While the rainout of Game 1 is certainly frustrating to us as fans, it’s got to be even more frustrating for Joe Girardi, as the loss of Sunday’s off day creates a host of problems for the Yankees’ manager to navigate now, and has turned this ALDS on its head.

The first problem, obviously, is what to do with C.C. Sabathia. The big guy is saying he’ll lobby for the ball on Sunday, which would in theory allow him to pitch again in Game 5 on short rest, but my guess is the Yankees’ won’t push their ace that hard, and we won’t see C.C. until Monday night, which would then be the only game of the series he can start. Secondly, playing four days in a row will force the Yankees to use four starting pitchers instead of three, and my guess is that means A.J. Burnett will start Game 4 if necessary. Both teams are being given the chance to reset their rosters, so the Yankees could add Bartolo Colon if they want, but for some reason I’m pretty sure it will be Burnett Girardi asks to take the hill if they do play a Game 4, though I would expect them to add another pitcher to the bullpen.

But the big problem for the Yankees is that playing four days in a row will significantly limit Girardi’s ability to aggressively deploy his bullpen. Under the traditional ALDS format that includes no more than two straight days of play, Girardi could have pushed Mariano Rivera, David Robertson, and Rafael Soriano in the late innings, safe in the knowledge that he wouldn’t have to ask them to pitch any more than two days in a row. Now, without an off day for at least four days, Girardi will have to be more judicious and take care to not overwork any of those guys. That totally negates a big advantage the Yankees had coming into the series, and puts a lot more pressure on Ivan Nova, Freddy Garcia, and whomever the fourth starter they (potentially) ask to take the hill might be.

So, that happened. Wednesday night brought us maybe the best night of baseball ever. Friday night brought us a 9-0 blowout and a Verlander/Sabathia matchup that got rained out after two innings. Such is baseball.

The Yankees and Tigers pick up in the bottom of the second tomorrow night at 8:37 PM (when it’s also supposed to rain, surprisingly enough), and Game 3 will be Sunday at 3:07. Stay tuned.

New York Yankees
1. Derek Jeter SS
2. Curtis Granderson CF
3. Robinson Cano 2B
4. Alex Rodriguez 3B
5. Mark Teixeira 1B
6. Nick Swisher RF
7. Jorge Posada DH
8. Russell Martin C
9. Brett Gardner LF
CC Sabathia P

Detroit Tigers
1. Austin Jackson CF
2. Magglio Ordonez RF
3. Delmon Young LF
4. Miguel Cabrera 1B
5. Victor Martinez DH
6. Alex Avila C
7. Ryan Raburn 2B
8. Jhonny Peralta SS
9. Brandon Inge 3B
Justin Verlander P

Feel free to use this as an open thread until the Yankee game starts, and then as your open game thread. First pitch is at 8:37 PM in the Bronx. Go Yankees!

In case you have not been following the debacle in Scranton, PNC Field will be closed next season as it will undergo a $40 million renovation.  There have been some problems with PNC in the past, so it is good the Yankees are getting this done.  The downside, however, is that the Yankees Triple-A affiliate will be without a home stadium next season.  There have been multiple discussions about possible places for them to play, a missed deadline and then some outrage as the Mets blocked them from being able to pay in Newark. Now, according to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees Blog, the Yankees have announced that they will be splitting their home games across six different fields.  The breakdown is this:  37 games in Rochester, ten in Syracuse, seven in Batavia, six in Buffalo, and twelve to be split between Pawtucket and Lehigh Valley.  So watch out for the Scranton/WB Yankees – they could be coming to play a home game at a field near you!

Last year, on the occasion of Roy Halladay and Tim Lincecum matching up in Game 1 of the NLCS, I wrote about how exceedingly rare it was for two truly elite pitchers (by “elite,” I mean, among the top five or so pitchers in the game at the given moment) to square off in a postseason game.  Obviously, one cannot guarantee that two such pitchers will even make the playoffs, much less have their teams meet and their throwing schedules line up.  Thankfully, for a second season in a row, the stars have aligned, and Game 1 of the ALDS in New York will not only feature two of the top talents in the league, but the two prohibitive favorites for this years AL Cy Young.

