Breaking Down the New York Yankees Postseason Letdown

Breaking Down the New York Yankees Postseason Letdown

People are very pissed all around the tri-state area. The Yankees are taken down in a game four where they were pretty heavily favored. We’ll spend a lot of time on the Blue Jays later in the show. Let’s first focus on the Yankees side of the equation. AJ Cam Schlitler essentially did his job, but so did the bullpen game. Scripted and executed beautifully by Toronto in this win. Yeah. You know why? Because nobody had a bad night. That was why. Nobody had a bad night. Everybody was locked in. Everybody from the beginning of the game in Varand to the end at Hoffman, everybody was locked in and everyone pitched great. And man, it was uh it it was perfectly executed. And I don’t know what you want. I don’t know what Yankee fans want want someone to say that the the Blue Jays finished ahead of them in the in the season because they won the season series and now they beat him three out of four. They dominate them in Toronto. They probably, you know, other than the Judge game um yesterday or two days ago, they probably should have swept him. And listen, it for all the people that say Judge can’t hit in the in the postseason, well, he he hit this postseason and the Yankees still didn’t win. So, I don’t know what y’all want. But there’s some other people, it ain’t Judge’s fault and it ain’t Aaron Boon’s fault. Aaron Boon did everything he can. Judge did everything that he could. You know, some guys didn’t pitch their best, some guys didn’t play their best. So, I don’t know. I I just thought it was the Blue Jays were just better. That’s all I can say. In this series, the Blue Jays were better. And for this year, the Blue Jays were a better team. The Blue Jays baseball better. They were able to get guys over when they needed to. They were facing a dude that just came off of one of the one of the best, most dominant playoff performances pitching that you’ve seen and really just kind of worked him enough. There’s plenty of times where a pitcher is throwing and you’re like, man, he is dominating us. Let’s just let’s get him out of the game because they didn’t strike out. They worked his pitch count enough that you know what, it was time eventually to get him out. I hats off to Cam Schlitler. Go from 12 strikeouts to one and still have a awesome start. He did an amazing job. Hats off to Aaron Judge. He did an amazing job this entire series continuing in the last game. He almost he was two feet from another dinger. To me, the Blue Jays just were a more complete baseball team, a more complete 26 players and you could dive into every single one of them on the Blue Jays and what they did. They just played baseball better than them. And you know what? Kudos to the Blue Jays because they a lot of people were like, “Ah, you can’t do it this way. You can’t you can’t win this way. There’s no way it doesn’t succeed.” They could still hit some dingers. They can still drive some runs in. And they out pitched the Blue Jays and they out hit I mean, they out pitched the Yankees and they out hit the Yankees. That’s not the name of the game. Hold on. Isn’t that the name of the game? You’re playing baseball. So, if they out baseball them, that means they were a better team. Yeah, they out. Isn’t that what the Brewers do to most teams? They out baseball them because they go first to third and they bunt and they take the extra base and do all those things. Isn’t that baseball? Yes, homers are nice and homers are great, but you still have to play baseball. And the Brewers or not the Brewers, the Blue Jays, listen, the Blue Jays, the game they lost, they you can say what you want. I know the Judge Homer is what everyone remembers. And by the way, people that say that’s Judge’s moment, okay, it was a cool moment, but they didn’t win. So, it doesn’t really matter. It goes away. Yankee fans only care if you get those in the World Series. They remember Derek Jeter because he’s hitting homers in the World Series. So, but the the Blue Jays lost that game because Barger dropped a popup that led to all the trouble starting, right? If he catches that popup, the Blue J the Blue Jays probably sweep the Yankees and they go quietly into the night. No one’s talking about anything, right? So, it came down to the Blue Jays were just a better baseball team because we play baseball. Yep. That’s it. And I think that’s lost in the numbers. Look, you can you can go to all the metrics and everything. The metricers metrics are going to say the Blue Jays are a good team. The metrics are going to say, well, in a vacuum, the Yankees are a better team. Well, in a vacuum, that’s what the Yankees are using right now because they’re sweeping up their locker room and they’re going home. Like, you have to play the game on the field. You have to say, “How’s Vladimir Guerrero going to beat me if he’s hitting 600 in the series?” Uh, he’s going to beat me by walking him and then he’s going to have to get around the bases on his own. We’re going to make someone else beat us. That’s baseball. How are