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Tag: CC Sabathia

Blogs • Yankees

Jun 22, 2012

Subway Series Storylines, Part II

It’s the second part of the Subway Series 2012 and that means more interesting storylines for both the Yankees and Mets this weekend at Citi Field.

Another meaningful Subway Series! Is this really the second meaningful one in two weeks after not having one for a few years? Are we sure about this? Quick, someone check the standings and make sure the Mets are relevant.

Three more games to go in the 2012 Subway Series and three good pitching matchups to go with it. We’ll see a repeat from the Sunday game in the Bronx with the Lefty Battle of Young vs. Old between Andy Pettitte and Jonathon Niese on Friday night, Ivan Nova and Chris Young on Saturday night (sorry no unique connections in that one) and the marquee matchup between CC Sabathia and R.A. Dickey on Sunday Night Baseball.

With only two weeks and nine games separating the two teams since they last met the storylines haven’t really changed. But even though it’s only been 12 days since the Yankees came back against the Mets’ bullpen and finished the sweep with a Russell Martin home run off Jon Rauch, it would feel weird if we didn’t look at interesting storylines for the second half of the Subway Series.

Initials This Weekend
For Part I of the storylines, we had the “No Initials This Weekend” storyline, but this weekend we get the initials with CC vs. R.A. Every once in a while when the time is right and the stars align and Jason Bay lands on the disabled list again, everything falls into place and you get a perfect Sunday Night Baseball matchup, and we have that this weekend.

It feels like CC Sabathia hasn’t been himself this year and he’s 9-3 with a 3.55 ERA. But there’s a reason he hasn’t felt like CC and that’s because before his complete game against the Braves on Wednesday, he gave up four earned runs against the Braves on June 12, lost to the Rays on June 7 (he allowed five runs, but just two earned) and gave up three earned runs to the Tigers on June 1. You know you have an ace when he allows nine earned runs in 21 innings (3.86 ERA) over three starts and you feel like he’s sucked. Sabathia has pitched at least six innings and thrown at least 104 pitches in all 14 of his starts. So I guess I’m a little off on thinking he CC hasn’t been CC, but I’m telling you that he hasn’t looked like himself and I think other Yankees fans would tell you the same thing.

R.A. Dickey is currently the best pitcher on the planet. He’s 11-1 (matching his career high for wins in a season in 14 starts) with a 2.00 ERA. He leads the league in wins, win percentage (.917), ERA, complete games (3), shutouts (2) and WHIP (0.889). He’s allowed just 67 hits in 99 innings with 103 strikeouts. He’s averaging 9.4 strikeouts per nine innings, which is his highest since 2003 when he pitched in 38 games (13 starts) for the Rangers and averaged 7.3 (his career average is 6.0). At 37, Dickey has gone from reinventing himself in 2010 and 2011 with the Mets to Cy Young frontrunner in 2012. Two weekends ago I said, “Part of me wanted to see what Dickey could do against the Yankees in what is turning out to be his best season.” I must have been drunk when I wrote that because I don’t want any part of Dickey right now.

(Once again, I forgot to start both Sabathia and Dickey in fantasy on Monday night costing me this line: 2-0, 18 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 23 K, 1.00 ERA, 0.611 WHIP. There’s nothing worse than someone talking about or complaining about their fantasy team, but I had to be that guy for a moment for this unique situation.)

Terry Francona is going to spend a lot of time on Sunday night comparing the knuckleballs of R.A. Dickey and Tim Wakefield, and I mean a lot of time, but it’s acceptable. I would rather have a color guy talking about something relevant to the game than to have Tim McCarver talk about the abilities of Bryce Harper and Mike Trout for an entire inning of a Yankees-Mets game.

You Scratch My Back and I’ll Scratch Yours
Since these two teams played each other two weekends ago the Yankees have gone 7-2 and the Mets have gone 6-3. While the Yankees were helping out the Mets by beating up on the Braves and Nationals, the Mets were returning the favor by sweeping the Rays and Orioles.

