The End of the 2012 Yankees

Jeter after suffering his ankle injury

Well the Yankees wasted their best opportunity to win the World series since 2009 and lost in four games to the Detroit Tigers in the ALCS. Normally a team would probably be happy with advancing to the second round of the playoffs, but these are the New York Yankees and its World Series or bust every year. The thing that made this so hard was, as we talked about in the podcast, the Yankees were clearly better than the Tigers but the offense mailed it in for the first series against the Orioles and completely didn't show up for the Tigers series. I mean they managed six runs in four games and when you eliminate the 9th inning of game one they scored two runs in games 2-4. Of course what makes this all worse is that Derek Jeter fractured his ankle is game one and we don't know how he will come back next season as a 38 year old Shortstop.
Playoffs make people crazy and so the ARod, Nick Swisher and Curtis Granderson hate trains were overflowing all playoffs long. Its not that they did not deserve to be criticized for their poor performance, its just that people start thinking that a player is worthless all together if he struggles in the postseason. Curtis Granderson hit 43 Home Runs, the idea that they should turn down his option is ridiculous. Some people try and say that the Yankees should never have acquired Nick Swisher because of his struggles in the post season and criticizing the ARod contract is valid but also having the benefit of hindsight.
The Yankees season ended in a way none of us would have liked but the only thing that we can do now is wait until next season as the Yankees retool for a World series run in 2013.