The New York Yankees pursuit of their 28th world championship concluded with a whimper as the Bombers were swept into the off-season by the Detroit Tigers in 4 games. New York finished the season with a pathetic and record setting performance -- no team has had such a low batting average (.188) in the league championship series.
There were many culprits to the depressing way the season ended and surprisingly none of them were pitchers. The Bombers starters and bullpen over-achieved and can hold their heads high.
After a record setting year of home runs the Yankees offense simply disappeared in the off-season, and not just the home runs. At times it seemed like a foul ball was an accomplishment. Names like Granderson, Teixieira, Chavez, Jones, Cano, Swisher, etc. were all miserable, and some might say they choked.
Find out what's happening in Mahwahfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
The biggest choke to some might be the performance of one Alexander Emanuel Rodriquez, who has clearly lost his talent. We recognized early in the summer that Arod was not hitting with authority and in fact could no longer hit a fastball. Apparently talk show hosts in New York were a little late recognizing this.
Arod's failures didn't start in September. As a matter of fact teams were instructing anyone who pitched to pound Arod inside with heat...he couldn't catch up. Since returning from a broken wrist, it's easy to see the decline in Arod has continued. He had resorted to guessing and wasn't right often, if at all. The end result was Arod was pinch hit for and then benched in crucial spots of this post season and as a result, speculation is rampant that he may have played his final game in New York.
Find out what's happening in Mahwahfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
It says here that the only thing that might keep Arod in New York is his burdensome 25 million dollar a year contract -- at that rate, no one wants a diminished player. The Yankees can only hope for a rebound for Arod like the one experienced by Big Papi David Ortiz of the hated deadsox. I say that won't happen because the roots of Arod's problems are his reflexes they are gone. So for us Yankee fans, we can sit back and enjoy more of the Arod Circus. At least now it features bikini models.