we going to be able to recover from not having our starting shortstop? Oh, because we traded for an Andre Simenez, who you knew wasn’t going to hit, but he can step in and play shorts stop if we need him. We also have someone else that can step in and play shortstop. Like those are things that your team has to be able to be fluid and be able to make plays, put a bunt down if needed and field the ground balls. Like there’s a lot of things there’s a lot of things that go into being a baseball team. And that’s why I said they they got baseballled. They played baseball better. And it’s a funny corky way of saying it, but it’s the truth. Also, last year this team made the World Series. They had Juan Sodto. They lost Juan Sodto. They had to do other things. They fixed some parts of the team, but other parts of the team are still not good enough. Right. Kratz, for me, Wanoto would have helped a lot. They needed a lot more offense in a series like this. First of all, in the first two games, Gossman and Trey Savage with their splitters alone, and I know those are two of the best on the planet, but every young pitcher out there now is like, “Oh, I know how to beat the Yankees. I got to learn how to throw a splitter. If I don’t have a splitter, I got to learn how to throw a splitter. But for the Yanks, I mean, there were plenty of opportunities here, even in this game, right? Hoffman loaded up the bases and Wells didn’t come through. Anthony Vulpi had one of the worst series I’ve ever seen in my life in a division series in a four game spot. He was one for 15 with 11 strikeouts. And he had a nightmare year. It’s true, right? His defense took a major step back. Tons of swing and miss. He can give you that flash, but for the most part, it was a nightmare season. And this was a series where he was a super super negative. And not that they’re just relying on him, but overall when you look at this team, I’m like, were they a better team than last year? I don’t think so. This is like this is going to come across as being super critical of the Yankees. And I’m going to try to not make it about one player. It’s not about Vulpi. It’s not about, you know, Max Freed not having his best outing. It’s about the team and the fact that they want to win a World Series. They’re built to win a World Series. Fans expect that. That’s So, we’re criticizing them not on the same level as you criticize a team that’s never in the playoffs that never puts money forward. To me, it’s criticism of this is an incredibly well-built offense in the sense of we’re going to score runs. We’re going to do this. I get it. There’s chance that we can get pitched too. But you know what? Overall, in the 162 games, we’re going to be this good. But when you get to the playoffs, you have to be able to make an adjustment. I saw one of the guys on the team, cuz I said, “I’m not going to in make it individual.” Kept taking the same exact swing on every single pitch and they hit his bat one time and the ball went out of the ballpark. other times never made an adjustment and his at bats were kind of meh. Can you make an adjustment? I love the fact that they picked up Paul Goldmid. Paul Goldmid tries to make the adjustments at this point in his career. He’s not an MVP anymore. Cody Bellinger tried to make the adjustments. So, I felt like the team was built to win. Were they built to be the best team in Major League Baseball? Clearly not well enough because they didn’t they didn’t accomplish it. And clearly you’re talking about Jazz would be my guess because he did hit a homer. But besides that, I mean, I didn’t play, but I saw swings like that. So that sounds like Jazz. That sounds like what I’m talking about with Vulpi. John Carlo was superhuman. Last year he wasn’t. This year they pitched well. But I I love his point, AJ. Do you agree? The Yankees could beat the crap out of some teams this year. They destroyed teams they were supposed to destroy. those pitchers are not as good as the ones that you’re going to see in the postseason. Do you think that base, the famous computer system for the Yankees, is not factoring in how postseason baseball is different when they’re constructing the roster and even the lineup, which according to Derek Jeter is how things are done. Jeter on the postgame show said, quote, “I’m pretty sure Aaron’s not the one that’s calling every move that they make throughout the game.” Listen, it’s a human game, okay? And you have to understand in the postseason and in the regular season, you can catch guys and you can get fourth starters, you can get fifth starters, you can get middle relievers in the third game of a series because you’ve beaten up the other guys. But in the postseason, those guys go away and you get everybody’s best shot and you get everybody’s best matchup. And if you don’t have guys that can do multiple things, kind of like Kratz is saying, make adjustments, put the ball in play, get the guy over, do little things, and you better be able to play defense in the postseason because if you can’t play defense and you’re giving good teams extra outs, it usually doesn’t work out for you. So, yeah. Do I think it’s roster construction? 