The week in baseball: Yankees prepare for postseason

Yankee fans, prepare for the postseason. Pre-sales for playoff tickets has been made available online, indicating that the organization is already preparing for a postseason berth. Owner George Steinbrenner has announced that he’ll be attending some playoff games at the new Yankee Stadium. It’s all about clinched for the Yankees as they cruise through an easy schedule and inch closer to 100 wins on the season. It was a shaky start to a dominating season, so now, without drama and in stellar fashion the Yankees are scorching their way through the last month of the regular season. Of course, as we near the post season, the Yankees need to pay attention to their strengths and weaknesses before they fall victim to the overconfidence that has deprived them of a World Series ring the past eight years.

The Yankees have been in this position before. In 2006 the Yankees controlled the American League East Division and finished with a MLB best 97-65 record. They were expected to represent the AL in the World Series and win it all in the end. For instance, Yahoo Sports had five columnists predict the winner of the World Series on the first of October and only one of those five believed the Yanks wouldn’t win it (this columnist, Mark Pesavento, predicted the Twins would win it, which was wrong anyway). It’s happened before, this hype that follows the Yankees into the postseason, but they haven’t won a World Series since 2000 and it was 2003 since they won their last postseason series. So despite the assurances that, yes, the Yanks will be making the postseason, who knows if they’ll be the team to beat moving into their first series?

The Yankees might not know how they’ll perform in the playoffs, but the organization may feel that this is their year. The Yankees are 36-12 since the All-Star Break and have ripped through Chicago White Sox (effectively ruining their chances at the wildcard), and the Baltimore Orioles these past two weeks. They swept the White Sox, outscoring the team 23-5 in the three game series. Chicago’s manager, the always-entertaining Ozzie Guillen said of game two of the series, “I watched Little League this morning and they played better. This is not major league ball.” But honestly, most any team that has played the Yankees’ late this season has looked like a minor league team. Just ask the Orioles who were swept and outscored 24-9 in the three games. The Yankees have scored more runs (779), more homeruns (212), more hits (1341), and more RBIs (748) than any team in the majors this year. They’re second in the MLB behind the Los Angeles Angels in batting average (.281), and are on top in slugging percentage (4.81). It’s easy to praise the Yankees and, for some fans, it’s easy to worship them unconditionally, but this year, they really do deserve to be called the best of the best.

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Nster.com