2018 Bombers Should Learn From October Failure

Guest Article from Michael Ruda / @DaTuna725 on Twitter

Here we go, Another Yankee fan piece filled with excuses and belly-aching about why the “Chase for 28” fell short.  Not from this guy.

The 2018 New York Yankees were built to win a championship. That’s the expectation of the franchise every year. Building off of the surprise early success of this new core of homegrown talent the 2017 Yankees fell just 1 game shy of reaching the World Series. Joe Girardi was shown the door in favor of a youthful/players manager in Aaron Boone, Mixed with seasoned veteran leadership from the likes of Brett Gardner and CC Sabathia, young rising stars in Aaron Judge, Luis Severino, Dellin Betances, Gary Sanchez ,and the offseason acquisition of the reigning NL MVP Giancarlo Stanton the sky was the limit for this 2018 club.

Greg Bird, another highly touted “Baby Bomber” (Gleyber Torres and Miguel Andujar being the others) disappeared. He was given every opportunity to hold down this first baseman job and hit a disgusting .199, eventually losing his job, and not even making the postseason roster.



So what exactly did the 2018 New York Yankees accomplish. Yes, they set a MLB record with 267 homeruns as a team. They had 12 players with 10 or more homeruns. An amazing feat. They won 100 games, No walk in the park. This season felt like a grind. Losing Aaron Judge for 8 weeks played a factor in the division race, but Brian Cashman put all the pieces in place at and after trade deadline. Acquiring J.A. Happ, Zach Britton, and Andrew McCutchen to fill in the holes this team had and ensure that injury would have minimal effect on what we were expected to accomplish.

Ultimately 2018’s expectations beat the 2018 New York Yankees. Yes, the Red Sox had an amazing regular season season winning 108 games, but were ripe for the pickin’ in the ALDS. A shaky Red Sox bullpen, a gem by Masahiro Tanaka,Tying the series heading home for games 2 and 3 should’ve meant another trip to the ALCS. Luis Severino was not the ace we needed in that spot, and didn’t look right in the second half of the season. Again expectations too high, too soon. We need to remember that this team WILL eventually win the World Series. This core of talent will lead us to many years of success and post season moments as the likes of Jeter, Pettitte, Rivera,Posada, and Bernie did. They need to learn how to handle the pressure. This year was that lesson.
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Quite Frankly: A Season To Forget In The Bronx

Last night was the end of the 2018 Yankees season, at least a week earlier than expected. Losing the ALDS wasn't in the plans this year in the Bronx, much less losing it to the Boston Red Sox. In a season that saw the Yankees win 100 games, I saw one of the most frustrating seasons in recent memory.

Maybe I'm caught up in the recent hype that's surrounded this team the last couple seasons, or I was begging to see a winner after so many years of mediocrity after the 2009 championship. What I saw this season was the best Yankee team since that '09 championship team and then I saw a team that was debatably worst than the crosstown rival New York Mets. A tale of two seasons, complete opposites of one another. A team that went 22-1 at one point to a team who couldn't beat a 110 loss Baltimore Orioles team. A team with Aaron Judge and a team without him. Much of the last 3 months I spent saying the Yankees wouldn't see past the Wild Card game..if they even got lucky to play that game.


Yes, the Yankees were in danger of not even playing that game. But then the Seattle Mariners became the Seattle Mariners and fell out of contention. The Oakland A's closed the gap to 1.5 of getting home field advantage in the Wild Card game and the Judge returned to the lineup. Then the Yanks took off and started playing close to the first half  Yankees. That went all the way to Game 3 of the ALDS. Then the second half Yankees showed up. I saw the "ace" Luis Severino pray he could pitch four innings, FOUR! Guess what, he didn't even know what time the game was starting. That's a problem. I saw a rookie manager in Aaron Boone be so quick to go to the bullpen when his real ace Masahiro Tanaka was dealing on Saturday night, but fails to go to the best part of his team when he needed to (Game 3). To top it off when he did, he brought in Lance Lynn! A starter...with the BASES LOADED and NO ONE OUT! And his proven commodity Chad Green who's speciality is that exact situation, sit in the bullpen! Then 16-1 happened.


Last night was similar to Game 3 in which Boone couldn't make the right move when he needed to. He should be criticized  and second guessed, but as a rookie manager, he gets a pass because he had a mostly successful season. But last night's failure falls on the hands of Giancarlo Stanton. How does a 4-3 loss fall soley on him? After Judge and Didi Gregorious got on base and re-ignited what was left of the sellout Yankee Stadium crowd, Stanton KILLED any momentum that was built in the previous two at bats.


Much like he did with the game on the line in Game 1 (bases loaded and no one out, he struck out. A base hit would have changed the game to the Yankees favor), he struck out. Painfully, embarrassingly, and pathetically. First pitch was a hanging slider on the inside corner which should have been mashed. For a single, a sac fly, a double, a HR, anything. But it was taken for a strike. Ok, let's be patient in this at bat and make Boston closer Craig Kimbrel continue to crumble under the pressure of the bright lights of the Bronx. Instead Stanton chased TWO sliders out of the zone that he was FEET away from making ANY sort of contact. Inexcusable and unacceptable. Not a clue of what to do with the season on the line. No urgency, no plan, no approach, no clue. Work a walk, continue the rally. Instead he gave Kimbrel a life preserver that he so desperately needed. It was only the first out, but it was an important confidence booster for Kimbrel. JUST enough to get him by Gary Sanchez and Gleyber Torres. Sanchez missed a game winning Walk-off Grand Slam by a few feet and Torres missed extending the inning by half a step. Can't fault either in that situation. Sanchez put on a great at at-bat and did get an RBI out of it and Torres busted it down the line faster than his average speed to first base.


They tried, Stanton didn't. I have a problem with that. He just thought free swinging was going to get him a Yankee moment for the ages. Wrong. For 30 mil a year, I need better. I want better. I invest in this team all year, so I expect you to invest your best effort in the biggest at bat of the season. You're not a rookie, you're a reigning MVP! You don't get a pass. Now I have 5 months to replay that 9th inning last night and wonder what-if.
"We're all going to come together and use this as fuel for next year." Said Stanton after the game.

All we needed was a single. A single. A single not ONE Yankee produced in the biggest inning of the year with the season on the line. That's mind boggling. It truly was a season to forget in the Bronx.
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