Playoff preview

This is the seventeenth postseason appearance for the Yankees in the last eighteen years, and I have never been more pessimistic. The Yankees haven't been swept in a postseason series since 1980, but I think they have a really good chance to do that this year. All season, the Yankees have not been able to get a clutch hit with a man on base. The only way they score runs is if the pitcher makes a mistake and they hit it out. That doesn't happen nearly as often in the playoffs. The fact that they won 95 games says more about their competition then it does about their skill level. This is the worst Yankee team, talent-wise, since 1992.

My prediction: Granderson, Swisher and Teixeira go a combined 2-33, stranding 24 runners on base. The Yankees lose all three games by one or two runs. In Game 3, they are losing 6-1 in the bottom of the ninth, and lose 6-5 as ______ strikes out with runners on first and third to end the game.

 

The Yankees' only hope is that Showalter is as stupid in 2012 as he was in 1995, when he brought in Jack McDowell in relief in Game 5 on one days rest, when Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte were rested and available in the bullpen.