100%. I think what Alex Rodriguez said was smart. They have what, three left-handed hitting catchers, five DHS, and first basemans that they have to platoon all the time. He’s like, it’s not good roster construction. And I can’t argue that because it comes down to you got if you’re Aaron Boon, you got to ride with the guys you got. You can’t make a magical trade in the postseason and say, “Hey, we want this guy. We want that guy.” You got what you got. So, I just think it it was a flawed team this year. I don’t think they were I think they were a good team. They weren’t a great team. And I just think as Krat said earlier, the Blue Jays were a better team and they outplayed baseball against them. And that’s what the Blue Jays have done to a lot of teams. They string hits together and then boom, someone pops one. They play unbelievable defense. They don’t give up extra extra outs. Their starters especially are strike throwers and they don’t give up a ton of home runs. So, I think yeah, they just got beat by a better team. It’s okay. It happens. I’ve been on teams that I thought were good, but you know what? We ran into a team that was better and you lose. Stuff happens. And you sit there and you go, “What are the holy grails of baseball for the metrics, for base?” You were talking about base. It’s who hits the ball the hardest, who throws it the hardest, and strikes the most people out. You build your team on that, you better never, ever, ever veer from that and have a bad day of that. Because if you do, it’s going to look listless. It’s going to look lifeless. It’s going to not look like the first series of the year where they played the Brewers, a team that’s still in contention for the World Series and they put up 10, 12, 11, 13 runs. Like, they can bludgeon teams to death with their lineup, but can they make the adjustment? I disagree with Scott. I think this offense is elite and was built to be elite. I think they need to figure out how to make adjustments. How many years did we talk about the Dodgers not making adjustments, not making adjustments, not, you know, always being platoon heavy? Maxy came on last year and was like, “Oh yeah, we had the line or yesterday and he said we we used to have the line change of Jock Peterson, Cody Bellinger, and him from the left side.” And he’s like, “Now we’ve kind of shifted that. Can the Yankees shift that?” because they are already up at the top elite class in the American League in my opinion. They need something to get them over the top. No longer do they have the advantage that they used to have building teams, being the best team. They need something that gets them over the top. And I don’t think they’re that far from that. Yeah. When when they’re elite, they need Vulpi going. They need Jazz going. They need Ryan McMahon to do something. They need Bellinger good. They need Stanton good. There’s a lot of guys they need good. It’s not a it’s a hit or miss. That’s the thing. When they’re hitting and they’re going, look out, right? But when they’re not hitting and they’re just, you know, judging everyone else is trying to play catch-up, you know, they’re not good. I’m sorry. They’re not. They’re so home run reliant that that’s why their record wasn’t good in the extra innings because they couldn’t get the guy over to score that run when they needed to. It was too many strikeouts. So, yeah, could they be great? Absolutely. But could they also go through stretches where they were terrible? We saw that, too. They have a type and that type is not working for them lately in terms of going the distance. Again, they made it to the World Series last year, but I look at that as a better team last year yet an outlier because but here’s the thing for Yankee fans. They look at the American League and say, gosh, how can we not beat the Mariners still man? The Tigers, the Blue Jays who haven’t been there. We’re the Yankees. We should beat this should have been we already beat the Red Sox, right? And they celebrated like they won the World Series when they beat the Red Sox. Fine. That’s good for them. But they look at the American League and say, “We’re the Yankees. We should dominate all these other teams. And now we’re bounced and we’re going to have to watch the Blue Jays playing the Mariners or the Tigers.” What is going on in Yankee land? That That’s the fans perspective. True or not, that’s the fans the way they look at

AJ Pierzynski, Erik Kratz, and Scott Braun react to the New York Yankees season coming to an end after losing to the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 4. They break down how Toronto’s bullpen plan was executed to perfection, why the Blue Jays simply played better baseball, and what went wrong for New York despite strong efforts from Aaron Judge and Cam Schlittler. The crew debates roster construction, the Yankees over-reliance on home runs, and why teams like Toronto are built to win postseason series by doing all the little things right.

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