Yankees – Page 171 – Keefe To The City

Aug 7, 2015

Yankees-Blue Jays Feels Like Fall Baseball

The Yankees-Red Sox series was supposed to be a meaningful late-season series, but it’s the Blue Jays series this weekend that is actually the more postseason-like series.

The Yankees-Red Sox series the last three days at the Stadium was supposed to be a meaningful late-season series, but for the third straight year, the Yankees and Red Sox haven’t really played anything resembling a series of importance in August or September. Instead, the Blue Jays series this weekend is actually the more postseason-like series.

With the Yankees and Blue Jays meeting this weekend in the Bronx for the biggest series in three years at the Stadium, I did an email exchange with Tom Dakers of Bluebird Banter to talk about the Blue Jays acquiring Troy Tulowitzki and David Price, if Blue Jays fans are worried about sacrificing their future, the mood in Toronto with the team winning and if Blue Jays fans want to win the division or are content with the wild card.

Keefe: The Blue Jays didn’t just tinker with their lineup at the trade deadline, they basically changed their entire roster and in the last week or so they have become a different team. When the Red Sox having just left town in what was another late-season letdown series between the rivals, it’s actually the Blue Jays series this weekend that will have a playoff feel.

The Blue Jays haven’t lost with Troy Tulowitzki in the starting lineup, going 8-0, and they have now gone 8-2 in their last 10 games and riding a five-game winning streak coming into the weekend.

Were you surprised by the Tulowitzki trade? I know I was.

Dakers: Yeah I was surprised, stunned, almost knocked off my feet.

We had Jose Reyes and he was perfectly acceptable as a shortstop. Sure, his range was limited and he was making more errors than you would like to see, but he’s making a ton of money and I figured that he was untradeable. And he could be very exciting on offense. I didn’t think of shortstop being a problem position, at least not in the way that starting pitching was.

But, if you get a chance to get a player like Troy Tulowitzki, you really have to take it. He is much much better on defense and also an improvement offensively. He gives us another power hitting right-handed batter. You can’t turn down another great player just because you already have others of the same type.

Keefe: I was hoping the Yankees would trade for David Price given instability of their rotation, but the Yankees held on to their top prospects and decided against adding a true ace and giving themselves the chance to sign him to a long-term deal before he would become a free agent this offseason. Instead, he went to the Blue Jays and is back in the AL East and I have to worry about him being the difference in a possible division title.

After years of having inadequate pitching to go with their incredible offense, the Blue Jays finally have an ace. Price allowed one earned run in eight innings with 11 strikeouts in his first start

Like the Tulowitzki trade, were you surprised by the trade for Price?

Akers: Yeah, surprised would be the right word. We needed another starting pitcher, but I expected, especially after the Tulo trade, it would be a lesser name. Maybe someone like Tyson Ross, from the Padres, or Jeff Samardzija, from the White Sox. Good pitchers, but not an Ace like Price.

I’m thrilled that was got Price. If we were to make it to a one-game playoff, we have a pitcher I’d trust for that game. If we were in a longer playoff, we have a game one starter.

Keefe: The Blue Jays gave up a lot to change their team for the stretch run this season and when it comes to Price, there’s a good chance they might only have him for two months.

Are you worried that the Blue Jays went over board with their moves to make a run at a possible division title or a wild card when it could mean destroying their future? Or was enough enough with missing the playoffs since 1993 and needing to get back to the postseason and makes any and all moves at all costs?

Dakers: Yeah, we gave up some good pitching. Jeff Hoffman and Daniel Norris could turn out to be very good pitchers. But then, how often do we have a good shot at making the playoffs. The only ‘rental’ players they picked up are Price and LaTroy Hawkins. Hawkins is planning to retire at the end of the season. Price? Well he does seem to be enjoying being in Toronto. He said that the atmosphere, for his first start at Rogers Centre, was the best he’s ever seen in a regular season game. Maybe he can be convinced to stay?

Keefe: Here in New York with Mets fans there is a rejuvenated fan base that is now expecting to make the playoffs with their new-look roster.

What is the mood in Toronto? I have a feeling is similar to that among Mets fans since those are the two hottest teams in baseball right now.

Dakers: Yeah folks are pretty excited. Price’s first start was a sellout. TV ratings are way way up, right across Canada. The Jays said that the day the Price trade was announced the team sold 35,000 tickets and 29,000 the next days. And, on the weekend after the trade, the team sold 1,400 jerseys and t-shirts with either Price or Tulowitzki’s name on.

