Is Teixeira injury the death knell for Yankees?

It’s starting to feel like the New York Yankees season is over before it even starts.

I’m not normally a negative person, but I can’t help feeling that the spate of injuries to key Yankee players is a sign of things to come for the 2013 baseball season. First, Phil Hughes went down for a few weeks with a freak back injury, but at least things look promising for a relatively quick comeback for the youngster. Curtis Granderson and Mark Teixeira are not so lucky.

Granderson suffered a broken arm during his first at-bat in spring training, an injury that will likely keep him out until mid-May. Now Tex, who was excited to represent Team USA in the World Baseball Classic, is sidelined for at least two months with a strained right wrist. I praised the Yankees for being cautious with their injured players the other day and I’m sure we won’t see either Granderson or Tex before they are fully healed.

But what do the Yankees do in the meantime? In what is expected to be an ultracompetitive American League East, they cannot tread water for the first month of the season and hope reinforcements arrive sooner than expected. Their internal options to replace Granderson are mediocre at best, but their first base choices are much worse because their best option is moving Kevin Youkilis, who was hired to fill in for the already injured Alex Rodriguez at third, across the diamond.

Since this is the Yankees, commentators are already loudly calling for a trade. Mike Francesa was incredulous about the notion that the Yankees could stand pat and wait until the end of the month to see who other teams let go. He thinks they have to make a big move and suggested Justin Morneau, who actually wouldn’t be a bad idea given that he’s got only one year left on his contract and the Minnesota Twins are not expected to contend this year. But the Twins would sense desperation on the Yankees part and hold them up for the Yankees’ best prospects. The Yankees hierarchy would fiercely resist giving up any of their good young talent, but they may not have a choice this time.

Maybe these injuries are just a sign that this isn’t going to be the Yankees year. I’ve seen crazier things happen so I’m not going to give up on the idea that the Yankees will compete for a title. But I’m a little less excited about the 2013 baseball season than I was a week ago.  

Clean players sick of baseball cheaters

Mark Teixeira gave voice to the sentiments of hundreds of his fellow clean colleagues all around baseball when he expressed his disdain for and frustration with the players who still try to cheat the system.

Tex is clearly not alone in this sentiment as union boss Michael Weiner admitted that he is hearing from players who are sick of talking about the use of PEDs in baseball. It seems that the Miami clinic scandal in which New York Yankees Alex Rodriguez and Francisco Cervelli have been embroiled in is the final straw for many players, who are now exercising their First Amendment rights to speak up in favor of stiffer punishment. Until recently, the players’ union was dead set against such penalties, but if the vast majority of baseball players say they want tougher testing and penalties, the union’s continued resistance will be futile.

I do disagree with Tex in the sense that I think baseball definitely needs stiffer penalties. Players are clearly not deterred enough by the 50-game suspension penalty. Look at Melky Cabrera. He sat out his 50 games, gave up any right to the National League batting title (which I give him some credit for) and had to watch his team win another World Series without him. And yet he was still rewarded with a solid, two-year contract from the Toronto Blue Jays. That, to me, is a joke and perhaps the Jays would not have been so eager to sign him if he was still under suspension.

I’d like to see players forced to sit out, without pay of course, half a season for a first offense, a full year for the second offense and keep the lifetime ban if they get caught a third time. Tex is right that cheaters will always try to figure out a way to game the system, no matter what changes are made. But there has to be a greater financial incentive to try to keep them honest. 

Stand-up Tex admits his shortcomings

I’ve always liked Mark Teixeira and this weekend I got a good reminder of why.

 

Tex is a real stand-up guy, even when he struggles, so it’s easy to root for him. But my admiration grew after I read an interview he gave to the Wall Street Journal where he freely admitted that he is overpaid and not the same player he was when he was younger. The article is a must read, if only because it is so unusual for a baseball player to be so blunt about his own shortcomings. But Tex shouldn’t be too hard on himself. He makes many valuable contributions to the New York Yankees, including driving in a lot of runs and making plays that few other first basemen can.

