[新聞] How the Yanks can avoid becoming the Braves

[PerryRod (Maybe Next Time)]

From: http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/4986244

How the Yanks can avoid becoming the Braves
Ian O'Connor / Special to FOXSports.com
Posted: 4 hours ago

 The Yankees have devolved into a high-arc softball team, a collection of
heavy-swinging, heavier-legged stars who can't get out of their own way. An
embarrassment of riches has become a mere embarrassment. With a $208 million
payroll, the Yankees can't even buy a first-round playoff victory over an
opponent laying out less than half the wage.

The 2005 Angels exposed Joe Torre's team the way the 2002 Angels did,
small-balling the Yankees into next season. A franchise that won four World
Series titles in Torre's first five years has now been knocked out of five
straight Octobers. The Yankees have been reduced to the second coming of the
Atlanta Braves, regular-season juggernauts that can't blaze their way to a
parade.

How can they recover their long, lost dynastic form? Here are 10 suggested
vehicles to big-market redemption:


1. Get more athletic
Enough of the overstuffed likes of Jason Giambi and Gary Sheffield. The
Angels preyed on the Yankees' lack of speed in the field and on the bases,
making them look old and older. The Yanks need a high-charged dose of what
Chone Figgins and Orlando Cabrera gave the Angels. They need a Juan Pierre,
who drove them mad in the World Series two years back.


2. Sign B.J. Ryan
Or someone else who can be a reliable bridge to Mariano Rivera, greatest
closer of them all. Rivera is the Yankees' most important player, and too
often they can't get him the ball. Tom Gordon has been a big-game bust as a
setup man. If Rivera is Torre's Jordan, the manager needs a new Pippen.


3. Pray A-Rod becomes Elway, not Marino
John Elway waited until the end of his career to finally win the big one,
something Dan Marino never did. Problem is, Alex Rodriguez idolized Marino as
a high school quarterback in Miami, wearing the same No. 13 then that he
wears now.

A-Rod has gone 4-for-32 in his last nine playoff games. After managing 48
homers and 130 RBIs in the regular season, Rodriguez failed to deliver a
single homer or RBI against the Angels. "I played great baseball all year,"
Rodriguez said after the devastating Game 5 loss to the Angels, "and I played
like a dog the last five days." Now A-Rod's on a short leash in New York;
he'd better follow Derek Jeter's lead sooner rather than later.


4. Bring back Joe Torre
Torre makes his share of tactical mistakes, but he did the regular-season job
of his life this year, winning his eighth straight division title despite a
pitching staff wrecked by injury. His calm and reasoned approach is more
crucial than ever now. The Yankees need new players, a different style of
players. They don't need the combustible likes of Lou Piniella. George
Steinbrenner owes Torre $13.1 million over the next two years, and he'd be a
fool to eat that money to make the manager disappear.


5. Make Giambi a full-time DH
The $120 million signing of Giambi was the beginning of the end of the Yanks
as the baseball world knew them. Giambi can't run, can't catch and can't
throw, and he did the team no favors when he became the face of the steroid
plague. But he proved this year that he can still hit. The Yanks have to
remember that's all Giambi can do, and never again let him take the field
with a glove in his hand.


6. Trade Sheffield and Jorge Posada
Sheffield is another one-trick pony who doesn't move well and doesn't hustle
enough. The Yankees need more youth and athleticism in the outfield, so they
should trade Sheffield and then thank Bernie Williams for the memories and
send him on his free-agent way. At catcher, Posada doesn't even bother to
attempt to tag runners on plays at the plate anymore. It's time for him to go.


7. Remember defense wins championships
On a $390,000 salary, Figgins made a better division series play at third
than A-Rod ($26 million), and a better division series play in center than
Williams ($12.9 million). If Brian Cashman stays as GM, he has to make a
stronger commitment to defense. He can't have a center fielder without an arm
and a first baseman without an arm and a catcher who has little interest in
protecting the plate.


8. Re-sign Hideki Matsui
Despite his dismal showing against the Angels, Hideki Matsui is a keeper.
He's one of the few Yankees who would've fit in perfectly with the
four-out-of-five championship bunch. The Yankees shouldn't throw crazy
free-agent money at Matsui, but they should make an honest effort to keep him.


9. Send Robinson Cano to boot camp
Cano has a chance to be a special player. A chance. But he plays second base
the way Fred Couples plays golf — without a care in the world. Cano needs to
get mentally tougher and to treat his responsibility more seriously, or he
could imperil another Yankee postseason in the near future.


10. Hope for a bigger (and better) Unit
Who would've thought the Yankees would acquire Randy Johnson one year, then
hope he pitched as well as Aaron Small, Shawn Chacon and Chien-Ming Wang the
next? Johnson killed his team in Game 3 before filling a too-little, too-late
relief role in Game 5. He's got to be the old Unit — not an older Unit — in
2006, or the Yanks will run their streak of parade-free Octobers to six and
counting.


Ian O'Connor is the author of the book, "The Jump: Sebastian Telfair and the
High Stakes Business of High School Ball" (Available at Amazon.com).




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◆ From: 140.116.55.74
推 CCLu:11. Stop reading Ian O'Connor's article.
推 Baudelaire:how about mike lupica?
推 PerryRod:他的文章還蠻好笑的
推 CCLu:Not as bad as some of his colleagues, not too good either
推 Baudelaire:http://tinyurl.com/dctau try this
推 PerryRod:哈~~這一篇有趣多了
推 CCLu:收回我對 Lupica 的評語。看了上面這個連結，我的感想是：
→ CCLu:Lupica was a joke then and he is a joke now.
推 Baudelaire:now you're talking
推 PerryRod:這些文章有點像八卦日報裡面會出現的東西，蠻好笑的
推 YANKS:CCLu大..那你可以多寫一些嗎?在你的Blog..因為實在沒有多少"
→ YANKS:地方"可以提供我們這些洋基迷慰藉留連@@ 沒有球賽  你要我
→ YANKS:們去哪裡啦~><~!