| Authored by Christopher Reina - 10th November, 2009 - 9:26 pm
 There was a definite air of inevitability to the Yankees' 2009 World Series win, particularly as they swept the Twins and were up 3-1 on both the Angels and Phillies before ultimately winning in Game 6's at home in both of those series.
Over the course of their 15 games in the 2009 playoffs, the Yankees had an OPS of .772 and an ERA of 3.26. With a three-man rotation and 16 innings manned by Mariano Rivera, the Yankees shaved a full run off their regular season ERA of 4.26, but they lost 67 points on their OPS, most notably from Mark Teixeira (-.355) and Robinson Cano (-.325).
In terms of the Opsera, a simple formula I created that involves OPS and ERA, the Yankees trailed each of the previous four champions and clearly did not have a painlessly dominant path.
Recent Opseras of World Series Champs
2009 Yankees: 4.46, .772 OPS, 3.26 ERA
2008 Phillies: 4.91, .798 OPS, 3.07 ERA
2007 Red Sox: 4.77, .806 OPS, 3.29 ERA
2006 Cardinals: 4.59, .727 OPS, 2.68 ERA
2005 White Sox: 5.66,.821 OPS, 2.55 ERA
2004 Red Sox: 3.80,.827 OPS, 4.47 ERA
2003 Marlins: 2.68 .698 OPS, 4.30 ERA
2002 Angels: 3.97 .879 OPS, 4.82 ERA
We've become accustomed to watching a whole handful of players from the winning almost magically play above their heads with impeccable timing, but the Yankees seemed to win in spite of not possessing that due to their Xanadu-style depth.
Alex Rodriguez, Hideki Matsui and Derek Jeter outperformed their typical selves and Johnny Damon setup the 3-1 World Series lead almost single-handedly with his Game 4 double steal, while CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Andy Pettitte had quality starts in in 11 of the 15 games. I think quality starts tends to be an overused measure, particularly because it sets the bar so low for front of the rotation pitchers, but comparing a 73% rate to the regular season in which they had a 40% quality start rate is a significant jump and was the single biggest factor for why the Yankees had a winning percentage of .789 compared to .636 during the regular season.
Unlike previous seasons when the Yankees didn't have true aces of Sabathia and Burnett's caliber, it forced the hitters to go outside the zone and make things happen. The full trust of the pitchers by the hitters was evidenced by the 65 walks (4.3 per game), compared to 14 (3.5 per game) in the four games in 2007 against Cleveland.
More than imposing their superiority on opponents, the Yankees demonstrably showed that they would not be outlasted under any circumstance.
In the Yankees' celebration following the Cano to Teixeira groundout, I found that there was a corporate feeling of relief more than the unadulterated joy we're more accustomed to seeing from champions, even pinstriped champions.
When looking at how much more money the Yankees spend each season than even the team that is second in payroll, there is an inescapable feeling that this team underachieved for seven sessions between 2002 and 2008 (1). But it must be said that the Yankees' threepeat of 1998-2000 was conversely an example of overachieving, so the baseball gods evened things out at least a little bit as far as hands are concerned for Jeter, Rivera, Posada and Pettitte.
To the Brian Cashman's credit, however, the Yankees did spend less in relation to everybody else in comparison to New York payrolls of 2008 and 2005, being merely $52 million over the team with the second highest payroll. His free agency decisions last winter avoided half measures, the main cause of failure in that seven year drought (2).
When it comes to sports, unlike economical issues that tangibly impact people's lives, I am a complete and unapologetic subscriber to the Chicago school (3), which is why I have a soft spot for the Yankees and call them my favorite franchise in sports. The Yankees are eternally polarizing and that is because of the economical luxuries they are afforded; sports fans that love them or hate them are equally fascinated with whether money buys championships, the same way we are fascinated with whether money or fame buys happiness and the ratings enjoyed by Fox, TBS and the MLB bear that out.
Regardless of payroll, winning the World Series is extremely difficult and though I know both Yankees fans and non-Yankees fans expect a repeat (they were the overwhelming favorite for 2010 on a poll we recently conducted on RealGM), both sides need to savor this one. There is no guarantee we'll see another NYC parade next year or even for the remaining years of Jeter's career and though detractors will rejoice in another team with a payroll that dwarfs the Marlins and Padres of the world winning the World Series instead of the Yankees, deriding the inequalities of the system may prove more difficult again.
Bizarrely, both sides somehow are proven right when the Yankees win World Series titles.
Notes
(1) Under no circumstances can their 2001 season be cited as underachieving. They were up against the best postseason pitcher combination in recent history, playing in a post-9/11 New York and still a Mariano save away from winning the World Series.
(2) Jaret Wright has become the picture definition of free agency's version of 'half measure.'
(3) The Chicago school of economics favors a form of free market economics and libertarianism with very little regulation. |
