Yankees Embarrassed in Sweep

With CC Sabathia pitching a possible elimination game for the Yankees of game four of the ALCS, the Yankee fan had supreme confidence that this series would go to a game five. Instead, CC Sabathia comes out with nothing in the tank despite an extra day off, which could have played a role in his inability to get outs today. Combine Sabathia's personal struggle to get his pitches over, his defense abandoned him for what seems like the tenth time this season. Sabathia failed to get out of the fourth inning and gave up six runs on eleven hits to the Tigers. To make matters worse, Teixeira booted two balls in the third inning and Chavez nonchalantly picked a ball up on the ground in the first inning and failed to make the second out of the inning. So to set the blame entirely on Sabathia would be foolish. His defense played like they were ready for a round of golf and they decided to pack their bags before twenty-seven outs were recorded.

To add to the Yankees' embarrassment, their offense was historically terrible in this series. In addition to hardly scoring in this elimination game, they were getting no-hit through five innings and struck out a boatload of times against Scherzer. To say this was a postseason collapse would be an understatement.

The Yankees 2012 campaign has come to a crashing end. There should be interesting changes to this team for next season. They have many questions to answer as far as contracts and trades are concerned. Free agents this off-season are: Andy Pettitte, Mariano Rivera, Nick Swisher, Hiroki Kuroda, Ichiro Suzuki, Russell Martin, Eric Chavez, Raul Ibanez and Andruw Jones. Next season will be option seasons for Robinson Cano and Curtis Granderson.

The Yankees should give contracts to all but Nick Swisher and Andruw Jones for the 2013 season. Robinson Cano's option year will definitely be exercised and I see them playing Granderson next season before letting him walk. As far as Alex Rodriguez is concerned, at this point he needs to go to a different team. He is a lighting rod that is a distraction to the Yankees at this point. He is not the player he was three years ago and the way management has treated him in the postseason should be a red flag as to how they feel about him going forward.

As for Swisher, he has divorced himself from the fans and that alone will earn his ticket of the Bronx. In addition, his postseason struggles have been so horrendous that I don't think the Yankees want to give him a big contract.