Yankee Series not won with traditional dominance--Reina

• A diminished OPS meant they would not win without pitching and outlasting. As in the dynasty years, Bronx Pitchers did more of the heavy lifting than Bronx Bombers.

"Over the course of their 15 games in the 2009 playoffs, the Yankees had an OPS of .772 and an ERA of 3.26.

• With a three-man rotation and 16 innings manned by Mariano Rivera, the Yankees shaved a full run off their regular season ERA of 4.26,

• but they lost 67 points on their OPS, most notably from Mark Teixeira (-.355) and Robinson Cano (-.325).

In terms of the Opsera, a simple formula I created that involves

• OPS and ERA, the Yankees trailed each of the previous four champions

• and clearly did not have a painlessly dominant path.

Recent Opseras of World Series Champs

• 2009 Yankees: 4.46, .772 OPS, 3.26 ERA

• 2008 Phillies: 4.91, .798 OPS, 3.07 ERA

• 2007 Red Sox: 4.77, .806 OPS, 3.29 ERA

• 2006 Cardinals: 4.59, .727 OPS, 2.68 ERA

• 2005 White Sox: 5.66,.821 OPS, 2.55 ERA

• 2004 Red Sox: 3.80,.827 OPS, 4.47 ERA

• 2003 Marlins: 2.68 .698 OPS, 4.30 ERA

• 2002 Angels: 3.97 .879 OPS, 4.82 ERA

We've become accustomed to watching a whole handful of players from the winning almost magically play above their heads with impeccable timing,

• but the Yankees seemed to win in spite of not possessing that due to their Xanadu-style depth.

• Alex Rodriguez, Hideki Matsui and Derek Jeter outperformed their typical selves and Johnny Damon setup the 3-1 World Series lead almost single-handedly with his Game 4 double steal, while CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Andy Pettitte had quality starts in 11 of the 15 games. I think quality starts tends to be an overused measure, particularly because it sets the bar so low for front of the rotation pitchers, but comparing a 73% rate to the regular season in which they had a
• 40% quality start rate is a significant jump and was the single biggest factor for why the Yankees had a winning percentage of .789 compared to .636 during the regular season. ...

More than imposing their superiority on opponents, the Yankees demonstrably showed that

• they would not be outlasted under any circumstance. ...

To the Brian Cashman's credit, however, the Yankees did spend less in relation to everybody else in comparison to New York payrolls of 2008 and 2005, being merely $52 million over the team with the second highest payroll. His free agency decisions

• last winter avoided half measures, the main cause of failure in that seven year drought (2)."...

"Notes

• (1) Under no circumstances can their 2001 season be cited as underachieving. They were up against the best postseason pitcher combination in recent history, playing in a post-9/11 New York and still a Mariano save away from winning the World Series.

• (2) Jaret Wright has become the picture definition of free agency's version of 'half measure.'

• (3) The Chicago school of economics favors a form of free market economics and libertarianism with very little regulation."

by Christopher Reina, RealGMBaseball.com, " 11/10/09, "New York World Series Win brings old arguments back to life"

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