Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="pfister1, post: 36531, member: 285"] The result is really not too surprising, if you look at things objectively. We went into the season with a rotation of CC, Hughes, Burnett, Colon and Garcia/Nova. If you look at the rotation objectively we had a #1, a #3/4 (Hughes) and a #5 (Burnett) and three spot starters. Hughes goes down almost immediately and never pitches as well as #3/4 starter. Burnet...well, he's AJ Burnett. He repeatedly sh1ts himself and doesn't even pitch to the level of a #5. Colon, Garcia and Nova all outpitched the spot starter role this season, but none pitched to the level that the deficit left by others required them to attain. Nova, given his experience and his ability, was probably pitching at the level of a decent #3 - good #4 starter, unfortunately he became a #2 in the post season. Colon pitched as reasonable #4 starter, but ran out of gas in September. Garcia pitched to the level of a reasonable #4/#5, but again not really a post season rotation kind of performance. The offense was typically excellent during the regular season, but was clearly susceptible to being shut down by good pitching. Too much reliance on the home run and the big inning. I think they were a bit better at being able to "manufacture" runs than in the past, but not good enough. Not the first time that we've seen that in the post season. We still had ARod hitting fourth in the lineup? Why? Because Tex was a pretty big bust this season. ARod hit fourth despite having all of 3 homeruns since June missing significant amounts of time with injury and playing with a limiting thumb injury. Don't get me wrong I don't want to defend ARod because I think the guy is a piece of crap, but he was clearly limited...yet he was our four man. The next time that Tex brings his offense to a post season game will be the first time...for a guy making the money he is, he certainly has not delivered regular season or post season, but especially post season. Buying guys in free agency limits your flexibility that is for sure. The Yankees have a number of guys that they are tied to that they would not keep for the price they are paying them if they had any flexibility. ARod, Tex, Burnett, Soriano all are paid well in excess of their current value. I don't even include Jeter here because he presents a special case. While I think he still has value to the Yankees and I think the Yankees need to retain him I question whether he is a leadoff hitting shortstop for a World Series winning caliber team. What are the roster changes you make next season? The nucleus of this team is getting really ugly. [/QUOTE]

Verification: What is a Syracuse fan's favorite color?