Petite continues to pitch well, and Wang gets it together. But can you expect the young guys to be suddenly lights out? They may be in the future at some point, but this season good-outing-then-bad-outing is about all they can expect out of them. And is that bullpen going to transform itself? Hell, no. Even with a trade acquisition that works out improbably well, it would be phenomenal for them even to rise to the level of an average 'pen.
The lineup has defensive problems -- see the Replacement Level posting on Damon's range. Their conclusion is that he's playing hurt. Our reaction, of course, is: when has he not played hurt? But you can only play hurt for so many seasons in a row. They need to think about the next couple of years and put him on the DL.
And hitting? Of course, it should never surprise anyone if they score a lot of runs. And it's hardly fair to point out (correctly) that Posada will come down to earth when there's other that will do better in his stead, A-Rod certainly among them. Matsui will near his MLB average year, but whether or not they get production from the following is going to make a big difference in whether or not this season ends up as an embarrassment for them: Giambi, Abreu, Cano. That and whether a Helton or Texeria picks them up later in the season.
Although I don't do the "in your face" thing to Yankee fans, I would like to see them not make the playoffs at all. It was tough last year when it became obvious we weren't going to make it, but after a few days' funk I accepted it. Why? Because this isn't fucking hockey. It's difficult to make the playoffs in baseball even with the wild card (which I support). No team should expect to be there every year. And if there's one thing you get from Yankee fans, it's that sense of entitlement. In my local bar, they were still saying, "Oh yeah, I'm sure we'll get the wild card, but this sucks..."
At least they were still saying that before this weekend.
My question is, were Celtics fans like this in the 70s and 80s? I hope that, even though were the most successful sports franchise in North America, that we didn't lord it over others like it was our job.
ReplyDeleteCeltics fans seemed proud of the legacy, inwardly, instead of using it to taunt others. Sure the Lakers and Sixers rivalries were heated, but I hope we wouldn't yell "16 banners!" at a Milwaukee Bucks fan.
Ferrari fans, however, are pretty much wankers. Forza Alonso.