Yankees Eliminated, Raising Payroll To $3 Billion

In a fitting turn of events, Alex Rodriguez watched strike three pass him by to end the Yankees season. The Rangers stunned the baseball world and Yankees fans everywhere after they "manhandled" the Bronx Bombers according to Yanks GM Brian Cashman. Cashman wans't exaggerating either. The Rangers outplayed the Yankees in every facet of the game including outhitting them by a hundred points (3.01 to 2.01). Final score: Rangers ($64,810,570) 4, Yankees ($213,359,389) 2.

The Yankees did lose Mark Teixeira midway through Game 4 but his .000/.176/.000 line in the series wasn't exactly lighting the world on fire. A-Rod wanted no part of defeating his former team, hitting for just a .190/.320/.286 line while continuing his anticlutch ways. Derek Jeter was a shell of his post season self and put up a .231/.286/.423 line. Don't worry though, Minka, the Yankees will still give him a shiny new $20 million per year contract.

Speaking of Yankee off-season spending. The Yankees are sure to open up the YES Network's pocketbooks and attack the free agent market with a vengeance. Cliff Lee should be the top priority but prying him away from Texas will probably start around $150 million. The Yanks will most likely be in on the bidding for Carl Crawford or Jayson Werth. Either one of those contracts should be around $100 million (more than that for Crawford, less for Werth). It makes some sense too considering Curtis Granderson is strictly a platoon player (hits lefties with his eyes closed) and Brett Gardner is, dare I say it, their only everyday outfielder.

Of course, everybody assumes those are the moves the Yankees will pursue. One I haven't really heard about is Rafael Soriano. The Rays closer stayed healthy and was down right filthy. The Yanks could use some more bullpen help after ruining the career of Joba Chamberlain and Kerry Wood is an injury time bomb. Soriano will be looking for closer money and a closer role but I'd bet he'd take a big pile of cash from the Yankees. Even if the Yanks don't pursue Soriano, you can count on their ever expansive payroll to continue to grow during the Hot Stove League. Good news Pirates, more free money!

(Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)

Ron Washington Sank The Rangers' Battleship

It would be foolish of me to blame all of last nigh't Ranger meltdown on manager Ron Washington. But I'm a blogger and looking foolish has never stopped me from writing before, why start now? The Rangers and Josh Hamilton knocked Yankee ace CC Sabathia out of the game after hanging five runs on him in just four innings. C.J. Wilson cruised through seven innings allowing only a run. Wilson had thrown 98 pitches going into the 8th inning so Washington's decision to leave him in against Gardner was warranted.

Gardner hit an infield single aided by despite the uncalled for, yet highly dramatic, head first slide. Washington left Wilson in, sitting at 102 pitches, to face Derek Jeter. I didn't mind this move either for two reasons. 1) Jeter has not been good this year. 2) He's Jeter The Clutch (or some such nonsense) and he would have hit that clutch double off of God Himself (not that Washington would have called on the northpaw anyway). That's when Washington finally started firing shots that hit something.

B1 This was the first peg to hit the battleship. Washington turns to the bullpen and summons 74-year-old lefty Darren Oliver who had actually pitched well throughout the season. Much to Washington's chagrin, Oliver is actually anticlutch and walked Nick Swisher and Mark Teixeira on 13 pitches.

B2 If he had just gone C1 and missed, he might not have sunk the Rangers' battleship. Washington replaces one Darren with the other and calls for O'Day. O'Day rewards his manager by giving up a screaming line drive hit and leaves the mound without breaking a sweat.

B3 Washington is on fire know and can see that battleship sinking. He goes back to his bullpen and pulls out some guy named Clay Rapada. I wouldn't know Clay Rapada if he walked into this basement wearing a Clay Rapada shirt. I would just figure he was delivering food I forgot I ordered from a restaurant I never heard of. Just like this post is getting away from me, so was the game from Washington. Cano singled and Washington would call for another reliever. Surely, this time it would be his best pitcher back there, Neftali Feliz. Right?

B4 Washington sank the Rangers' battleship. General Washington sent for Derek Holland. Holland gave up the tie-breaking single to Marcus Thames before mercifully ending the inning. The damage was done though. It still baffles me how, in this day and age of information, managers still refuse to use their best reliever in the highest leverage situations. Feliz hadn't pitched in almost a week, not using him anywhere in this inning was simply irresponsible.

The Rangers just went through the motions to end the game. Ian Kinsler drew a leadoff walk to start the Rangers' portion of the inning. But he was picked off by Kerry Wood, something Wood hadn't done in two years. After the walk, Wood and Mariano Rivera shut the Rangers down without a hitch.

Stay tuned to see if I can make the rest of my playoff recaps board game themed. With my attention span I'm guessing..ooh, a piece of candy.

Curveballs for Jobu

Curveballs for Jobu is Offbasepercentage's daily trip around the ballparks.

Today's honorary bat boy is Yamil Benitez and he's here because of my recent obsession with the Montreal Expos. Even @Montreal_Expos thinks it's getting out of hand.

Hey kids, I'm covering Jobu today because Derwood is mad at me for not being able to patch him through on the podcast last night. I couldn't figure out how to work the software but I wasn't supposed to host either. I'd post a link but you're probably better off not listening to me say "um" and "Mike Trout" for an hour.

Red Sox 6, Angels 0. The Angels are 11-20 against the AL East and get killed by the Red Sox (0-8). The Halos left 9 runners on base doing some of their better anticlutch work this season. Ryan Kalish hit a grand slam off of Jered Weaver hoping to give Jon Lester the edge for second place in Cy Young voting. But I still have a glimmer of post season hope because...

Rays 10, Rangers 1. Matt Garza tossed 7 shutout innings and struck out 10. Carl Crawford was a double shy of the cycle. Pedro Strop pitched some "relief" for the Rangers throwing 35 pitches in 1.1 innings. He made the most of it though giving up 5 runs on 4 hits and 2 walks. When asked about Strop, Ron Washington said, "Who now?"

Phillies 9, Giants 3. Chase Utley's glorious return to the lineup wasn't exactly effective as the best second baseman in baseball went 0-5. The Phils smacked around Barry Zito and Chris Ray for 8 of the 9 runs. Blog favorite Buster Posey went 2-4. Jose Guillen hit his first homer as a Giant so it's just a matter of time before he yells at his first Giant.

Astros 4, Mets 3. Hunter Pence hit 2 home runs and all 4 RBI off of Johan Santana for the win. K-Rod had surgery for a torn ligament in his hand from punching his father-in-law and probably won't be getting paid for the rest of the season. The good news is Rodriguez extended his no punches thrown streak to 5 days.

Dodgers 6, Rockies 0. Brad Hawpe: DNP. It's doubtful Hawpe and his poor fielding will make it to the weekend as a Rockie.