Welcome to the Yankee Offseason

The Yankees failed to do what George Steinbrenner's millions were meant to accomplish year in and year out. That's win the World Series.

This year, they couldn't even make it out of the first round.

Not only didn't the pitching come around, but the hitting vanished as well.

Derek Jeter showed up. He batted 8-16 in the series, though after going 5-5 in the first game, went 3-11 thereafter. Jorge Posada went 7-14 in the series.

The rest of the team batted as though they were afraid of going above the Mendoza line.

Special scorn will go to Alex Rodriguez. Rightfully so. He can't perform under the pressure of the playoffs, which is why he was brought in to the Bronx in the first place. All those fancy statistics during the regular season are nice, and will help him to the Hall of Fame, but it's his playoff failures that will haunt him, and George for quite a long time to come. The same can be said for Gary Sheffield.

I don't think Randy Johnson's performance can be fairly judged. He has a bulging disc in his back, and probably shouldn't have pitched again, but tried to give his team a start. That didn't work.

As a Yankee fan, I'm very disappointed pissed in the way this team was bounced. It's not meant as an offense to the Tigers, who scrapped, pitched, and hit better than the Yanks throughout the series.

The big names failed to show up. Sheffield, Giambi, Johnson, and Mussina.

So what do to?

The Yankees will retool and regroup. They've got free agents to unload, including Bernie Williams, Mike Mussina and Gary Sheffield. Bernie will be seriously missed, as his contributions to the Yankees for more than a decade helped produce the four World Championships, and decade of dominance in the AL East.

Mussina was brought in to bolster a pitching rotation that would help put them over the top, but he's not helped win a World Championship.

Sheffield was here for just a short time, but Steinbrenner has already found a replacement in the likes of Bobby Abreu.

I think the Yankees need to get younger. They need to give guys like Melky Cabrera a greater role. Melky succeeded this year when Matsui and Sheffield went down and showed he can handle the pressure, and even showed that he could play defense as well.

There are reports that Steinbrenner is ready to fire Joe Torre. Well, that's certainly his right, but is it Torre's fault that all those high priced hitters didn't produce during this series? Some would consider this to be one of Torre's better seasons managing given all the injuries during the course of the season and the way they managed all those injuries and still won the AL East title going away.

Torre is going to the Hall of Fame as a manager, but that wont help him in Steinbrenner's book. He hasn't won in six years; the World Series, that is. That's the only thing that counts in Steinbrenner's book.

Perhaps Lou Pinella would breathe some new fire into the team from above. I like Lou. He's a firey sort, and wouldn't be afraid to get in the face of players. Joe Torre was more laid back in his approach.

Most of all, Yankee fans have to hear it from Met fans who are still gloating that they've won their ALDS series against the Dodgers. We'll be hearing about that all offseason too. I'll be hearing it from Mrs. Lawhawk.

I fully expect the 2007 Yankees to look substantially different than the 2006 version, and would be surprised if there aren't major changes. Hot stove, here we come.