I love interleague play because it breaks up the schedule and gives fans the opportunity to see different teams and new players. However, I understand the mindset of those who would rather see more division games because there’s nothing like seeing Chris Davis, Edwin Encarnacion, Sean Rodriguez and Brian Matusz a few more times.

This weekend marks the final weekend of interleague play for 2012, and as a Yankees fan, I’m going to be sad to see it go since the Yankees have gone 11-4 against the Reds, Mets, Braves and Nationals. With the All-Star Game becoming less and less serious even though the stakes are high, interleague play is a necessity to compare the AL to the NL and gauge the differences in the leagues. But I’m not going to lie, I enjoy interleague play because it’s usually the point of the season where the Yankees use the schedule to create separation in the division and they’re doing it again.

Citi Field Complaints
If you don’t know a Mets fan that complained about Yankee Stadium being a bandbox after the three games in the Bronx then you either don’t have a lot of friends or you don’t get out much. Mets fans will find anything to complain about, especially when it comes to the Yankees, and they were out in full force two weekends ago to share their opinions on the “cheap home runs” at the Stadium.

I don’t know what games I watched two weeks ago because it looked to me like the dimensions of the walls were the same for both teams’ at-bats. I guess there is a chance that they could have moved the fences in for the Yankees when they were up and then moved them back when the Mets, and I just wasn’t paying attention, but I feel like I would have noticed something like that.

This weekend if the Yankees hit some balls that would have been out of the Stadium that are kept in, are Yankees fans going to complain the way that Mets fans did about the reverse happening? OK, I’ll answer that one: No.

Subway Series Finale
There’s a very good chance this is the last time we see two Subway Series in the same season with three games on each side of the city. With the Astros moving to the American League and scheduling changes in the works, it looks like we are headed for a Subway Series modification.

No one likes change. Well, let me rephrase that. No one likes poor change. But Major League Baseball is all about making poor changes like the All-Star Game deciding home-field advantage and two wild cards in each league and still letting pitchers hit in the National League. So I fully expect them to take away the six games between the Yankees and Mets that we have grown accustomed to, and that some people have grown sick of. Those same people will eventually long for the days of six Subway Series games.

If this is goodbye to the Subway Series format we have known for so long, I’m going to miss it.

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Blogs • Yankees

Jun 8, 2012

Subway Series Storylines, Part I

It’s the first part of the Subway Series 2012 and that means interesting storylines for both the Yankees and Mets this weekend at the Stadium.

A meaningful Subway Series! It’s been a few years since we have had one of these. It’s June 8 and the Yankees are sitting at 31-25 and the Mets at 32-26. I just checked my calendar, and no, it’s not 2006.

This weekend we’ll get to see No-han Santana against Coin Flip Kuroda (who will get to return to his NL roots and hopefully dominate like he did there), the Battle of Potential between Dillon Gee and Phil Hughes on Saturday night (Joe Buck and Tim McCarver can’t be happy with that pitching matchup) and the Young Lefty vs. Old Lefty matchup of Jonathon Niese and Andy Pettitte on Sunday afternoon.

I love the Subway Series and because of it here are the storylines that interest me this weekend at the Stadium.

No Initials This Weekend
We won’t get to see CC or R.A. this weekend, but with the way the two are going, it’s probably better for the Yankees that they are missing the Mets’ initials rather than the Mets missing the Yankees’ initials.

As a Yankees fan and non-Mets fan, it’s hard to find Mets to like, but I love R.A. Dickey. The guy is a strike-throwing machine (to steal a line from John Sterling) and the kind of guy that you want on your team, and he has become one of my annual fantasy baseball favorite draft picks.

It seems like everyone is always waiting for the 37-year-old knuckleballer to return to being his former self before his reinvention, but I think he has proven this isn’t the kind of smoke-and-mirrors act that Freddy Garcia used for the Yankees last year. Dickey is the real deal and he’s proving it every time out with his scoreless innings streak now at 24 2/3 innings. Dickey made $2.25 million last year and will make $4.25 million this year with the Mets holding a $5 million club option on him for 2013. He is the best bargain in Major League Baseball, and he’s only making $250,000 more than Garcia this year. I will now give you a minute to think about that.