Unlike Alex Rodriguez, his colleague on the other side of the baseball diamond, Tex recognizes the absurdity of the mega-deal that pays him $20 million a year to play baseball while a superstar kid like Mike Trout earns considerably less. The fact that Tex is so honest about that and so willing to share his wealth deserves praise. In fact, he put $1 million of his own money toward a $10 million campaign on behalf of Harlem RBI and I was inspired to kick in a donation to the organization myself (well short of $1 million, but I’m sure it was appreciated).

Tex has heard his share of boos at Yankee Stadium, but he’s never been treated with an ARod-level of disdain despite being similarly wealthy and also struggling at times in the Bronx. But that’s because he’s a lot more likable and honest than ARod. And at a time when ARod finds himself yet again in the middle of a scandal, that honesty is refreshing.

Yankees get their way with Pettitte out of WBC

The New York Yankees will never admit to this, but they obviously put some subtle pressure on their veteran lefty Andy Pettitte not to pitch in the World Baseball Classic.

Reports earlier this week said Pettitte would pitch for the USA in the tournament, but the lefty’s name was notably missing from the official list of players announced today. While there is still a chance he could be named to the team because one more slot remains open, his appearance on the roster would be a rather shocking development.

The denials will continue from here to eternity. But there’s no question that the Yankees were very concerned about the possibility that Pettitte, who they desperately need this year to solidify their starting rotation, could get hurt during a glorified exhibition, far away from the caring hands of the Yankee trainers. The Yankees could not forbid Pettitte from participating in the WBC, but they could easily have sent him a strong message that pitching for the US squad was not a good idea.

Derek Jeter, captain of the last US squad, is obviously unavailable to play this time around as he recuperates from his ankle injury, which is probably devastating to him because his former manager and second father Joe Torre is managing the team. But the Yankees will be well represented in the 2013 WBC. Mark Teixeira will play for the US, Robinson Cano will represent the Dominican Republic and Francisco Cervelli will play with Italy.

Notice there are no pitchers on that list. The Yankees were not taking a chance with any of their arms, especially the arm of an aging Andy Pettitte. They need him for when the games really count.

Yankees must step up for stretch run

My baseball blog has been completely neglected for the past 10 days due to a recent back injury that makes sitting in front of my computer for long stretches of time very painful. Watching the New York Yankees play during that period wasn’t nearly as painful, but it was very uncomfortable and depressing.

The only positive for the Yankees is that they barely survived a tough stretch against their two division foes, slinking their way to Boston with a one-game lead. But the Yankees only went 4-6 against the Baltimore Orioles and the Tampa Bay Rays, allowing the teams to cut into, and in the O’s case actually temporarily tie the Yankees, for the top spot in the American League East. They were probably lucky to win those four games as they did not play particularly well, with ace CC Sabathia leading the way with two stinkers and the Bronx Bombers offense completely disappearing for most of that stretch.

And more bad news hit Monday as the Yankees found out they will be without Mark Teixeira for at least 10 days and possibly the rest of the regular season, which would make a postseason appearance for the Yankees first baseman extremely unlikely. His absence has hurt the sputtering offense, which is looking for someone in the middle of the lineup to put the team on his back and drive in Derek Jeter, who seems to always be on base.  

The Yankees do have the advantage of a weaker schedule down the stretch, starting with the Boston Red Sox tonight. But even if they can hammer their inferior opponents (not a sure thing given what the Toronto Blue Jays did to them on the last home stand) to gain the division title, Yankee fans will be consumed with fear because the team has not proven it can beat other good teams such as the O’s and Rays. But first things first, the Yankees have to win the American League East and they need to start playing better right now.  

Time for Yankees to show O's, Rays who's the boss

Coming into the 2012 baseball season, I never thought I would say this but the New York Yankees face a tough test against the Baltimore Orioles starting tonight.

After another disappointing performance by ace CC Sabathia, the Yankees stumbled into an off day losing two out of three games against the injury-riddled, Triple-A Toronto Blue Jays. The Yankees are going to have to step up their game if they want to maintain their slim three-game margin in the American League East, with their next 10 games against the Orioles and the Tampa Bay Rays.

