October 7th, 2006 → 10:48 pm @ Seth Mnookin // No Comments
“They have won almost 600 games over six regular seasons, spending nearly $1 billion on salaries. They have imported some of the biggest stars in baseball, created their own cable network, set attendance records at their ballpark and broken ground on a new one.
But the one thing that used to define the Yankees, the boast spelled out across the marquee at Yankee Stadium, has escaped them. The Yankees no longer win championships.
Another year is over, and another chance is gone. The Yankees shuffled meekly from the postseason stage Saturday, falling to the Detroit Tigers, 8-3, in Game 4 of their American League division series at Comerica Park.”
— “For Yankees, October Has An Early Exit”
Tyler Kepner
New York Times
October 7, 2006
Indeed. The Yankees — the heralded best-hitting team of all-time, the first team in history with three $20 million players, the first team in history with 11 $10 million players, and the second team in history with a payroll over $190 million (last year’s $208 million Yankees were the first) — have lost in the first round of the playoffs for the second year in a row.
Tomorrow’s headlines are gonna be fun.
The breakdown:
Alex Rodriguez, $25 million: 1-14, 4 Ks, 0 RBI, .071 av., .133 obp, .071 slg.
Derek Jeter, $20.5 million: 8-16, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 15 tb, .500 av., .529 obp, .938 slg.
Jason Giambi, $20.5 million: 1-8, 1 HR, 2 RBI, .125 av., .417 obp, .500 slg.
Mike Mussina, $19 million: 0-1, 7 IP, 5.14 ERA
Randy Johnson, $15.5 million: 0-1, 5.2 IP, 7.94 ERA
Bobby Abreu, $13.5 million: 5-15, 4 rbi, .333 av., .412 obp, .400 slg.
Johnny Damon, $13 million: 4-17, 1 HR, 3 RBI, .235 av., .278 obp, .412 slg.
Hideki Matsui, $13 million: 4-16, 0 RBI .250 av., .250 av., .312 slg.
Jorge Posada, $12 million: 7-14, 1 HR, 2 RBI, .500,. .563, .786
Gary Sheffield, $10.75 million: 1-12, 1 RBI, .083 av, .083 obp, .083 slg.
Mariano Rivera, $10.5 million: 1.0 IP, 0.00 ERA
Jaret Wright, $7.5 million: 0-1, 2.2 IP, 10.12 ERA
Kyle Farnsworth, $5.17 million: 2.0 IP, 0.00 ERA
Cory Lidle, $3.3 million: 1.1 IP, 20.25 ERA
Ron Villone, $2.5 million: 1.0 IP, 0.00 ERA
Bernie Williams, $1.5 million: 0-3, .000 av., .000 obp, .000 slg.
Mike Myers, $1.15 million: 0.0 IP, infinite ERA
Post Categories: 2006 Playoffs & Yankees
mtalinm
18 years ago
you just gotta love the Wild Card:
got us into the playoffs in 2004 to win it all…
got us back in last year as well
this year, gets the Tigers into the postseason so they can take a good whack at the Yankees. seeing Rogers’ shutout yesterday afternoon was almost as good as winning it ourselves!
(shallow, I know, but I’ll take what I can get at this point 🙂
Mr. Furious
18 years ago
As a Sox transplant here in Michigan, I am having a blast going along for the ride. Following along on the previous comment, (with your indulgence, Seth) I’d like to offer a link to my thoughts on this Series…
“…And Whoever’s Playing the Yankees”
Adíos, Yankees! Go Tigers!
HFXBOB
18 years ago
Baseball is an amazing game. The Tigers finish the season blowing the division against the worst team in the league, then follow that up by stunning the world. All the talk about the Yankees focussed on their great batting lineup, but overlooked was the fact that their pitching staff, especially the starters, was well short of great. Wang was solid but Johnson, Mussina and Wright all showed serious signs of shakiness during the season. The Yankees starting rotation has been weak since 2004 and Steinbrenner/Cashman haven’t been able to fix it. They thought they could get around it by adding more offence but the old principle, pitching beats hitting, never changes.
Sox fans learned that a long time ago.
Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS goes down as the dagger to the destiny of A-Rod. If the Sox don’t score in that ninth inning, Yankees sweep, almost certainly win World Series, A-Rod has pretty good looking post season numbers and a ring. Since that game, well those astonishingly bad numbers are being recited everywhere today. Those were some nice sentiments Steve Lyons had about how A-Rod should be back with the Yankees next year, but he was wrong. The man with the monster contract and monster stats should be in his fourth uniform next year.
Nordberg
18 years ago
Lots of quick thoughts here:
* Since beating the Red Sox in Game 3 of the 2004 ALCS, the Yankees have a 3-10 postseason record. (That is soooooo delicious!)
* The Tigers reminded me a lot of the 2005 White Sox. They fumbled down the stretch, but got hot again as doon as the postseason began.
* That old addage stands: Good pitching beats good hitting. The thing I kept saying (although admittedly not loudly because the NYY offense IS impressive), is the the NYY pitching was not good enough to carry them far. Period. Paragraph.
* And because NYY (and Boston, too) has little to expect from the farm in the way of pitching that will help them next year, and because there isn’t much available that will come cheaply via free-agency, don’t be surprised if this happens again.
This isn’t Torre’s fault. But he might have to take the fall.
By the way, Seth, disappointed you haven’t weight in on the Foley-Hastert scandal. (But maybe that’s smarter.)
Nordberg
18 years ago
One more note:
I loved the NY Daily News covers today.
Yanks on front, Mets on back. Unfold it and it makes a nice package, IN & OUT. Great photo coices, too. The layout editor who designed it gets a big kudo.
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/covers/
jterran
18 years ago
SEEING THE YANKEES LOSE TO TIGERS – PRICELESS.