Happy Yankees Elimination Day!

Leather

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Jul 18, 2005
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Jesus, I have to root for one of these groups of assmunchers?
 

jon abbey

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This is the third time in six years that these two teams have met in the ALCS, and amazingly HOU has made six ALCSs in a row.

2017: HOU over NYY 4-3
2018: BOS over HOU 4-1
2019: HOU over NYY 4-2
2020: TB over HOU 4-3
2021: HOU over BOS 4-2
2022: HOU/NYY
 

jon abbey

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My guess at NY's rotation (they announced Taillon would get game 1 before today's game):

1: Taillon
2: Severino
3: Cole
4: Cortes
5: Taillon
6: Severino
7: Cole is on 3 days rest and Cortes on 2 days rest, so, um, good luck? It's not going to go this far anyway.
 

Leskanic's Thread

lost underscore
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The Homer Simpson hedge gif, but it's me disappearing into it and then reemerging wearing all orange and not caring about garbage cans for the next nine days.
 

Mystic Merlin

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The Yankees pen is only going to be a more glaring issue in this series, but the Yankees’ power can level out a game pretty damn quick.

That short turnaround is brutal for them. And I see they’re not skimping on the champagne and Bud heavies! Drink up, boys!
 

jon abbey

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NY should add Marinaccio and maybe Montas, that should help the pitching depth.
 

Wingack

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The Yankees roster should be better in the ALCS than the ALDS.

Also, if you forget the Verlander Taillon matchup in Game 1 and presumably Game 5, the pitching matchups are pretty even.

It's almost like sending up Taillon against JV is just knowingly punting the Verlander matchups.
 

DeadlySplitter

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This is the 6th straight ALCS of Astros vs. an AL East team. 2015 was Toronto vs KC, 2016 Toronto vs Cleveland

The last time an AL East team didn't make the ALCS was 2011.
 

jon abbey

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It's almost like sending up Taillon against JV is just knowingly punting the Verlander matchups.
It's the same situation as the Padres had after the first round, needing to use their 4th starter in game 1 but having their top 3 guys ready for the next three games after that.
 

Yelling At Clouds

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Jul 19, 2005
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The Yankees roster should be better in the ALCS than the ALDS.

Also, if you forget the Verlander Taillon matchup in Game 1 and presumably Game 5, the pitching matchups are pretty even.

It's almost like sending up Taillon against JV is just knowingly punting the Verlander matchups.
Verlander was last seen getting lit up by the Mariners, so you never know
 

Mr. Stinky Esq.

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Dec 7, 2006
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I’m certainly in the minority but I’ll root harder against the Astros and public racist Yuli Gurriel than I will against the Yankees. Of course, I look forward to neither team winning.
 

j-man

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Dec 19, 2012
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i like hou in 7 the yankees while not the better team has grit

to me there are 4 outcomes
Hou in 5
Hou in 6
NYY in 7
Hou in 7

the winner here is 75% likely to win the worles series
99% if philly beats sd

these teams played 7 games during the reglar year and hou couild had won all 7 as the yankees only 2 wins came off of 9th inn comebacks
 

j-man

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My guess at NY's rotation (they announced Taillon would get game 1 before today's game):

1: Taillon
2: Severino
3: Cole
4: Cortes
5: Taillon
6: Severino
7: Cole is on 3 days rest and Cortes on 2 days rest, so, um, good luck? It's not going to go this far anyway.
to me u have to go like this

1 Tallion
2 Severino
3 Cole or Cortes
4 if up 2-1 bullpen day if down 2-1 go cortles
5 Taillion
6 bullpen
7 bullpen
 

jon abbey

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Verlander was last seen getting lit up by the Mariners, so you never know
I asked my Astros fan friend about this, the belief is that Verlander was tipping his pitches and the Mariners were sitting on sliders. Verlander has made a career of ending Yankee seasons (back to 2006!), so not optimistic about hitting him.
 

jon abbey

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Bader just mentioned after the game that he had never played in HOU before, so I checked and that is correct. That is an odd outfield, hope he figures it out quickly. Some of his funky (intentional) OF footwork has been less than impeccable lately, but he has rocketed up my list of favorite current Yankees in just a few weeks.
 

jon abbey

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Obviously I only hear public reports of how guys are doing but I will guess NY replaces Hicks, Castro and Locastro with Marinaccio, Montas and Peraza. Montas could hopefully be a 3-4 inning weapon with games 3-7 set for five straight days potentially.