(…thinking…)

After another eight scoreless innings against the Nationals on Thursday, Dickey is now 9-1 with a 2.44 ERA. In two-plus seasons and 72 games (70 starts) with the Mets, he’s 28-23 with a 2.97. 28 wins with a 2.97 ERA! Could you imagine what his record would be if he had pitched the last two seasons for a winning team? Last season alone Dickey made eight starts in which he pitched seven innings or more and allowed two earned runs or less and earned a no-decision or a loss.

I’m happy the Yankees missed Dickey by a day (they weren’t lucky enough to also miss Santana) since it seems like the Yankees always get the other team’s best pitchers to fall every series whether it’s Felix Hernandez or Justin Verlander or Jered Weaver. But part of me wanted to see what Dickey could do against the Yankees in what is turning out be his best season.

No-han Santana’s Left Shoulder
I was out to eat last Friday night (Katy Perry), but the restaurant had the Yankees on the big screen, so I was able to watch the Yankees-Tigers game. I found out via Twitter that Johan was throwing a no-hitter in the eighth inning and started paying attention to the Mets game just as Santana got the last out of the eighth.

My Twitter feed was debating whether or not Terry Collins would let Santana return for the ninth inning and go for Mets history or whether he would turn to the bullpen as a precaution for his ace’s surgically repaired left shoulder. Here were my initial thoughts.

1. Forget Jason Bay or Oliver Perez. If Collins pulls Santana he will become the most hated man for Mets fans. Santana and the Mets might not ever be in this spot again. It took them 50-plus seasons to achieve a no-hitter. Who’s to say it won’t take another 50?

2. I understand Collins is managing for his job and a contract past this season. I know he believes that the Mets can reach the playoffs, and maybe they can, but if you believe getting three more outs from your ace in an historical setting could lead to injury and ruin your playoff chances then you probably aren’t going to the playoffs. How could you starve a fan base searching for some sort of moment or success to be proud about given everything that has happened with the franchise over an extra 12-15 pitches?

Collins made the right choice, however, in his postgame press conference he admitted that he thought he made the wrong decision. (Is this real life?)

Santana will pitch on Friday night at the Stadium for the first time in a week since the no-hitter and the 134 pitches. Johan hasn’t pitched well in two starts in the new Stadium (0-2, 9 IP, 17 H, 13 R, 13 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, 2 HR, 13.00 ERA), but if he struggles on Friday, Terry Collins will have to answer for the previous Friday even if he’s healthy.

Subway Series Protestors
I should have spent this time writing about why the Subway Series sucks now and why the players don’t care about facing each other and why it’s not the same as it used to be since that seems to be the cool thing to do these days. But I love the Subway Series, and I think its current format is perfect. So why ruin a good thing?

I don’t get why people don’t like the Subway Series or why they would rather see more division games over interleague play. Do I really need to see the Blue Jays and Orioles more? Have I not had enough of Brian Matusz and Kyle Drabek? Can’t I see Johan Santana and Stephen Strasburg and Johnny Cueto? I would understand if you’re Chien-Ming Wang and you hate interleague play, but for so many people to despise it just doesn’t make sense.

The only problem I have with interleague play is that it’s 2012 and the NL is still having pitchers hit. It’s not the “pure form baseball.” It’s nonsensical to have guys who haven’t used a bat since high school facing Major League pitching. But hey, what are a few extra outs to give up anyway?

The King of the City
Yankees fans have nothing to gain (other than wins for their team which is the most important possible thing and being able to laugh at the Mets fans, which I guess is a lot) and everything to lose in the Subway Series. If the Yankees win or sweep the weekend series then they are supposed to because they’re the Yankees. But if the Mets win or sweep the weekend series then I might have to go off the grid until the second part of the Subway Series at Citi Field. Winning and losing each part of the Subway Series has two extreme possibilities for Yankees fans, and I like it that way. I like that the Yankees are the King of the City and will always be.

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Blogs • Yankees

Apr 9, 2012

Joe Girardi to Blame for Yankees’ Bad Start

It took just five Tampa Bay hitters and a bad weekend of baseball for the Season 3 premiere of my version of The Joe Girardi Show.

