All of a sudden, the Red Sox lead over the Yankees has shrunk to a measly 5 games, and the Bombers are percentage points behind Seattle for the wild card. If the Yanks form continues, it appears a near certainty that they'll make the playoffs. The question for Yankee fans will then become, can this team win the World Series for the first time since 2000?
The answer is "doubtful". I've been saying this for years and it's still true today - the Yanks are built to win in the regular season, not the playoffs. Mediocre pitching and stellar offense will win a lot of games against bad teams. It doesn't win games against good teams that have good pitching. Consistently scoring 10 runs a game isn't going to happen in October, and right now that's the Yankees modus operandi.
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I'm going to give a rather qualified agreement to my old friend's opinion. I don't think the potential failure of a team like NY in the playoffs is due to the fact that its offense is built on numbers achieved against the rabble of the league. After all, I'm absolutely sure that the Yankees hit the very top pitchers better on average than everyone else. I'm always of the opinion that the old addage that good pitching defeats good hitting is a failed cliche. The issue in the playoffs is the distribution of one's talent pool, specifically in the pitching staff. A decent team with two really good pitchers and three stiffs can go far because of the way the schedude is laid out. The best way to tool for the World Series, assuming you can make the playoffs, is to put tons of money into the 1 and 2 starting spots. In that sense, I'm not sure the Red Sox have much going for them either. But then so does no one else. Now, the inverse of what Brian is saying is the Padres: they have great starting pitching. Does anyone really believe they'll win the World Series?
Do you think the Padres starting pitching would stand up in the AL? It's always hard to tell how NL pitching matches up to AL offenses. Regardless, the Yankees playoff defeats over the last several years have been enabled by mediocre pitching and poor production on offense when it was needed. One potential difference this year is some of the young pitchers that the Yankees have called up recently have performed relatively well. Can that continue? Who knows, but from a Yankee fans perspective, it's refreshing to see some talented newcomers.
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