It has been a long time since the Jays were making this sort of news in August. People seem to be talking about the team everywhere you go. It really is kind of cool to think we could have playoff baseball in Toronto again, after all this time.

Keefe: When we talked in April, you thought the Blue Jays could win 89-90 games and contend. When we talked in May, you thought they would stay involved in the AL East race. Well, here we are on Aug. 7 and they are 4 1/2 games out of first in the division and 1 1/2 games up.

The good news for me is that the Yankees have a six-game lead in the loss column over the Blue Jays. And if the Yankees play just one game over .500 for the rest of the way and go 28-27, the Blue Jays would have to go 31-21 just to tie them. I’m scared of the Blue Jays, but I shouldn’t be that scared. The Yankees just need to win at least six of their remaining 13 games against the Blue Jays to keep them at bay.

Are you looking at the Blue Jays winning the division or are you content with the wild card?

Dakers: Oh wouldn’t give up on winning the division yet. The team has gone from being 8.5 back to 4.5 back in less than two weeks, so clearly there is a chance still. I wouldn’t start thinking that the wild card is the only possibility until a week or two into September.

The Jays have a great offense (kind of an understatement, they have scored 59 more runs than any other team in baseball) and the pitching seems to be coming around. Over the last month the team has a 2.94 ERA. The starting rotation and the bullpen are both looking much better. And adding Tulowitzki, at short, Ben Revere in left has shored up the defense at our two worst positions.

I don’t see why the team shouldn’t be able to put together two good months of baseball.

Podcasts • Yankees

Aug 5, 2015

Podcast: Dan Shaughnessy

The Boston Globe columnist joined me to talk about the fading Yankees-Red Sox rivalry, his relationship with David Ortiz, covering the Red Sox before and after 2004 and the Red Sox’ fluky 2013 championship.

Six years ago this week, the Yankees and Red Sox played a four-game series at Yankee Stadium with first place on the line. The Yankees swept that series on their way to winning the AL East and the World Series and that was basically the last time the Yankees and Red Sox played a meaningful late-season series.

Back in 2004, I thought the two teams would meet in the postseason every year forever, but they haven’t seen each other in the playoffs since Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS. The Yankees and Red Sox have only been in the postseason at the same time in three seasons (2005, 2007 and 2009) since and they won’t be once again this season.

The Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy joined me to talk about the fading Yankees-Red Sox rivalry, his relationship with David Ortiz, covering the Red Sox before and after 2004, the Red Sox’ fluky 2013 championship, the evolution and state of sports media, if Larry Lucchino stepping down is good for the Red Sox and how his book, Francona: The Red Sox Years, came together.

Blogs • Yankees

Aug 5, 2015

I Miss the Yankees-Red Sox Rivalry

Six years ago this week, the Yankees and Red Sox played a four-game series at Yankee Stadium with first place on the line. That was the last time the teams played a late-season meaningful series.

Six years ago this week, the Yankees and Red Sox played a four-game series at Yankee Stadium with first place on the line. The Yankees swept that series and went on to win the AL East and World Series. That was the last time the teams played a late-season meaningful series.

On Monday night at Yankee Stadium, the Yankees played and beat the Red Sox. And by beat, I mean dominated and embarrassed in a 13-3 rout that included a nine-run seventh inning. It might as well have been a Yankees-Rays game from 1998-2007 because that’s what it felt like. That’s what Yankees-Red Sox has become: Yankees-Rays from 1998-2007.

In 2004, I expected the Yankees and Red Sox to meet in the ALCS every year forever. They were the two best teams in baseball with never-ending financial resources to ensure competitive rosters for years to come. But since Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS, the teams haven’t met in the playoffs, and in the 10 postseasons since then, they have only been in the playoffs at the same time three years (2005, 2007 and 2009). With the Red Sox going nowhere this season, it will be 11 straight postseasons without them meeting in the playoffs heading into 2016.

The rivalry still exists, it’s just dormant. A sleeping giant waiting to wake up from the sort of deep sleep it went through for most of the ’80s and ’90s. It can be rejuvenated and a new chapter of the rivalry can be created and probably will be at some point, but it’s mainly the Red Sox’ fault it’s in a bad place.

The Red Sox suck. They’re on their way to their third last-place finish in four seasons and sandwiched in the middle is the most miraculous, fluky, unfathomable championship in the history of sports. When I think about 2013, I start to feel the same way I do when I don’t eat for 12 hours or when an Amtrak train is delayed for multiple hours or when my girlfriend wants to watch House Hunters or House Hunters: Renovations or House Hunters: Where Are They Now or House Hunters International or House Hunters: Million Dollar Homes when the Yankees are about to be on. Outside of 2013, the Red Sox have been a bad team for a long time and it’s almost as if the Baseball Gods gave them 2013 for the heartache of Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS and the 1978 one-game playoff and the 1986 World Series.