“It’s a long season.” “It’s just three games.” “It’s just 1.8518 percent of the season.” “It’s not that big of a deal.” These are the things I have been telling myself since Sunday afternoon as I try to make sense out of the Tragedy at the Trop.

I don’t know what that was this weekend in Tampa Bay. The Yankees’ vaunted offense failed to do anything with runners in scoring position. The Best Bullpen in Baseball blew a save (though I will never get upset with No. 42 about blowing a save), as the weakest members of the Best Bullpen in Baseball showed why they are the weakest members. And the stacked, new-look starting rotation put together this Chien-Ming Wang 2007 ALDS-like line: 16.1 IP, 21 H, 13 R, 11 ER, 9 BB, 14 K, 4 HR, 6.15 ERA, 1.840 WHIP.

I’m going to overreact to the three losses to open the season because that’s what I do. And when you’re baseball starved for six months and your most recent memory of Yankees baseball is Mark Teixeira and Nick Swisher failing to get clutch hits in October, and it becomes your most recent Yankees baseball memory again in April, well I think you have a right to get upset.

I understand all the things I opened this column with about it just being three games, but I need to get my frustration out. I know the 1998 Yankees started their season 0-3 (and 1-4), but I’m pretty sure this team isn’t the ’98 Yankees. And I’m well aware of the Yankees-Kentucky basketball relationship and what it means to have the Wildcats as national champions. Right now none of that matters. The only thing that matters right now is that Ivan Nova and Freddy Garcia can’t put out this forest fire their manager started with the fifth hitter in the first inning of the 2012 season.

Starting in 2010, I did my own version of the The Joe Girardi Show whenever I felt there were questions for Joe Girardi that needed answers because I couldn’t fathom how someone could make such odd decisions, and the show continued for a second season in 2011. In the back of my mind I was secretly hoping my version of the show would be canceled for 2012, but I knew it wouldn’t be. Last season it took just five games (a disastrous loss in April against the Twins at the Stadium) for the first episode of the Show. This season it took just five Tampa Bay hitters for the Season 3 premiere.

Why did you intentionally walk Sean Rodriguez?
Mariano Rivera didn’t blow Opening Day. Joe Girardi did. Even though it was Rivera who blew the save in the bottom of the ninth in one of his annual April brain farts, it was Girardi who, in the first inning of the game, made a decision that might be the ultimate Joe Girardi Over-Managing Decision of 2012, and it happened about 15 minutes into the season.

CC Sabathia is the Yankees’ ace. He is in the top tier of starting pitchers in the majors, and Hal Steinbrenner is paying him $23 million in 2012 and essentially $646,470.88 per start (based on 34 starts) to be that ace. But apparently Sabathia, one of the game’s top lefties, can’t face Sean Rodriguez (career .229 hitter with 22 home runs in 908 at-bats) with runners on second and third and two outs in the first inning of the first game of the season. I’m well aware of Carlos Pena’s atrocious numbers against Sabathia (and lefties in general) and Rodriguez’s decent numbers against Sabathia and lefties, but there’s more to the situation on the field than what Joe Girardi’s trusty notebook tells him.

Sabathia hasn’t pitched like Midseason CC in any of his four season openers, including Friday. He usually struggles early in the season before going on an incredible run, and it was evident that his April struggles were with him early on Friday. Prior to Rodriguez, Sabathia had walked Desmond Jennings to open the inning, got Ben Zobrist to line out to center, gave up a single to Evan Longoria and got Jeff Keppinger to ground out to short. However, out of the 13 pitches he threw to these four hitters, seven of them were balls as his command appeared off. So, now instead of going after a weak No. 5 hitter, Girardi decides to put Rodriguez on base intentionally, giving Sabathia no wiggle room with a lack of command and a power-hitting lefty with a career average of 34 home runs per season at the plate. Once he got behind Pena 2-0 and then 3-1 and wasn’t locating pitches or getting a guy who will get himself out to swing, you just knew things weren’t going to end well with either the first run of the game being walked in or the worst possible thing, which ended up happening: the slam.

