Big Mac: Why can't the Yankees be as tough as the Guardians?

Craig Carton (0:00)

423 Carton Show Big Mac. I'm gonna get back to your calls here in a moment, but I want to give Big Mac an opportunity after I'm sure you watched or certainly saw the highlights of last night's ALCS.

Chris McMonigle (0:12)

I had both games on the television last night.

Craig Carton (0:14)

All right, so first let me get the Dodgers out of the way, down two nothing to the Milwaukee Brewers. And of course, Shari Otani is a non-factor right now. Put that to the side because that's a topic of conversation for sure. Later on, the more global conversation about baseball and everybody is saying, oh, the Dodgers can't be beaten, they're buying championships. Still gotta play the game. That being said, as a Yankee fan, watching what the Guardians did to Tampa and their ace and their bullpen and the hit parade that I saw last night, that's gotta be very frustrating.

Chris McMonigle (0:49)

Yeah, no, it's very frustrating. It's very frustrating to watch them get beat that way. And it's not so much that, like, I never thought that they could never be beat. Like, you know what I'm saying, like, watch. I don't think they would sweep Cleveland necessarily, but to watch that team, especially against that pitcher in that building, and to watch a team, and this is where the frustration comes from, and this isn't being a Yankee shill or anything other than that. The Yankees are better than the Cleveland Guardians. The Yankees are better than they are. They were better than them all year. Every time they ever play in the postseason, the Yankees dominate Cleveland to the point where every stat that Yankee haters or anybody wants to give on Yankee postseason, it starts with, outside of the AL Central, the Yankees have done this, that and that, because they have dominated the AL Central, including Cleveland, and every single Yankee fan, if you're being honest with yourself, believes that if the Yankees played the Cleveland Guardians in either the ALDS or the ALCS, they would have won that series. So what's frustrating is, and at least for me, watching them come through, get two home runs off Rasmussen, and then beat up on the bullpen, and after being shut out through the five innings, four in the sixth, the seventh, two in the eighth, three in the ninth, and win this game seven three, and shut down the raise and take game one. It's frustrating and it leaves me asking the same questions I think we ask about this team every year, and I know there's holes, and I know there's reasons and things to point to on how Brian Cashman does his job, and putting together the roster, how Aaron Boone puts together his game plan, whatever the case may be. How come this team never, ever finds its way to play the best brand of baseball they can play in the biggest moments against the toughest opponents, and we watch inferior teams, who I still think are going to lose the series, and I still think the Rays are the better team, and I still think the Rays will win the series. But how come Cleveland is able to play a brand of baseball and find a way to come through and have good at bats and dominate a game against the team the Yankees folded to the second they saw them?

Why aren't the Yankees tougher? Why aren't the Yankees able to play their best in the biggest moments? Why does the pressure affect them more than lesser teams who are able to go into that building and win? That's what, to me that was it. I don't look at that game and say, and I put out a sarcastic tweet that sarcasm doesn't go that well on Twitter, but I'll still keep trying.

Add the Cleveland Guardians to the list of teams that we will scream that the Yankees need to be more like. You need to figure out a way to be more like Cleveland. Look at what they were able to do. What does Cleveland do? Cleveland is not a better team in any way, shape or form. They're not better suited for the postseason. They're not a better team in the long term.

They strike out less, but they are a worse offense. As bad as the Yankees were offensively, Cleveland was worse. Cleveland is not a good team. They are an average team that has now gotten hot. And you know what? Maybe they do run through.

Maybe this hot streak because that's baseball and that's the crapshoot element of Major League Baseball Playoffs. It's not a complete crapshoot, not a complete crapshoot, but there's a crapshoot element to it where if they win this series, a lesser team than the Rays, a lesser team than the Yankees is gonna find a way to get hot and go through a post season. How come 17 years, the New York Yankees are never the team that finds a way to get hot and go through the post season? Because you can't tell me, like, that's what's frustrating about last night. I don't look at it and say, wow, what a joke the Yankees are. Look at how they're built and look how Cleveland's built. I don't look at it like that. I look at it and say, what a joke the Yankees are that they can never be the team that gets hot and rolls on through everybody.