We knew the Rays would be good, with their superior, youthful starters, but who saw the O’s coming? Not me. I have to give Buck Showalter a lot of credit for the Orioles resurgence (although with his luck he will get himself fired right before the O’s win it all, as happened in both New York and Arizona). And you can’t call their rise a fluke, not when they are coming to Yankee Stadium on the last day of August with a chance to grab the division from the floundering Yankees hands.

Can the Yankees manage to take two out of three this weekend to keep the O’s at bay, then continue to play well against the Rays and the O’s again in Baltimore next weekend? I never thought I would say this, but I’m not sure. With Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira out, the only reliable bats in the lineup belong to Derek Jeter and Nick Swisher and they can’t drive themselves in all the time. Sabathia has not pitched up to his ace billing, and Phil Hughes, who salvaged the series against the Jays with another strong performance, doesn’t start again until Monday. I feel confident that Hiroki Kuroda, who has been the best starter on the Yankees over the last two months, will give the team a great chance to win, but it’s anybody’s guess if his offense will give him any type of run support.

The Yankees are in for a brutal final stretch, starting for real tonight. It’s time to step up and show the O’s and Rays who’s boss. If they can. 

Joe Girardi shows some fire

I’ve never seen Joe Girardi as angry as he was yesterday. It was truly awesome.

If you haven’t seen Girardi’s post-game interview, I insist that you immediately stop reading this blog and check out this link to the YES Network website. Not only did the New York Yankees manager rip third-base umpire Tim Welke a new one on the field, he continued his verbal assault in an epic tirade after the game.

We normally don’t see the Yankees manager that worked up, unless he is fighting with a reporter who dares to question him, particularly when it comes to AJ Burnett (come to think of it, with Burnett gone, I can’t remember seeing Girardi fight with any reporters). I know Girardi was still angry about Welke’s stubbornness, but I couldn’t help cracking up as he took shot after shot at him.

But Girardi’s central point is a fair one: that the umpire made a mistake that could have easily cost the Yankees the game, especially with the rain that may have forced an early end. After admitting that he initially called a fair ball foul, Welke should have been more understanding of Girardi’s argument that the runner should be sent back to third base rather than letting the go-ahead run score (he then made the situation worse by refusing to let the Yankees manager protest the game). That’s clearly why Girardi was so angry. With the Yankees struggling in recent weeks, it was an important game for them to win.

Girardi’s outburst on the field may have awakened his slumbering ballclub. Mark Teixeira and Eric Chavez hit back-to-back home runs that gave the Yankees a lead that they did not relinquish. You can’t say for sure those homers were related to Girardi’s angry display, but it can only help motivate baseball players who know that their manager completely has their back.

Girardi is clearly going to pay for his post-game tirade, but I’m sure he couldn’t care less about the fine coming his way. I can only hope his fire is contagious and sparks a Yankee winning streak. 

Yankees right not to panic at trade deadline

I was afraid the New York Yankees would panic and make an unnecessary trade after Mark Teixeira’s injury but luckily that was not the case.

The Yankees made a minor move to shore up their bench ahead of Tuesday’s trade deadline, trading away Chad Qualls (bye, Chad, we hardly knew you!) for Casey McGehee. I suspect such a small move for a platoon player happened only because the MRI test for Tex came back negative. If the Yankees were to lose him for an extended period of time, Brian Cashman could have been forced to make a bigger move. You can’t go two months without your big guns at first and third base and we already know we likely won’t see Alex Rodriguez until mid to late September.

But as Cashman mentioned, the price was high for any player of value (more so for the Yankees, who have some strong prospects in the minor leagues) and aside from the Philadelphia Phillies, they weren’t that many sellers in the market this year with the expansion of the wild cards. So I think he was smart not to overreact to the team’s recent poor play and the loss of ARod and Andy Pettitte.

To be honest, the Yankees had already made their big move with the trade for Ichiro Suzuki after their rough weekend in Oakland. Giving up a couple of kids for an aging, but future Hall of Famer is just want the old Yankees, led by George Steinbrenner, would do. But I don’t consider it a bad move in the sense that the Yankees didn’t give up much to get Ichiro.

