New York Yankees, World Champions

Congratulations to the New York Yankees – the World Champions of the 2009 season.

They earned it. They were the best team in baseball, and it wasn’t particularly close. The Phillies are a good team that ran into a great team. The better team won.

Some Game Six thoughts:

1. Obviously, the big topic of discussion will be Charlie Manuel’s decision to stick with Pedro Martinez in the third inning. He was obviously pitching without his best stuff early in the game, though his velocity had picked up a little bit in the third. However, at best, he’s an average pitcher, and was already halfway through the line-up for the second time. He wasn’t going to last very long, regardless of the outcome of that inning.

However, with the bases loaded, a LH hitter coming up, and an LHP ready in the bullpen, Manuel stuck with Pedro. JA Happ isn’t an all-star or anything, but he’s clearly the better option to get Matsui out in that situation and keep the game within a single run. That was absolutely a critical, game-turning at-bat (the LI was 2.56), and Manuel chose to go with an inferior match-up in order to get an extra inning out of Martinez.

That’s just bad managing, but it continued the trend that Manuel established early. He over-trusted Pedro’s personality, choosing to give him two starts in a six game series when he was the Phillies’ fourth or fifth best starting pitcher. You could argue that he over-trusted Brad Lidge as well. Manuel went with two guys who had been great previously but were currently less than their former selves, and he got burned.

2. Perhaps the more head scratching move, however, was to go to Chad Durbin in the 5th inning. Chad Durbin is terrible. He’s essentially a replacement level reliever, and he had no business on the mound in a lose-and-your-season-is-over ballgame. Worse, he was sent to the mound to face the top of the Yankee order. In the middle of July, it wouldn’t be a good idea to send Chad Durbin to the mound to face Jeter, Rodriguez, and Teixeira. In the World Series, it’s malpractice.

3. If that was Hideki Matsui’s final game as a Yankee, that’s going down as one of the best finishes to a career in the history of the game. Hats off, Godzilla – you’ll be telling your grandkids about this one a few hundred times.

4. Mariano Rivera is incredible. I know he’s 40, but he’s better now than he’s ever been. When we talk about how fungible relief pitchers are, we mean all of them except for him. He’s amazing.