A-Rod Channels Reggie Is he the new “Mr. October”?  ARod is historically known, and mocked, for his lack of hitting in October.  Except, this year, he’s hitting .407 in the playoffs.  Suddenly, he’s actually a guy you want to have at the plate in a crunch.  Not that the Yankees ever have a crunch, which leads us to…

They’re Just That Damn Good Sure, we were rooting for a freeway series, but the Yankees can’t be denied.  They’ve finally come together–the ridiculous quantities of money have managed to buy a team with some chemistry, even if it kind of happened by accident.

Starting Pitching C.C. Sabathia started last night on three days rest, and it was a non-story.  Unlike his playoff run with the Brewers, this run is almost relaxing for him, probably: the Yankees were far enough ahead toward the end of the regular season that they didn’t have to push him, and the schedule has meant that he got some rest.  Now, he’s 3-0 in the playoffs and clearly enjoying himself.

But, We Still Hate Them Yesterday, the Yanks kicked ass.  So much ass that we sort of forgot it was game 4 and not game 5.  Then, they did one of those line up and high five each other maneuvers.  It looked like taking care of business, and it was…but it was so freakin’ BORING.  (Johnny Damon seemed to agree.  He looked entirely confused at the lack of jumping, hugging, and complex high fives.  Come back to Boston, Johnny! We feel you!) There’s just not a lot of fun looking like it’s being had here. And they’ll beat hell out of the Phillies, and we’ll watch. But…we’re bored, and we’re slightly annoyed.

The ALCS will begin tomorrow, and the Yankees will take it.  Now, don’t get us wrong: we’re rooting for a freeway series–great for the city of L.A. and good for baseball.

The Angels have a lot of momentum: they have never before swept a postseason series, and to do so against the Red Sox, their postseason nemesis in recent years, probably means a lot to the clubhouse.  Their pitching has improved hugely from last year (when they got swept by the Red Sox in the ALDS), and they added the Rays’ Scott Kazmir for the stretch run.  Their starting pitching in the Division Series was nothing short of great.

But….they never added a bat.  Remember a couple years ago, when people started feeling that Vlad Guerrero, their big bat, was mostly done and/or couldn’t walk anymore.  This is still so true that, with two outs in the ninth, Terry Francona opted to walk someone else to get to Guerrero.  Admittedly, he got a hit, but it was his first off of Papelbon, and his first clutch hit in…long. Real long.

The Angels added Torii Hunter in the 2007 offseason.  Even their management knew that wasn’t enough, though–thus the addition of Mark Teixeira for their playoff run, which didn’t turn out to help.  This year, no new bat.

Meanwhile, the Yankees have always had bats.  Too many bats.  (DH options at the beginning of the 2008 offseason?  Johnny Damon.  Hideki Matsui.  Bobby Abreu.  Jorge Posada.  Among others.) What they didn’t have was team chemistry, and Joe Girardi feels that his club has loosened up and is having more fun playing the game.  This is due, in our opinion, to the addition of Nick Swisher, who clearly has a ton of fun playing the game.  Nobody smiled bigger than Swisher last week when the stadium crowd laughed as he forgot how to count to four and tried to take a walk on a 2-2 pitch.  (If it had been A-Rod, he’d probably have burst into tears.)

The Yankees have a veteran playoff pitcher in Pettite, their bullpen is solid with the settling of Phil Hughes into the eighth inning setup role.  Every time you think Mariano Rivera is out, he pulls you back in, Corleone style.  Their bats are huge, and their clubhouse is finally getting rowdy.

We think that Angels have their work cut out for them, and we wish for their sake they hadn’t swept the Sox.  (No, really. A longer break means less momentum headed into the ALCS, which begins Friday.)  But we’ll go ahead and say they’ll take a game:

Yankees in 6.

Or, as it recently seems, you might remember him as the guy who tipped pitches when he was in the field, but only to Dominican players.  (Tejada’s Dominican.) Apparently when he was with the Orioles, the guy’s own teammates felt he didn’t field easy ground balls off the bats of Dominican players, and that batters could see which way the pitch was headed by the way Tejada moved.

Johnny Damon tried to defend him against these allegations, basically by saying he’s such a crappy fielder that…only…Dominican guys…pick up on his cues…no, really….”

Tejada’s even admitted to injecting Palmeiro with “B-12.”  Honestly, given all these different allegations, we’re not even sure why this guy’s still playing, even though we do enjoy watching him.  He’s enjoyed something of a little renaissance with the Astros.  Is it time for that to end, in the name of the game?

Our first thought?

Damon wants in.

Consider: his contract expires in 2010, and he’s having a heck of a year.  Even before he hit his 20th dinger last night, Damon had surpassed his home run total from all of last season.  (Yes, Yankee Stadium as it now stands is kind of a bandbox, but his OBP–one of Damon’s historical strengths–is comparable to last year.)  The Yankees are unlikely to have a spot for Damon, especially given that at some point, Derek Jeter is going to need to move to the outfield.  He would make a lot of sense for the Sox, especially if he were willing to take a bit of a discount, and especially depending what happens to Jason Bay.

Johnny could have retired as a Red Sox (what’s the singular? We have no idea. Never have. Long argument.), and spent the rest of his life dining out on his Game 7 grand slam and his amazing hair.  He picked a little more money and a few more years over loyalty to the rivalry, and to New York he went.

Please don’t misunderstand: UPH is incredibly impressed with Damon’s forthrightness and loyalty here, and he’s going to hear it from the fans in New York even more than he already has, and as we recall it wasn’t the easiest transition.  We’re not discounting that.  But we also think that maybe, just maybe, he might have been regretting his pecuniary decision.

Especially since he had to change his hair.