The Yankees are simply going through a tough spell right now, but they will right the ship and I have every confidence that they will survive it and take the American League East division title. There’s no need to panic, folks. Luckily, Brian Cashman didn't.     

Ichiro trade, Tex feud keep things interesting for Yanks

Geez, I can’t go on vacation for one week, happily leaving my laptop behind and my Blackberry on silent mode, without the New York Yankees making headlines.

Even on a day dominated by news of the crippling, but well-deserved sanctions against Penn State, the Yankees managed to sneak into the news cycle with news of their trade for Ichiro Suzuki (yes, I did watch SportsCenter while on vacation). For the record, the trade for Ichiro feels like a panic move from the old Yankee years, when it was common for them to go after aging stars to fill a perceived hole on their team. It felt a lot like something George Steinbrenner would do (I read a terrific Steinbrenner biography while on vacation—more on that in another blog post), something that could have been incredibly disruptive to a team that was jelling despite a rough West Coast trip. I’m not sure that Ichiro is much better than who the Yankees already had on their roster, but at least Brian Cashman didn’t give up much to get him.

Fast forward to this weekend with Ichiro and his new teammates taking on the archrival Boston Red Sox, who continue to flounder in last place despite getting some of their injured stars back. Who would have thought that Phil Hughes would put the Red Sox down with a bigger performance than CC Sabathia? Well, I would have, but I have a lot of faith in the kid and CC has not pitched like an ace this year while Hughes has definitely found himself once again. But the Yankees still need Sabathia to be the guy he has been the first three years of his Yankee career if they are going to get very far in the baseball playoffs.

I thought Bobby Valentine was going to be the one to revive the dormant Yankees-Red Sox rivalry. I never anticipated that unassuming Mark Teixeira would be the one to shake things up with his ongoing feud with headhunting Saux pitcher Vicente Padilla. I don’t like anyone styling after a home run, but I can’t say I blame Tex given Padilla’s rather strange comments after their last battle up at Fenway Park. But Tex better duck the next time he faces Padilla.

I’m heading to the game tonight, where I will welcome Ichiro with open arms, even if I’m not convinced we needed him, and hoping to see the Yankees put the Saux out of their misery for good. Yes, there’s still two months left in the baseball season, but Boston looks and is playing like a deflated team and I can’t see them turning it around. 

Thanks to Googie man via en.Wikipedia for the Ichiro photo. 

Yankees start second half off with a bang

The New York Yankees started off their second half with a bang, two of them in fact.

Mark Teixeira, who drew mixed reviews in the Yankees’ midseason report cards, proved that his reemergence in Boston last weekend was no fluke, hitting not one, but two home run bombs, the second of which tied the game after the Yankees were effectively throttled by CJ Wilson, who desperately wished to be a Yankee. Teixeira is a notoriously slow starter, but I think a lot of his early struggles this year could be traced to that mysterious coughing illness. I’m expecting a big second half from him now that he is fully healthy (unless his archrival Vicente Padilla decides to take another shot at him when the Red Sox come into town).

Russell Martin did not fare so well in the midseason report cards, drawing poor grades of C’s and D’s due to his offensive struggles, although his work behind the plate has remained consistent. He needed a big night more than anyone else on the Yankees roster and last night he got it. Martin’s clutch two-out base hit completed the Yankees comeback and he ended the game by throwing out his third runner of the evening. His obvious elation about the comeback victory and the huge role he played in it was priceless.

It was nice to see the Yankees start off the second half of the season with a win. All the glowing reports of their first-half performance, plus their substantial lead in the American League standings, clearly have not gone to their heads at all. We could be in for something very special the rest of the way.   

Yankees leave Red Sox in the dust

The New York Yankees could not feel better about themselves heading into the All-Star break, with a commanding lead in the American League East standings after another Boston beat-down.

