New York Yankees

Via the Journal News:

The New York Yankees have released their 25-man roster for the American League Division Series which begins Wednesday in Minnesota. While most of the roster is as expected, there were some decisions manager Joe Girardi needed to make.

Girardi has chosen a three-man starting pitching rotation for this series. CC Sabathia will start Game One on Wednesday, followed by Andy Pettitte and Phil Hughes. Hughes gets the home start in Game Three on Saturday in Yankee Stadium.

So a couple of weeks back, Yahoo Sports writer Jeff Passan wrote a column called Think you know baseball? No, you don’t.

It was a good article that gave 25 facts about baseball that weren’t typical common knowledge. I liked it and in the back of my mind I thought that I wanted to do something similar about the Yankees at the end of the year.

It's being reported this morning that A.J. Burnett will not be part of the Yankees' plans in the ALDS against the Twins.

Not exactly shocking news, I know. Dudes who lose 15 games and and post 5.26 ERAs don't typically inspire the faith of their manager come playoff time.

Via the NY Post:

There have been a lot of people that have been pretty down on the Yankees lately. It’s hard to blame them—down the stretch the Yankees managed a pathetic 9-17 record.

Fortunately, there are reasons to be optimistic. Just compare the recent slide to the 2000 Yankees who won the World Series, and it’s easy to see why.

Those Yankees started the season 82-58 before tanking down the stretch to a 5-16 record that raised giant red flags. Things were bad—real bad.

The New York Yankees wrapped up their season yesterday. They don’t play again until Wednesday night against the Twins in Minnesota.

The Philadelphia Phillies are associated with the month October.  For the past two seasons they have been the Kings of this month without much adieu.  They now boast the top pitching rotation in the field and already owned one of the game's best line-ups.  A line-up that still hasn't hit its stride yet this season. This post-season has a different feel, as they now look to achieve success through their arms rather than their bats.

The Wild Card New York Yankees will start the postseason in Minnesota against the AL Central Champion Twins.

Both teams will be critique over the next three days, as the sports media and baseball fans will express their opinions while trying to predict the outcome.

Now that the regular season has concluded and the playoffs are about to begin, you're going to notice a lot of new Yankees fans suddenly showing up around the office.