That gets them back to 13 hitters and 13 pitchers, Locastro is superfluous if IKF is on the bench.

Benintendi is not an option according to Boone and I really doubt that DJ is either (but Boone did not rule him out yet).
 

NorthwestSoxGuy

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Oct 15, 2022
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I'm freaking sick and tired of the ALCS being Yankees-Astros. I know this is only the third time, but it feels like more than that.

I honestly can't root for either of them. The Yankees for obvious reasons, and the Astros for their cheating scandal and unlikable players.

If either of them win, the media is gonna go crazy. If the Yankees win, the media will worship them as usual. If the Astros win, I'm worried that the media will completely ignore or brush off the cheating scandal and act like it was no big deal.

Either way, I hope to see either of them get crushed in the World Series.
 

Shaky Walton

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I have no problem whatsoever rooting hard for the Astros. Tonight we all are Astros. Except Yankees fans, of course.

I guess if I thought these Astros were cheating that I might have second thoughts. But, in the end, I would root for Cheating All Stars over the Yankees. So go Astros, with no strings attached or caveats.

As to the first pitch (which doesn't matter anyway, right Bucky F Dent?), Josh Reddick will always be a sore spot for me. What the fuck was Tito thinking in playing Darnell McDonald over him EVER? Tito deserves the praise he gets but that baffled me at the time and still does.
 

Apisith

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I’m hoping for both teams to lose but I have to say that it’s extremely impressive what both front offices have done. The Astros are in year 7 of contending and their window is fully open. They graduated Peña who put up 5 wins, the same amount as Correa did, saving $34m. Their pitchers are almost all homegrown. Developing Valdez, Garcia and Javier into productive starters is testament to their program. They have them under control for a few more years, at least. Out of the 5 high picks they had, they only missed on Appel, hitting on Springer, Correa, Bregman and Tucker. Two of those are gone and they are still winning 100 games. It is mighty impressive.

Cashman has done an excellent job to keep the Yankees competitive even though they’re coming to the end of their ‘window’.
 

Max Power

thai good. you like shirt?
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Jul 20, 2005
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Bader just mentioned after the game that he had never played in HOU before, so I checked and that is correct. That is an odd outfield, hope he figures it out quickly. Some of his funky (intentional) OF footwork has been less than impeccable lately, but he has rocketed up my list of favorite current Yankees in just a few weeks.
He's rocketed up near the top of my list of least favorite Yankees the last few weeks. Funny how that works.
 

Beale13

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If the Yankees win this series they will have earned it. No team in baseball history has entered an ALCS, or any CS, less set up to use their starting rotation. There are always four days of rest available for the Game 5 DS starter to start Game 3 of the CS, but no this year because of the rainout. There are always four days of rest available to the Game 3 CS starter to start Game 7, but not this year due to the lack of the day off between games 5 and 6.

So while in any other year a team would be able to give any of their starters two starts in a series on full rest if it went to seven games, this year, the Yankees can't do that for two of their starters, and it's their two best starters. Barring any rainouts.

And their bullpen is basically four deep. They're going to need guys like Taillon and German to give them a ton of quality innings to have any chance.
 

budcrew08

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My prediction is Houston in 6. The short turnaround and the inability to set up a pitching rotation will be tough. If the Yankees do win, it will be because they took one of the first two in Houston.
 