Granted, the Yankees’ play was pretty sloppy at times this weekend, with Hiroki Kuroda giving up the 5-run lead his offense staked him to on Friday night and Phil Hughes unable to pitch out of the mess his defense put him in during Saturday’s double-header nightcap. But they took three out of four games against the Boston Red Sox after getting strong performances by Freddy Garcia and Ivan Nova and a resurgent Mark Teixeira, who wisely decided not to further escalate his feud with a nut like Vicente Padilla.

More surprisingly, they got a turn-back-the-clock performance by Andruw Jones, who has been terrific subbing for the injured Brett Gardner all year, but really stepped up his game against the Red Sox this weekend. He hit four Monster home runs, constantly breaking the hearts of Saux fans anytime they thought their team might finally have a leg up on the hated Yankees. But even more impressive to me was his outstanding defense, including slamming against the Green Monster to make a terrific, rally-killing catch, which immediately conjured up images of a young Jones patrolling centerfield for the Atlanta Braves.

So despite all their injuries and lackluster play during the first six weeks of the season, the Yankees find themselves comfortably in first place with a 7-game lead over the Baltimore Orioles, nearly 10 games up over the Saux (which, let’s face it, is the only team that all Yankee fans truly care about regardless of their problems) and the best record in baseball.  

I hope Joe Girardi and his squad enjoy their All-Star break vacation. After their first-half performance, they’ve definitely earned it. 

Teixeira-Padilla feud gets even nastier

Just when you thought the feud between Mark Teixeira and Vicente Padilla couldn’t get any nastier, it just did.

Padilla gave a Spanish-language interview to NESN, the Boston Red Sox media outlet, in which he accused Teixeira of mistreating his Latino teammates. For Padilla to turn a baseball disagreement into a racial issue is so far out of bounds that it’s just not right and makes me think the man has a couple of screws loose.

If Teixeira did threaten to hit Padilla with a bat, which I seriously doubt, it was something said out of frustration and anger over constantly getting hit in response to Padilla’s headhunting while Padilla hid behind the safety of the designated hitter. It was not something said to Padilla because Teixeira doesn’t like Latinos. Teixeira clearly does not like Padilla (Tex took great pleasure out of his game-winning hit over Padilla), but that isn’t because he is Latino. It’s because the guy is a coward who doesn’t care about his teammates. I wonder how Frank Francisco, whom Padilla accused Tex of also mistreating, feels about being dragged into this ugly drama.

With the scrutiny the New York Yankees receive, if there were any racial tensions between Teixeira and his teammates, we would probably know about it. But in Tex’s 3 ½ years with the Yankees, there’s never been a bad word said about him, anonymously or otherwise, by any of his teammates. In fact, there’s only constant praise for what he brings to the club, even during his offensive struggles.

Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine tried to laugh off the feud by saying that Padilla hasn’t been headhunting this year, but that he has to get back to that. I could understand a manager wanting to diffuse the situation, but he doesn’t seem to be taking seriously Teixeira’s chief complaint: that Padilla is going to end up seriously hurting someone if he doesn’t stop.

And Teixeira made a great point that Roger Goodell wouldn’t stand for his football players intentionally trying to hurt other players. Witness the stiff and justified punishments he handed out for Bounty-gate. Bud Selig and Major League Baseball shouldn’t stand for it either. The next time Padilla hits Teixeira, and there will be a next time, Selig should immediately suspend Padilla for at least 10 games.

I have a serious problem with someone who uses allegations of racism to justify his own bad behavior. Padilla is completely out of control, but we already knew that, didn’t we? 

Yankees can keep Granderson and Cano

This isn’t something we have to worry about right now, but the New York Yankees will find a way to keep both Robinson Cano and Curtis Granderson if they really want to.

Ever since Hal Steinbrenner firmly committed to getting down to the $189 million payroll mark in 2014 to avoid paying the luxury tax, speculation has run rampant that the Yankees will have to sacrifice Granderson to keep Cano. Although the Yankees would choose Cano over Granderson if they were forced to make a choice, I don’t think they will let Granderson go if he continues to put up numbers like he did last season.

