The Tigers or the A's will be in the World Series this year, representing the "elitist/big money" American League... This is a testament to teams that stick with their farm system, while adding affordable free agents/veterans along the way (kinda like the Astros). Go baseball.
I am so happy the Yankees lost. I hope Steinbrenner panics and runs A-Rod out of town for a rosin bag and a bag of sunflower seeds.
2006 Tigers = 2005 White Sox........World Champions DET is the most balanced team, solid lineup, great starting pitching, great bullpen. However it looks like the city of Detroit may not be standing by tommorow, looks like a riot is in order. The Yankees have to realize that you cannot build a team by going out and spending a zillion dollars and buying a bunch of all-stars. It doensn't work, they may have a bunch of big slugging big names at every position, but it doesn't make it a good lineup, these old former great pitcher..... They need to blow it up and rebuild the team around Chien Ming Wang in the rotation and Jeter in the lineup. Maybe time to get some new blood on the bench without Torre. Look at the World Championship teams they had, it wasn't big sluggers like Sheffield and Giambi and A-Rod and Randy Johnson and Mussina and kevin Brown. It was guys like Paul O'Neill and Jeter and Bernie Williams and Scott Brosius and Tino Martinez, with guys like Pettitte, Clemens and David Cone and David Wells in the rotation. First things first, they need to deal A-Rod straight to the Astros, where he will put up the #s he put up in Texas. Berkman and A-Rod, wow.
Yankees out.....hahahahahhahahahahhahahaha! WHOOOOO HOOOOOOO HOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Okay, back to the party.
Are you kidding? They've made the playoffs 12 years in a row! I hate NY and am glad they lost, but you've got to be kidding when you say that they aren't building a team by outspending everyone else. If they continure to win one Championship every 5-6 years; then that's 15-20% of the time. I like you point about the farm system, but do you honestly think the Royals or Devil Rays are going to be able to retain their talent long enough to make the playoffs? The bottom line is ML Baseball needs a salary cap! I'm sick of seeing the Yankees, Boston and now the NY Mets in the playoffs b/c they outspend everyone else.
Made the playoffs 12 yrs in a row??? They haven't won a World Series since 2000 and they have ungodly payrolls. NY doesn't give a f about making the playoffs, if they don't win the WS, their season is just as much of a failure as a team like the Astros not making the playoffs. Making the playoffs is not good enough at all, let alone going out in the first round without a whimper in 2 straight yrs, losing 4 straight to the hated Red Sox. Yankees need to look at the teams who are winning titles, like the White Sox or 03 Marlins or soon to be champion Tigers. You don't win championships by building the teams like they are building them. It obviously isn't working.
Tigers will win the World Series this year if pitching remains the same. The Tigers are the White Sox's World Series winners, but stronger. The pitching staff is flat amazing, and the hitting is strong as it will ever be. As long as the bats don't go silent, the Tigers have a great chance. -- This is coming from an Astros fan, not Yankees or Tigers fan. I do hate the Yankees with a passion though.
OK then, name 1 team with more Championships than the Yanks. Better yet, name 4 teams with more championships combined than the Yanks. Can't do it... http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/history/postseason/mlb_ws.jsp?feature=club_champs The Yankees may not have reached the Holy Grail this year or even since '00 but at least they are competing year after year. Like I said before, I hate the Yankees, but to say that what they are doing is not successful is just plain silly. Collecting the best players year after year is creating an unfair playing field, and I'm glad it hasn't paid off the last 6 years, but to ignore that fact and say that what they are doing isn't working is kind of like playing poker against the house. Sooner or later they are going to win again.
How many other teams have won more than 1 world series since 2000? Obviosly their money spending has worked. They may not have won a WS since 2000 but name any other champions since then that havnt been crappy the next year. At least the Yankees still have a chance to win it all every year. Even if they dont win the world series they are always close and always in contention.
We already know that the Yankees have a bunch of championship,but note that all their championship teams were properly built teams with a real lineup and excellent all around PITCHING. So if they continue to overpay a bunch of sluggers and have a extremely mediocre pitching staff no they are not gonna win sooner or later.
All this did was confirm the need for solid pitching come playoff time. You CANNOT win without it. The Yankees never had any all year. Randy Johnson, who was supposed to lead the staff, has basically fallen apart. He's a shell of himself today. Mussina is good but a #2 starter at best. Wang was decent and probably will lead the staff next year. Jared Wright was a garbage move. Same with Pavano. The Yankees always chased big name players, but at least they did well. Guys like David Wells, David Cone, Roger Clemens, etc.. all performed well in NYC. And most importantly, the Yankees mixed up their offense. They had free agents but they also had farm system guys. And those guys were leaders. Guys like Scott Brocious (spelling?), Paul O'Neill, Luis Sojo, etc.. They thrived in New York. The Yankees generally forget that they're at a competitive disadvantage sometimes because of the environment in which they play. Good players either get their careers ruined or leave and then revive their careers. A guy like Estaban Loaiza can do well, then go to NYC and suck, then leave and become good again. A guy like Chuck Knoblauch (the original A-Rod) can be a gold glove second baseman and then just forget how to field because he's too mentally weak to deal with the crowds. (Although Knoblauch could still hit the ball, unlike A-Rod) Cashman needs to not only evaluate the abilities of the player, but also the player's ability to survive and thrive in New York. Too much is paid attention to the former and way way too little to the latter. The Yankees need to blow up parts of the team and trade for pitching and some prospects to rebuild the farm system. Unfortunately, they've overpaid for so many of these guys that they're all untradeable assets.
Except their championship teams weren't mostly home-grown with players like Brocious, Williams, Jeter, Martinez, etc being the lineup. Their payroll wasn't out of line at that point. They've started the absurd spending spree the last 5 years, and they've gotten progressively worse, making the WS in '03, losing in the ALCS in '04, and now in the 1st round each of the past two years.
A lot of people seem to be jumping on the Tigers bandwagon but remember this is the same team that got swept by the KC Royals the last week of the season and who's vaunted pitching couldn't hold leads againts the less than fearsome bats of those Royals. Baseball is a strange sport that its hard to tell how momentum will swing. This time last week everyone was predicting a Yankees sweep and a convincingly sound Twins series win. The A's on paper might not be as talented as the Tigers but they're coming off a convincing series win over what should've been a superior Twins team. We can talk about the Twins defensive lapses but in the end the A's still played solid ball to make the most of those lapses and if they continue to play solid ball and the Tigers falter even a little the A's have a great shot of taking the series.
Easily... culminating when the Gambler decided to pour champagne on one of Detroit's finest. I'm pretty sure that would = arrest in every other line of work.