A lot of the outrage over the move was that Girardi shouldn’t be over-managing in the first inning of the first game of the season. I don’t like that argument because that means you’re saying it’s OK to over-mange later in the season, but just not right now. I hate that argument because Game 1 of the season is as important as Game 57 and Game 89 and Game 123 and Game 162. A game against the Rays on Opening Day is equally as important as a game against the Red Sox the middle of the summer. I never understood the idea that “It’s only April” or that “It’s early.” Sure a three-game losing streak in June sucks, but isn’t as publicized as one to open the season, but every game counts the same. Do you get additional wins or a better win percentage for winning games after the All-Star break than you do for winning games before it? And with the new wild-card system every game is that much more important unless you feel comfortable trusting Mark Teixeira and Nick Swisher in a big spot in a single game because I don’t, and I don’t even trust them in a series.

Girardi should have never been at the mound talking to his ace in the first inning on Friday, and it’s not because of the inning of the game or because of which game it is in the season. It’s because it’s CC Sabathia, and CC Sabathia can get Sean Rodriguez out. And if he didn’t, it would have most likely been 2-0 instead of 4-0.

Why is Eduardo Nunez starting at shortstop in the second game of the season?
Yes, Derek Jeter is 37 and will be 38 in June. Yes, he will probably need more rest than usual and more time as the designated hitter this season than season’s past. But Jeter also just had the last SIX MONTHS off. THE LAST SIX MONTHS!

Nunez might be the worst infielder I have ever seen with the Yankees and they let Jason Giambi play first base in the 2000s as well as Johnny Damon. And Gary Sheffield even took over at third base and first base at times (after years in the outfield). It’s not like it’s July and he hasn’t played shortstop regularly for a few weeks and he can use the “not an everyday player” excuses for his blunder. Nunez is fresh off spring training and won’t be any more prepared to play the infield for the rest of the season than he is right now.

Sure, it’s only one error that cost the Yankees only one game, but how can the backup middle infielder on the team not be trustworthy on defense? If you can make an excuse for Nunez’s error that extended the inning, led to two Tampa Bay runs, forced Hiroki Kuroda to throw more pitches and caused fatigue for Kuroda then you would have to admit that fielding and throwing is clearly in Nunez’s head. No Yankees fan feels even remotely confident when the ball is hit to him (whether a routine play or not), and when it is, I get the same feeling I get when someone hands me a Jameson shot at the end of the night. There’s no telling what the result might be.

To top it off, Kuroda, a GROUNDBALL PITCHER, started the game, which was played on turf. So why would you elect to not have your best defensive infield on the field for a groundball pitcher?

If I ever find out the truth behind the Yankees/Mariners deal for Cliff Lee and find out that Nunez is indeed the player that held up the deal (this has been a rumor), I think I will go off the grid, move to the woods of Wyoming and live in solitude for the rest of my life.

Why did you leave Clay Rapada in to face Evan Longoria?
Let’s start with the simple fact that Clay Rapada shouldn’t be a Yankee. I don’t care if he’s the 25th man on the roster who made the team in the final hours of spring training. The team has the highest payroll in the league, and a minor league system. There’s no reason for Rapada to be on the team other than that he’s a lefty. The only good Rapada has done in three games as a Yankee and remind me that if I have a son, I will be tying his right arm behind his back until he is at least 16 to ensure that he throws lefty because if Rapada has taught us anything (other than that he doesn’t belong in MLB) is that if you can throw lefty there will always be a job for you in baseball.

Here’s Clay Rapada’s 2012 debut:

Picked off Reid Brignac to end the sixth.
Walked Carlos Pena (L).
Gave up double to Evan Longoria (R).
Gave up single to Matt Joyce (L).
Walked Ben Zobrist (L).
Got Luke Scott (L) to fly out.

Rapada faced four lefties and retired one and ends up getting touched up for two runs in 2/3 innings. What happens in the ninth? The Yankees score four runs thanks to a Nick Swisher “David Price is out of the game so it’s time to get to business” three-run home run. The Yankees lose 8-6. The difference? Rapada’s two earned runs. (I didn’t mean to pull Michael Kay’s “fallacy of the predetermined outcome” on you, but I did.)