The rivalry really started its decline in 2012 and it’s been falling fast ever since. The 2011 Red Sox, known as “The Best Team Ever”, collapsed in September and the 2012 Red Sox followed up their chicken and beer season by hiring Bobby Valentine and losing 93 games. The 2013 Yankees missed out on the playoffs, and in 2014, for the first time since 1993, neither team made the playoffs. Now here we are with the Yankees trying to win the AL East for the first time in three years and the Red Sox are playing out the string and waiting to go home for the winter.

Fans who grew tired of the five-hour long games between the Yankees and Red Sox would complain if the teams met in early April or if they had already played a couple series before the first of May. But now, those series are the only ones that mean anything because when the schedule rolls around to the second half, one of their seasons is usually over. Before 2012, any Yankees-Red Sox meant something and a weekend series meant clearing your schedule. It meant watching Friday night’s game from 7 until midnight. It meant watching Saturday’s game from 4 to 9 and Sunday night’s game from 8 to 1. It meant being worried about how horrible a series loss would feel and how satisfying a series win would be. It meant being petrified of getting swept and making sure to contact every Red Sox fan I know if the Yankees did the sweeping. This week has served as a reminder of how the importance of these games has disappeared since the result only matters for one team.

I never want the Red Sox to be good and they can’t lose enough. But part of me wants them to suck less than they do. I don’t need them beating the Yankees in a postseason series or winning the World Series, I just want them to not be the 1997-2008 Rays. I guess I kind of/sort of miss the Red Sox being good because I miss everything that comes with both teams being good at the same time.

I miss the buzz in either city with the other team in town. I miss the hatred in the crowd. I miss the fights and verbal abuse in the right field bleachers at Yankee Stadium. I miss going to Fenway Park and wondering if I would make it out alive. I miss the punches and beers thrown in the Stadium and the explicit chants that would increase as everyone’s blood alcohol level did. I miss scouring the Internet for hours to avoid paying $100 for standing room and obstructed view seats at Fenway. I miss how enjoyable the wins were and how devastating the losses were.

I miss what Yankees-Red Sox was and hate what it is.

Podcasts • Yankees

Aug 4, 2015

Podcast: Rob Bradford

The WEEI Red Sox writer joined me to talk about another last-place season for the Red Sox, how they were able to win the 2013 World Series and whether it’s better to cover a winning or losing team in Boston.

When the Yankees’ schedule comes out, the first thing I do is check to see when they are playing Boston to figure out what could be the most meaningful series of the season. I think it’s time I stop doing that. The Yankees and Red Sox haven’t played a truly meaningful late-season series since either 2011 or 2009 (depending on how you look at it) and they haven’t reached the postseason together since 2009 and won’t again this season. It’s time to stop thinking the early-2000s are coming back.

Rob Bradford of WEEI joined me to talk about another last-place season for the Red Sox, how they were able to win the 2013 World Series, if Ben Cherington is keeping his job because of one fluky season, Pablo Sandoval and his disastrous contract becoming Carl Crawford 2.0, Hanley Ramirez no longer being able to field, longing for the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry and whether it’s better to cover a winning or losing team in Boston.

Podcasts • Yankees

Aug 3, 2015

Podcast: Bald Vinny

The face of the Bleacher Creatures joined me to talk about the hype around Luis Severino’s debut, the Yankees’ decision to hold on to their prospects at the trade deadline and believing in Didi Gregorius.

After their 10-game road trip to Minnesota, Texas and Chicago, the Yankees won’t play another game outside the Eastern Time Zone this season. For a team with a 5 1/2-game lead as they return home to Yankee Stadium on Tuesday, the Yankees are in a perfect position for the stretch run and to lock up a spot in the ALDS for the first time in three years.

Bald Vinny of the Right Field Bleacher Creatures and Bald Vinny’s House of Tees joined me to talk about talk about the Yankees’ recent 10-game road trip, the hype around Luis Severino’s debut on Wednesday, the Yankees’ decision to hold on to their prospects at the trade deadline, believing in Didi Gregorius and not believing in CC Sabathia, missing the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry, the Yankees-Mets rivalry gaining steam for September, who the Yankees’ MVP is through four months and Tanyon Sturtze and Charlie Hayes’ visit to the bleachers this coming Friday.