The playoffs are a different animal, though. You have to be built to win these series, and you also have to be hot. The Yankees got hot, but they don't have the depth of starting pitching, their bullpen is bad, their defense is horrendous, they aren't athletic, and they have low baseball IQ.
But it's something how far a couple big bats rolling at the right time can carry a team despite that all. Imagine if Aaron Judge were still alive...
1. Sorry, stating that the Yankees bullpen is bad is utter nonsense and just lessens your credibility here. Tim Hill, Clay Holmes, Mark Leiter Jr., Tommy Kahnle and Luke Weaver combined for 14.2 innings of shutout baseball going into Game 5. It's not the bullpen's fault that it inserted Nestor Cortes in to blow Game 1, that is squarely on the shoulders of Aaron Boone for running through everyone in that game too early. Derek Jeter said it himself, there would be a price to be paid for it and it was. Tommy Kahnle finally had an off night in Game 5 and, instead of getting pulled timely, Aaron Boone opted to leave him in to languish in a do or die game and load the bases up before finally pulling him.
2. Stating the Yankees didn't have the depth of starting pitching is questionable. I guess you opine to knowing more than analysts and pundits, who deemed it a strength going into the WS. Unfortunately, they didn't produce at the worst time. Hindsight is always 20/20, but they didn't walk into the WS as it being a weakness they failed to address.
3. The comment about defense is interesting. Verdugo is known as a high-quality defender. Judge is known as a high-quality defender (the error was his first all year). Volpe is a gold glove winning SS. Rizzo is a 4-time gold glove winning 1B. Half of their position players are know quantities defensively. The players are undisciplined which, along with what is perceived is "low baseball iq" rests fairly on the shoulders of the managerial staff IMO. For several seasons now, Boone has enabled a culture of lax fundamentals, excusing errors and poor decision making in the field. Quality players have lost form and substance out in the field because it's clear he isn't enforcing fundamentals the way other managers are. The results are in fact the results, but I strongly beg to differ on the root of the problem.
4. Lastly, for all your talk about how the playoffs are "a different animal". I won't disagree, however let's not pretend the Dodgers were some juggernaut in all these areas that the Yankees were not. Their rotation and bullpen gave up nearly an identical amount of runs, more home runs, allowed for a marginally higher batting average and RISP average. This means their offense and pitching performed equally as well (or as bad) as the Yankees did.
At the end of the day, the organization beat themselves as much, if not more, than the Dodgers beat them. They'd still be playing right now if they had a better manager IMO.
frontofficesports.com
