The Yanks will sign free agents this off-season….CC, Texeira, Burnett

The Steinbrenners are not cheap – they wanted to get Santana – Cashman is cheap….

I would prefer to see Larry Bowa or Buck Showalter as manager. I don’t see the Steinbrenners selling the team….

Girardi is very poor as a manager. The only good thing about this year is that it means one less of him, as his tenure will be short.

BTW-Good outing for Noel.

Front office is supposed to put the best players it can at the manager’s disposal.

The front office chose not to do this in order to reduce payroll – there were options available during the course of the season but it choose Ponson and Rasner — over both much better and somewhat better upgrades.

Dependable pitching sets the tone — allows the oofense to relax –
No GM can stand the loss of a Wang and think he can replace his innings and his Won – Loss split; especially with the FUTURE Kids already DOWN– it would have been expensive or more than he wished — that it was more than he was willing will play out over the next 5 – 6 years

Dependable offfense alows pitchers to relax — every play in the game is important, everyat bat – but when the weight of the game falls on a single player at a single time it changes – we fans feel it; the players feel it. The loss of Posada was especially harmful; and Matsui maybe nearly so – more on Posada at the end of this. The proportiate weight of the game fell more on Jeter and ARod than the others — coupled with the failure of Cano, Melky, Molina at the back of the lineup was harmful under any circumstance; with the loss of front line piching and dependable back-end picthing we caould forecast what has happened and did. The outcome was the same as what an aging lineup (the 2010 lineup) wil experience due to age creep – if it is not retooled. Kuda’s to Casnman for avoiding the idiat’s delight call for Bonds and fining Nady.

ARod is the best player in the game – unless he aged so rapidly this last season that he has begun a rapid decline — what I see is characteristic of his pressing — he is pressing big time -

He is guess hitting when he shouldn’t be – mor ethan any player in the game he has the strenght to simply see the ball and hit it –

I beleive I see in his swing the FEAR that he is not going to get a good pitch to hit. When the lineup went 3Ks and out against League we all knew it would set up ARod — maybe a walk-off, A Giambi in the rain against Cleveland moment – save this game, keep it going one game at a time –

Now do we expect the best in the game to respond to that pressure — the best have streaks where they do and the fans love them until they don’t –Bernie left the game after proving he couldn’t; O’Neil and Mattingly left the game when they still could; Ortiz won the acclaim and one injury has robbed him —

ARod has lost the ability to keep it simple — some months back I wrote that he had to try to go to rihgt field to corrent this “jumpiness” — he still needs to do that in my view – Mattingly as Batting Coach got to him with an “intervention” — and he gave Long credit last year — this year he is so wrongly “locked-in” nothing gets through — his memory is not short where it needs to be.

But this is a very tough game for all its simplicity – Jeter has been one of the best ever at that opposite field stroke – it is natural to him and yet he has hit into more “clutch situation” DPs than I can remember

So maybe part of ARod’s “failure” like Jeter’s is that they are being piched differently and effectively

Early in the season I remarked to my son watching a game on TV — “the entire league has decided to throw ARod nothing but slop and breaking pitches away — if they get a count (0-2, 1-2) they wil come up and in with a FB (if they have one)”

Anyway my take — Front office; Injuries; sub-par seasons that were left to rot (Cano and Cabrerra – exacerbated by injuries — CRITCALLY, Wang and Posada); Giradi’s lack of experience provides just enough loss across the many dimensions of the game to make the team especially vurlnerable to debacles like yesterday.

Posada — One thing to examine from the psychological level is Posada’s loss to team leadership. His loss is the biggest single differece from last year’s offensive performance, and may have contributed to Jeter and ARod’s lack of effectiveness. A disturbance in the FORCE as it were.

He was the guy who would get in the players’ faces and would have addressed the kind of probelms we have seen from Cano and Melky – and maybe ARod –; but he could not do that if he wasn’t in the game and a physical part of the team; not his style to criticize from off the field.

Thinking to next year how Posada comes back; where he can play; the level of his play — especially on OFFENSE I think is critcal to the team playing well. Is that fair to expect off an injury or at his age — we need the Posada of 2003-2007 — realistically can he be that guy — if not the only different pieces from this year we can expect on offens is 1B and CF and a log jam at DH.

We might assume Wang returns to form (and please he is not an ace at the Burnett, Halladay, Webb, Santana level)

– we still need a #1 — even a home grown solution needs protection as they mature
– can that be Joba or Hughes – a lot to ask but maybe Joba (he has to stay healthy); maybe Hughes if he can move from #5 to number #1 over the course of a season – or do the Yankees go all out for Sabbathia to stabilize the pitching and give Hughes, IPK or others a chance to mature. Depending on that PLAN – you make a decision on Pettit and Moose. Both should be thinking HOF – and they need wins to get there – they are going to want the chance to win every 5th day.

While pondering can Wang really come all the way back or does that foot injury take just a enought off the power sinker to amke Wang less effective —

So we are in a situation similar to last year with Santana but with less faith in an internal solution but the Offense is a year older and — this time the “can’t miss IPK bait” and the “melky bait” are not available — so failing to get Sanatana lat year probably costs more in 2009 to fix the same situation —

From a business view — revenues are not hurt in this last year of the stadium and they will be better in the 1st year of the new stadium so maybe the grand plan is to RIDE THE BRAND to greater profits while making the payroll cheap — then if you are the Steins you are in great positon to sell the team — I know that is really cynical — just looking at the business end.