TwitterRound 2, Day 2- Yankees
27 Jan 2011
The 1998 Yankees almost made a great comeback. Down 3-1 in the series, they rallied to tie things up with an incredible Game 6 performance. They actually had a lead in Game 7, but Jeff Nelson couldn’t hold it and the 1961 Yankees advanced.
More details can be seen here
Personally, I am kind of shocked that the 1961 Yankees are in the finals of the “Yankees Bracket” Despite their 109 regular season wins, a lot of critics have dismissed them as overrated. While that label may be overstating it, they did have a pythagorean record of “only” 103 wins. I really thought the ’98 team would take them out, but it was not to be and now we have a really good matchup between ’61 and ’27 to look forward to. Games 1+2 are Monday night.
Jan 28, 2011 @ 07:26:23
I’ve never heard the overrated comments about ’61. Maybe I’m not close enough to the Yankees to have heard it either.
I think they have the lineup to compete with the ’27 team and have decent pitching too.
Ford, Stafford and Terry all had good/very good whip #’s and Arroyo cleaned up and won any game the starters didn’t.
I love the idea of the ’27 team, it’s a team for the ages…but I’m kinda rooting for ’61.
Jan 28, 2011 @ 08:57:51
BL
A lot of it came about when they made that movie “*61″. Stats guys usually point to things like the OBP’s of Richardson, Kubek, Boyer and Skowron. Yet, they still scored 827 runs.
Jan 28, 2011 @ 12:02:21
On paper, the 1998 team does not look so great. Nobody hit over 30 homeruns; most of the lineup was under .300; Chad Curtis was their left fielder.
But they had tough hitters up and down the lineup and they had 4 number 1 starters: Wells, Cone, Pettite, and El Duque.
Ford in his prime would have been tough to beat. But Stafford and Terry were beatable. I also don’t see Rivera giving up late inning homeruns to Roger Maris in anything but a simulation game.
I’d give Ford 2 wins but pick the ’98 Yanks in 6 games over the ’61 version.
Jan 28, 2011 @ 17:52:51
Rivera in 1998 was good, perhaps even very good but he was other worldly like he has been in a few years in his career.