The Yankees must pay more than $20 million each to Alex Rodriguez, CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira and will likely have to pay $20 million or more per year to sign their superstar second baseman. That’s well above $80 million committed to four players so it will definitely be a challenge. But while I do believe Steinbrenner sincerely wants to get below that penalty threshold, I don’t think it’s going to force his hand in terms of letting Granderson walk. For one, the Yankees will be very creative when structuring the players’ contracts, using every available loophole to reach an agreement that both sides can live with. And from Granderson’s perspective, I doubt he is going to walk because no team is going to pay him more than the Yankees.

So barring an unforeseen decline or a horrific injury, I fully anticipate both Cano and Granderson to remain in pinstripes for many years. The Yankees have plenty of time to figure out how to keep them both. 

Who will the Yankees sacrifice for payroll cut?

This is more of a question for next winter, but who will the New York Yankees sacrifice in order to lower their payroll?

If you take Hal Steinbrenner at his word, which I do, the Yankees are going to do whatever it takes to get below that magic $189 million mark in payroll by 2014 to free themselves of paying millions of dollars in luxury taxes. As Brian Cashman notes, the Yankees still have the highest payroll in baseball and that is not going to change anytime soon. But the Yankees’ free-spending days are over.

Of course, the Yankees will have some money coming off their payroll naturally in time for 2014. Rafael Soriano’s three-year deal, which pays him more than $11 million annually, will expire by then. And Derek Jeter will have an option year that will pay him only $8 million barring a renegotiation (that’s if Jeter even decides to keep playing, not a certainty by any stretch).

But the Yankees will have to throw some money at their younger superstars Curtis Granderson and Robinson Cano, which will eat up the savings from expiring contracts. Cano is the one that worries me the most as his current deal expires after 2013 and his agent is Scott Boras, who is always looking for the biggest payday. Plus, Alex Rodriguez, CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira all have several years left on their contracts, which combined amount to about $72 million in 2014, well over a third of the figure the Yankees want to get down to.

The Yankees are going to have to cut someone making decent money loose, even if they do not want to. Nick Swisher is the name that has been bandied about recently and it makes a lot of sense since his current deal expires after this season. That would not sit well with some Yankee fans, but Swisher’s expiring contract and postseason futility make him expendable. 

Yankees offseason business almost complete

The New York Yankees signed Brett Gardner to a one-year contract, leaving only Russell Martin and Boone Logan without deals so far. By all accounts, the Yankees offseason business is nearly complete.

Unless the speculation about Prince Fielder signing with the Bronx Bombers comes true (I think it’s nothing more than a pipe dream by some very spoiled Yankees fans), Brian Cashman & Co are almost done for the winter. Of course, the Yankees have surprised us before, most recently with the pre-Christmas 2008 mega-signing of Mark Teixeira and the inking of Rafael Soriano after being rejected by Cliff Lee last year. But Tex is signed for another five years so first base isn’t open for Fielder and I doubt the Yankees are willing to spend what it will cost to get him. And I think the Steinbrenners have learned their lesson about overruling Cashman after paying Soriano more than $10 million a year to be their 7^th inning reliever.

This being the Yankees, they could surprise us yet again after pulling off a stunning trade for a potential young ace in Michael Pineda. But after getting Hiroki Kuroda at the price Cashman wanted, he is probably not willing to ask the Steinbrenners to loosen the purse strings again for anyone, including Fielder. And I’m not even sure Cashman is particularly interested in Fielder, even though he is a terrific young hitter. The Yankees general manager has often been stung by criticism that his baseball prowess only goes as far as his resources. By focusing only on moves within his budget, Cashman wants to quell such talk once and for all.

I think Cashman & Co are nearly done, save for signing Martin and Boone and perhaps Eric Chavez or someone of his ilk to be a back-up infielder. The Yankees roster is almost set heading toward spring training and it’s looking pretty good.

Baseball gets it right on wild card changes

Bravo to Bud Selig and Major League Baseball for finally doing something right, and on the first try no less!

MLB will expand the postseason to add one wild card team to each league, having the two wild cards in the leagues square off against each other to see who can continue to play baseball in October. The one-game playoff is perfect because it ensures the excitement of a sudden-death game for the right to move on, but does not drag out the postseason any longer than necessary. I love the idea of recreating the excitement we saw on the last day of the 2011 season every year.

