Yankees Spent $2 Billion and Have No World Titles in 2010s To Show For It

The Wall Street Journal ^ | October 20, 2019 | Brian Costa and Jared Diamond

[GuavaCheesePuff]

In many respects, the New York Yankees just completed an extraordinary decade. Over the past 10 regular seasons, they won 921 games, more than any other team in baseball. They made the playoffs seven times—no other team played into October more often.

The 2010s were a success by every measure—that is, except for the only one their fans actually care about: winning the World Series.

New York’s season-ending defeat to the Houston Astros in the American League Championship Series on Saturday means that for the first time since the 1910s, they have gone a full calendar decade without so much as appearing in the World Series.

[bwest]

I’m a Yankee fan and I’m heartbroken.
On another note, this will be a strange Series with Houston in the American League and Washington in the National.

[TBP]

Ottavino, Britton, and Kahnle finally wore out from Boone’s overuse of them. It would have helped if Betances had been healthy. Boone could have given him some of those innings and not had to burn them out.

And Ottavino was misused. He wasn’t used as a one-batter specialist all season, then that’s all Boone gave him to do in the playoffs.

They also needed to get some runners on base before they had two outs.

[Dawgreg]

Ouch!! Wait till I tell my friends.....LOL....I’m sorry Clemenza, I’m not sure about Ratso and getting to Miami...I’m dense.....sigh

[Alberta's Child]

The Yankees have shied away from signing big-name free agent pitchers in recent years, and it’s probably a smart approach. For one thing, there’s a legitimate question whether some of these guys can play under pressure in New York. Another problem is that these generational-type pitchers can typically demand a seven- or eight-year contract and rarely play up to their salary level for more than half of that term.

Lastly, let’s remember that for every Gerrit Cole or Max Schuerzer there’s also a Clayton Kershaw who may be the most dominant regular-season pitcher of his era but is a marginal postseason pitcher at best.

There is a big risk in signing these big-name pitchers to huge contracts. The Yankees were a dominant team back in the 1990s when they had some good pitchers who were not perennial Cy Young Award contenders but who seemed to be at their best in many big games — like Andy Pettitte, David Wells, David Cone, Jimmy Key, Orlando Hernandez, etc.

[Dawgreg]

I’m a Yankee fan and I’m heartbroken.
On another note, this will be a strange Series with Houston in the American League and Washington in the National.

I am really sorry........been there done that for so many years and I really feel your pain. I’m still trying to get over Houston leaving the National League and going to the American......but our son did get a lot of autographed balls from the 80’s when we were in the National League and we still have a bunch of memorabilia from the Astros all those years ago in the Astrodome (which still sticks in my craw).....nothing wrong with that place now baseball is played downtown and football stadium is overshadowing the Dome.....UGH!!

[OddLane]

From Chumps to Champs

The only holdovers from the 90s Era are Cashman and Hank.

[Shady]

He is a great guy and a terrific broadcaster, has the passion for the game!

[nobamanomore]

In other words they were dominant when they had great pitching. What year did the Yankees start worrying about spending big money to sign free agents?

[Sans-Culotte]

I don't think the Yankees have to do much to be just as good next year. Any team that wins over a hundred games is doing something right. The series with the Astros could have gone either way. Had they walked Altuve, they would have had Jake Marisnick at the plate, who would have struck out on three pitches. I still can't figure why they chose to pitch to Altuve. You can't even pitch around him because he can hit balls out of the strike zone.

Had they walked Altuve, the Astros would likely have had to use Rondón as the next pitcher, and he would have probably lost the game.

[OddLane]

The year George Steinbrenner became owner of them.