Why did you let Boone Logan face Jeff Keppinger?
Cory Wade was warmed up, and the YES broadcast team told us this. So, if your right-handed non-“A” reliever is prepared to go in and face a righty then why is Logan still in the game? Did Girardi try to get through the inning with only Logan and it backfired? Yup. Does it seem like most of the time when Girardi pushes the wrong button, he doesn’t get bailed out? Yup.

If you’re going to micro-manage and over-manage every situation of every game during the season (which you are clearly going to do since you did it in the bottom of the first of Game 1 with your ACE) then why are changing your thought process now? If you’re going to stay with 16 in blackjack with the dealer showing a face card (even though it’s the wrong play) then you need to stay every time you are presented with that situation. Don’t stay one time because you have a feeling or a hunch that the dealer is going to bust, and don’t not do it another time because you have a feeling or hunch that you are going to hit for a 5 or lower. If Girardi is going to micro-manage the way CC Sabathia faces hitters then he better be prepared to do it with the two left-handed (and worst) relievers on the team.

In one of his answers to a postgame press conference question over the weekend, Joe Girardi answered with the phrase, “That’s baseball.” And yes, thing are always going to happen that you can’t control and can’t explain, but it doesn’t help when there isn’t a good explanation for the things you can control.

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Blogs • Yankees

Mar 31, 2010

Opening Day Butterflies

The Yankees will no longer be world champions on Sunday night They will be defending world champions. And the only thing harder than winning a championship is winning back-to-back championships.

This column was originally published on WFAN.com on March 31, 2010.

Something about this spring training coming to an end just doesn’t feel right. This spring has that feeling you get when you leave your house and feel like you forgot something, but you convince yourself you didn’t, and then when you are too far away from your house to go back, you remember what you forgot. I have figured out what has been missing from this spring training, and it’s the distress of the last eight springs.

From 2001-2008, no matter what situation the Yankees faced, I believed they would prevail in the end. But that was me being spoiled and stupid as a Yankees fan, trying to hold onto the magic from 1996-2000. Up until Luis Gonzalez fought off a cutter into shallow right field, I honestly thought the Yankees would never lose again. Winning had become routine and losing wasn’t even considered an option anymore. It’s hard for anyone who is not a Yankees fan to understand this, and trying to explain the concept to non-Yankees fans is like Ron Washington trying to explain to the Rangers front office why he failed a drug test. However, it wasn’t until they hit rock bottom in 2004 that I was able to admit that I was unsure of the next time the Yankees would be world champions.

In 2004, I didn’t even care that the Red Sox won Game 4 because I knew the series would end in Game 5. But when I left Fenway devastated after having wasted nearly all my spending money for the semester on a ticket to Game 5 with my friend Jim, thinking we were going to see the Yankees clinch the pennant in Boston, I still believed the Yankees would finish the Red Sox off in Game 6. And if not, they would certainly get the job done in Game 7.

The Yankees failed in every imaginable way from 2001-2008, and with each year removed from 2000, the offseasons lasted longer and the anxiety for another title grew larger. The Yankees slowly evolved into what the Patriots have become in the NFL, and it wasn’t until November that they were able to rid themselves of their fading image.

Every spring for the last eight springs, I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out where the holes on the team were and how Brian Cashman could fill them in order to bring the team back to glory. But this season, there are virtually no holes. The No. 4 starter had a 2.87 ERA in the National League in 2009, and the No. 7 hitter hit 30 home runs a year ago. The only thing to complain about right now is why the Yankees are opening and closing the season in Fenway Park. Aside from that, the team has an answer for everything, or at least it appears that way.

There might not be much to worry about with this team, but there is always something to worry about with every team. Any fan who is completely content with their team is lying to you and lying to themselves. To me, there are two crucial components to the success of the 2010 Yankees. While I’m not all that worried about them, there is still a cause for concern since the margin for error in the AL East is zero, and the difference between these two things working out and not working out is the difference between championship No. 28 and a third-place finish.