Of course, there will be some objectors, including players, even though they stand to benefit if their team has an extra chance to make and then advance in the playoffs. Players such as Mark Teixeira of the New York Yankees hate the proposal because they do not believe that they should have to face an inferior team in a do-or-die game. It’s a legitimate point, but the new format puts a greater emphasis on winning the division outright than has existed in recent years. If a team wins its division, it does not have to worry about suffering a too-quick exit from the playoffs during the wild-card round.

Plus, the extra wild card gives teams such as the Yankees that are often penalized for playing in the toughest division in baseball an extra shot at ensuring their good work over the full year does not go to waste, even if they come in one game behind the Boston Red Sox or Tampa Bay Rays. Of course, if the Yankees, Red Sox and Rays all make the playoffs because of the extra wild card, there will be quick calls for a rethinking of the new format.

But all in all, I think MLB got this one exactly right and I am looking forward to the playoff action next year.

Girardi steps to the plate for his hitters

Joe Girardi stepped up to the plate to defend his hitters by arguing that their lack of production in the American League Division Series had a lot to do with bad luck. Apparently, he didn’t see what the rest of us saw.

If he had, he would have noticed that Mark Teixeira and Nick Swisher failed in key situations in the playoffs for the third consecutive year, which is enough of a sample to indicate that they are simply not clutch postseason players. Girardi would have noticed that Alex Rodriguez, aside from his performance in 2009 (which he definitely deserves a lot of credit for), has reverted to bad form in the playoffs. He would have noticed that his #9 hitter Brett Gardner had as many runs batted in (5) as his 3-4-5 hitters.

“I guess I could have put Gardy fourth,” Girardi said sarcastically when questioned about why he kept running out the exact same lineup in the ALDS.

No, Joe. No one is suggesting that you bat Gardner in the cleanup spot for the New York Yankees. What people are suggesting is that the lineup needs to be shaken up, that ARod, Tex and Swish can’t be allowed to continue coming up short in the playoffs in key situations. The biggest shake-up would be for the Yankees to let Swisher walk away and give right field to one of their young hitting studs, likely Eduardo Nunez, or go shopping for a relatively inexpensive, but clutch veteran.

Moving Robinson Cano into the third spot in the lineup for the playoffs was a good start, a move that Girardi was obviously not afraid to make and should stick to, unless he decides to bat Cano cleanup. But Girardi is going to have to seriously rethink his lineup. Should ARod continue batting fourth? Not if he can’t protect Cano. Who replaces Jorge Posada at designated hitter and where should that person bat? If it’s Jesus Montero, do you put more pressure on the kid by batting him in the middle of the lineup or do you protect him by slotting him seventh, where Posada batted most of the year?

These are legitimate questions and Girardi has to seriously consider them all. Unfortunately for the Yankees, he has plenty of time to think these days.

Yankees have few moves to make

I enjoy the Daily News' Keep 'em or Dump 'em poll/game as much as the next fan, but the problem is that it encourages too many choices that are simply unrealistic.

There are many players on the New York Yankees that they cannot get rid of (no matter how much we want them to be gone) because of long-term, expensive contracts. But John Harper has some useful suggestions, which I think the Yankees should seriously consider.

The one idea that I think has the most merit is getting rid of Nick Swisher. Sure, his $10.25 million option might seem like chump change to the Yankees, but Swisher has proven that he is worthless in the postseason. I know some fans love his boisterous attitude (I myself have never been a huge fan), but I think his playoff futility has gone on too long to keep him around. And since the Yankees are stuck with Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira, Swisher is the most likely fall guy for the offense's failure in the 2011 American League Division Series.

I also like Harper’s idea of putting a weight clause in CC Sabathia’s next contract. The media seems to think that Sabathia became less effective down the stretch because he gained back all the weight he loss last offseason and then some, which is entirely possible. Personally, I would prefer that the Yankees offer Sabathia a contract where the latter years are triggered by reaching certain clauses such as number of wins and innings. But Sabathia has all the leverage in these negotiations, which he absolutely should use (we know the Yankees would), and is unlikely to agree to such limitations.