Max Power

thai good. you like shirt?
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How? His personality or just that he was productive? Guy seems like the nicest dude on the planet.
He has a tremendously punchable face which kind of reminds me of a smiling Brett Gardner. They look nothing alike, but it's there somehow. Plus he used to be a Cardinal, so I'm already predisposed to disliking him.
 

budcrew08

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He has a tremendously punchable face which kind of reminds me of a smiling Brett Gardner. They look nothing alike, but it's there somehow. Plus he used to be a Cardinal, so I'm already predisposed to disliking him.
Aren't the Cardinal fans "The Best Fans in Baseball" (TM)
 

The Gray Eagle

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Aug 1, 2001
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Yankees fans on here really going for the reverse jinx. (It's kind of bizarre, after so many decades of many Yanks fans overconfidently bragging endlessly.)
I'm afraid it's going to work for them. The Yankees will win this easily and go on to the World Series and beat the Phillies again. Awful.
The Astros really have no chance against Judge, Stanton, Cole, Cortes and the other superstars on NYY.
 

E5 Yaz

Transcends message boarding
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Honestly, even if we get past Houston, how are we gonna deal with a potential matchup against the Padres with fans that get this wild?

View: https://twitter.com/sondraa/status/1582447974981914624?s=20&t=7k090ChImATh5rQ61Fsk8Q
MY EYES! MY EYES! That has got to be one of the most ...

... hey, wait a minute. What's this "we" stuff? This is open-range posting in here. You have a lovely thread of your own to be inclusive in your Yankee fandom. You can "we ... we" all over that one.
 

Murderer's Crow

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If the Yankees win this series they will have earned it. No team in baseball history has entered an ALCS, or any CS, less set up to use their starting rotation. There are always four days of rest available for the Game 5 DS starter to start Game 3 of the CS, but no this year because of the rainout. There are always four days of rest available to the Game 3 CS starter to start Game 7, but not this year due to the lack of the day off between games 5 and 6.

So while in any other year a team would be able to give any of their starters two starts in a series on full rest if it went to seven games, this year, the Yankees can't do that for two of their starters, and it's their two best starters. Barring any rainouts.

And their bullpen is basically four deep. They're going to need guys like Taillon and German to give them a ton of quality innings to have any chance.
A lot of it will really depend on Taillon, who if you look at his last few starts has ranged from excellent to meh. If Taillon gives you one quality start or better, you've essentially stolen a game and now the pitching is setup really well for the rest of the series. The worst part is probably that Cortes only gets to start once but right now it really feels like our top 3 starters are all going to give you 6 and let off 1-2 runs.

Wed vs Astros = Taillon (Full rest)
Thurs = Sev (full rest)
Saturday = Cole (full rest)
Sunday = Cortes (full rest)
Monday = Taillon (full rest)
Tuesday = Severino (full rest)
Wednesday = Cole (3 days)

From my seat, I'm not overly concerned about the starters. We don't usually lose in the playoffs because we get blown out, we lose because we stop scoring. 2017 we were up 3-2 and scored 1 run in the final 2 games. 2019 we scored 6 total runs in 3 of our losses.
 

RG33

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Nov 28, 2005
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I could give a shit about a cheating scandal 5 years ago.

“Beat the damn Yankees” is always the right answer.

I’m going to enjoy their “world record” season with their “real HR champion” season crashing and burning in Texas.

The cherry on top will be Angry Aaron Boone making some stupid decisions and getting fired in the offseason as a result.

Astros in 5.
 

BigSoxFan

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Jets are 4-2. Giants are 5-1. Eagles are 6-0. Something is going on with the universe and we’re heading towards a NYY vs. Phillies World Series just like in 2009.

Yankees in 6.

Yankees over Phillies in 5.
 

Ale Xander

Hamilton
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I'm a little concerned about too much rest for the Astros. Game 1 seems like a must win for them, especially with the pitching matchup although their starting staff is very deep.
 

cromulence

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Yeah, but that feels like the only good thing he's done all year (I know there are more). He's been out and out bad for the most part. Most Yankee fans would be much happier with Cabrera in LF and Peraza at SS than what they ran out yesterday. Of course, they'll probably stick with IKF.
 

Murderer's Crow

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Yeah, but that feels like the only good thing he's done all year (I know there are more). He's been out and out bad for the most part. Most Yankee fans would be much happier with Cabrera in LF and Peraza at SS than what they ran out yesterday. Of course, they'll probably stick with IKF.
Yea. I feel bad for Hicks. Seeing him in tears sucked because the guy can't catch an injury break. But gotta be cutthroat this time of year. It will be interesting to see how Montas gets deployed.