As for the Yanks in 2005, Kevin Brown came back, Pavano was signed, Randy came on board and those were weak adjustments.
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Adjustments were so weak, they won 95 games, second best record in the league behind the White Sox… And another division title.

That damn Cashman!

That line about the Rays getting better is the scariest. If you thought that this year was tough, Price will be coming on board. If the Rays were still the Devil Rays( and played like them), the Yanks and the Jays would be in a dogfight to the end. BUT because of that factor, veteran players on the Yanks can be hungry as they want, a new powerhouse is in the division and the Rays are here to stay………

IN 2005, the Yankees didn’t make the correct adjustments. Quite frankly, in a short time Theo and Co bulit a better ball team by adjusting what Duquette had created. After, 2003 Boston saw what they needed more than anything, a closer. Getting Shrilling helped too. As for the Yanks in 2005, Kevin Brown came back, Pavano was signed, Randy came on board and those were weak adjustments. Once again, blame Cashman!

Steve, I think you’re way off base here.

You really believe that the ’97 loss was so traumatic that they WILLED themselves to win 114 games on the way to taking the series?

Just because the 2005 team didn’t win doesn’t mean they didn’t take 2004 to heart or they weren’t on a mission. It says absolutely nothing about them as people. It just means they didn’t win. You’re using the fact that the team didn’t win to make assumptions about their character. They could have been hell-bent on winning like never before. They just. Didn’t. Win.

The ’98 squad didn’t use the experiences of ’97 to “gain a killer attitude,” that allowed them to will themselves to victory. They were the right combination of lucky and really effin’ good.

Again, I think you’re projecting a narrative onto the ballfield that doesn’t necessarily have any connection to reality.

Ask the members of the 1997 team that were then on the 1998 team. Most will say that losing the ALDS in ‘97, one that they should have won, left them with a feeling that they never wanted to have again…and they used that to gain a killer-attitude for ‘98.
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Just because players believe something (Carl Everett & Dinosaurs, Damon/Posada & Joba’s role to name a couple)does not make it true.

As for the numbers

2004: 5.54 (rs/g), 4.99 (ra/g), .684 (DefEff)
2005: 5.47 (rs/g), 4.87 (ra/g), .689 (DefEff)
2006: 5.74 (rs/g), 4.73 (ra/g), .695 (DefEff)
2007: 5.98 (rs/g), 4.80 (ra/g), .687 (DefEff)
2008: 4.83 (rs/g), 4.56 (ra/g), .681 (DefEff)

With the exception of the 2008′s team offense, it seems to me they’ve played about the same over the years.

Ask the members of the 1997 team that were then on the 1998 team. Most will say that losing the ALDS in ’97, one that they should have won, left them with a feeling that they never wanted to have again…and they used that to gain a killer-attitude for ’98.

That’s what I meant. Losing in 2004, in the way that they did, should have left that team with a feeling that they never wanted to experience again…and they should have been on a mission in 2005. But, they didn’t play 2005 like they did in 1998, etc….

Same deal with 2006 into 2007.

Maybe Torre had something to do with it? Having one ring, vs. four, maybe left them feeling fat…I dunno…

I just know that the 1998 Yankees learned from the pain of 1997. And, it doesn’t seem like another Yankees team has been able to take the pain from an embarrassing post-season and use it for motivation the following year…

Just don’t bring back a lot of the guys. No more Abreu, no more Giambi, no more Pettite, and no more Mussina.

Mussina had a very surprising season, but the old baseball saw is it’s better to trade a player a year early than a year late. No trade involved of course, just don’t give him a contract. I doubt Mussina will pitch anywhere near this well in 2009.

Back up the truck to the Stadium.

Nine more years of the A-Freud Circus to go.

I mean, the 2005 Yankees didn’t learn from the pain of the 2004 ALCS. And, the 2007 Yankees didn’t learn from being embarrassed in the 2006 ALDS.
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How do you figure? The fact that they lost in 2005, 2006, or 2007 doesn’t mean they weren’t trying.

Personally, I think the 1998 connection to 1997 was overblown.
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Point being that if the 1998 team learned from the 1997 team, the 1999 team should’ve learned from the 1998 team…

Personally, I think the 1998 connection to 1997 was overblown.

1997: 5.50 (rs/g), 4.25 (ra/g), .684 (DefEff)
1998: 5.96 (rs/g), 4.05 (ra/g), .707 (DefEff)
1999: 5.56 (rs/g), 4.51 (ra/g), .695 (DefEff)

The 1997 ALDS was a tightly contested series, with the last two games having could have gone either way.

Whose who are into those sort of things, notice “Big Game Pitcher” Andy Pettitte going 0-2 in the series…