But as much as Yankee fans would like to be rid of ARod and AJ Burnett (they are so far running the highest dump scores in the Daily News poll), neither one of them is going anywhere. The Yankees have to concentrate on player moves they can make such as letting Swisher walk away. The rest the Yankees just have to live with.

Who's at fault for Yankees quick playoff exit?

When a good baseball team loses in the playoffs, the natural question is “whose fault was it”? With the New York Yankees, there are a lot of culprits.

We definitely know who is not at fault. Jorge Posada, in what could have been his last games as a Yankee, did everything he could to try to help his team ascend to the next round of the playoffs. Brett Gardner, the #9 hitter, had several clutch hits and made the Detroit Tigers pitchers nervous every time he was on base. And as shocking as this would have seemed going into the American League Division Series, AJ Burnett came through with the best starting pitching performance.

So who takes the blame? I’d start with CC Sabathia. The Yankees ace looked like a contender for a Cy Young award against any team not named the Boston Red Sox this year. And in Game 1 of the American League Division Series, he started off by giving up a home run in the first inning. He had a very rocky start in Game 3 (messed-up routine, tight strike zone, way too many excuses) against Tigers ace Justin Verlander. And when he had a chance to redeem himself last night, he gave up what proved to be the winning run.

But the middle of the vaunted Yankees lineup deserves a large share of the blame. Alex Rodriguez will get most of the attention, which he deserves for his 2 for 18 performance and strikeouts in key situations last night. But Mark Teixeira and Nick Swisher both had bad playoff series for the third consecutive year. (For the ultra-popular Swisher, his futility at the plate again might have finally been enough for the Yankees to show him the door). These are the guys the Yankees should be relying on to drive in runs, not Brett Gardner.

I can’t decide right now who deserves the lion’s share of the blame for the Yankees too-quick exit from the playoffs. Maybe in a couple of days, I will get past the disappointment and see things more clearly. For now, I have to make other plans for Saturday night.

Teixeira wrong about wild card additions

Remember that glorious high we all we were feeling around midnight on Wednesday due to the trio of fantastic baseball games deciding the wild card teams in both leagues? It can happen every year if Major League Baseball implements a one-game play-in and adds two more wild card teams, which they seem to be leaning toward doing. But not everyone thinks it’s such a great idea.

Mark Teixeira said such a change would be unfair to great teams because they could be forced to play teams with lesser records in sudden-death games and have their seasons and playoff hopes crushed by one bad call or break in a game. Sorry Tex, but I just don’t agree.

While his scenario certainly could happen, I don’t think that’s a good enough reason not to make a change. First of all, such unfairness is already inherent in the game. How many times have we seen a team head for the playoffs even though a team with a better record heads home simply because they have the misfortune of being in a tougher division? In 2008, the New York Mets, the Houston Astros and the St. Louis Cardinals all missed the playoffs even though they had better records than the National League West champion Los Angeles Dodgers. In 2010, the New York Yankees won five more games in the regular season than the Texas Rangers, but went into the playoffs as the wild card (without home field advantage in any series) because the Tampa Bay Rays were one game better.

The Yankees first baseman thinks Wednesday’s finish is proof that baseball doesn’t need fixing. But that kind of wild, exhilarating finish doesn’t happen all the time. In fact, it’s never happened before in baseball. The only finish that has come close in recent history was the epic 12-inning marathon Game 163 between the Detroit Tigers and Minnesota Twins in 2009, a game that I spent five hours in a hotel room watching because I simply could not leave before someone won. Imagine having that feeling every year, twice over because it’s happening in both leagues.

Tex is absolutely right when he says that baseball is doing it for the money. The ratings and advertising dollars make two Game 163s every year an attractive proposition for baseball and its television partners. But that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t do it. Adding those extra wild card teams would create excitement that would drive people to their TV sets. The thrill of watching four teams battle in sudden-death matches for the right to advance would ensure that the good feelings we had on Wednesday can be replicated year in and year out.