1. The production from 2, 20 and 42
The same way I don’t want to believe that Eric Taylor of Friday Night Lights isn’t really a high school football coach at East Dillon, I don’t want to believe that Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera will one day be bad at baseball.

Jeter is going to be 36 in June, Jorge will be 39 in August and Mariano turned 40 in November. At some point these three won’t be the same players they are going to be remembered as being. Let’s hope that never happens, but more importantly, let’s hope it doesn’t happen this year.

The Yankees are in a position in which the success of these three will likely dictate the success of the team. Since 1996, the team has made the playoffs in 13 of a possible 14 seasons. The only season they didn’t was the year when Posada appeared in only 51 games. When they are healthy the Yankees win, and it’s as simple as that.

Eventually Father Time is going to catch up with the trio, but their demise has been falsely predicted each season for the last few seasons. This year, many analysts and “experts” are jumping on the bandwagons of the Red Sox and Rays, banking on old age finally catching up with the old guard. But the “experts” have been wrong before and will likely be wrong again.

I don’t think we are at the end of the road with these three, but eventually we will be and no one knows for sure when that will be. Not only does that deeply sadden me, but it also scares me since a decline in production from Jeter, Posada and Rivera will mean the end of an era and a year without postseason baseball.

2. The bridge to Mariano
The first time I saw Joba Chamberlain fail in person was May 6, 2008. Aside from the midges in Cleveland, it was the first time Joba had every failed in the majors. Joba allowed a go-ahead three-run home run to David Dellucci at the Stadium, and then leaned over on the mound in disbelief, appearing as though he was going to throw up on his spikes after what happened. The entire stadium felt the same way. Joba had been untouchable in his career up to that point, and seeing him blow a lead was like seeing Brian Bruney hold a lead.

In 2007, the only run he allowed in the regular season was a solo home run to Mike Lowell. When Ron Guidry went to the mound to check on him following the homer, Joba reversed roles with the pitching coach. Joba patted the Gator on the back and sent him back to the dugout, assuring him that he was fine and that it wouldn’t happen again. That was the personality of Joba Chamberlain before he became a starter and before the Joba Rules were created.

Joba wants to be a starting pitcher, and he has made that very clear. Why wouldn’t he want to? That is where the glory and glamour is, and the big money as well. But will knowing that he lost his starting spot after the team tinkered with his career and arm for a year and a half cause him to be a different reliever than we know him to be? Will he still possess the personality that meant a 1-2-3 inning and an emotional outburst?

When Joba returned to the bullpen during the postseason, the aura from 2007 and the beginning of 2008 was back, and so was his fastball. It was like watching the guy get the girl at the end of a movie. Everything was the way it was supposed to be, and the result was a happy ending in the form of a championship.

The world now knows two Jobas: Reliever Joba and Starter Joba. Joba might be a reliever now, but that doesn’t necessarily make him Reliever Joba. No one knows what to expect from him as he returns to his original role with the team.

This offseason seemed to go by a lot faster than years past, which is partially due to the Yankees playing until Nov. 4 and partially due to not longing for another championship. Eight springs as the hunter and not as the hunted have made me value championships more than I did the last time the Yankees won, when I took the Subway Series win for granted.

Fans of the other 29 teams will credit the 2009 World Series to the Yankees spending $429 million last offseason, but that was just part of the process. The thousands of breaks, the vast amount of luck and the tens of injuries the team dodged made up for more than half of the pieces to the 2009 World Series puzzle.

If CC Sabathia had actually been hurt when he left in the second inning of a game against the Marlins on June 21, the new Yankee Stadium would have opened the same way the old one closed. If Phil Cuzzi doesn’t call Joe Mauer’s ground-rule double foul in Game 2 of the ALDS, and if Mike Scioscia intentionally walks A-Rod in the bottom of the ninth in Game 2 of the ALCS, maybe the Canyon of Heroes goes unused for another fall.

I have tried to cherish the 2009 season as much and as long as possible because after Josh Beckett delivers his first pitch to Derek Jeter on Sunday night, the Yankees will no longer be world champions. They will be defending world champions. And the only thing harder than winning a championship is winning back-to-back championships.

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