Not since 2001, when Cy Young winner Roger Clemens lost to runner-up Mark Mulder has the ALDS featured such a matchup.  And 2001, as you may recall, was not the greatest season for pitching.  The Rocket’s 5.4 rWAR would barely be good enough for 8th in the AL in 2011, as far from Cy Young consideration as Doug Fister or Gio Gonzalez.  Before tonight, the best cumaltive rWAR for opposing pitchers in an ALDS matchup was Pedro Martinez and Tim Hudson in 2003.  C. C. Sabathia and Justin Verlander have been 1.4 wins better.  So, I posit that we have the good fortune of kicking off the 2011 playoffs with the best pitching matchup in ALDS history.

Further giving us the sense that this pairing was fated, one might remember that these were the Opening Day starters in the Bronx many moons ago.

First, the basics:

As Brien argued not long ago, while the mainstream media have positioned Verlander as the clear Cy Young (and even MVP) frontrunner, Sabathia has a strong case, especially according to the advanced metrics.  These are similar players, and not just according to their statistical performances.  Obviously, they both epitomize the power pitcher.  Verlander tied Alexi Ogando for the MLB lead in average fastball velocity in 2011 at 95.0 MPH.  Sabathia ranked 8th at 93.8 MPH.

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Via Mark Hale, the Yankees have announced their ALDS roster. They’ll be carrying 11 pitchers, so the roster breaks down as follows:

Pitchers

C.C. Sabathia
Freddy Garcia
Ivan Nova
Phil Hughes
A.J. Burnett
Mariano Rivera
David Robertson
Rafael Soriano
Boone Logan
Cory Wade
Luis Ayala

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Just a friendly reminder that you can join the IIATMS crew for a pre-postseason chat today at 2:00 P.M. We’ll be talking about the Yankees, the playoffs, baseball in general, our desert preferences, basically anything you want to talk about. Hope to see you there!

Autumn is one of my favorite seasons. The summer heat fades away; jackets, sweaters and scarves make a comeback; the leaves crisp, color, and then hue the ground. People start carving pumpkins and planning Halloween costumes.

More importantly, Autumn is when the Yankees play postseason baseball. This year, the Bombers will open the playoffs against the Detroit Tigers, a team with two legitimate top tier MVP candidates, a very strong 1-2 punch at the top of their rotation, a solid bullpen, and a number of under-the-radar position players who have turned in impressive 2011 seasons. Make no mistake, the Yankees will have their hands full in the first round.

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Yet another reason why the internet is teh awesome. Thank you, CHB, Big Red, or whatever you kids call him these days!

h/t: NotGraphs

There probably won’t be a final ALDS roster until later in the afternoon tomorrow, but here’s some things to chew on on that front while we count down the hours to 8:37 tomorrow night.

• Alex Rodriguez was a late scratch in last night’s game, as he’s still feeling that thumb injury he’s been dealing with. Joe Girardi expects him to be in the lineup everyday in the postseason, however. Hopefully the thumb doesn’t limit his effectiveness too much.
• Also in last night’s game, Jesus Montero took a pitch off of his hand, forcing him to leave the game early. X-rays were negative, and I haven’t seen anything else about Montero today, so I assume he’s fine.
• Girardi also confirmed that Chris Dickerson will be on the ALDS roster.
• Raul Valdes will not.
• A.J. Burnett is “good about” the decision to go with three starters who are not him in the ALDS. I have no idea what else he’s supposed to say, but there you go.
• And finally, Jorge Posada is slated to be the Yankees’ DH for the series. Nothing surprising there, as Posada has hit .269/.348/.466 against RHP this year, and Detroit will be throwing all right-handed starters at the Yankees in the series.

(This post was originally published at ESPN’s Sweetspot blog)

Here’s five reasons the Yankees could emerge from the 2011 postseason as World Series champions for the 28th time:

1. Their offense is really good. In terms of wRC+, they’re second among playoff teams to only the Rangers, and they’re the best in baseball against lefties. That could prove to be a big in potential matchups with Texas and Philadelphia.

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I’ve emerged from yesterday’s Greatest Day of Baseball Ever with a sense of fear and shock. Baseball is a great game, in the same sense that a god of wrath and retribution can be a great god.

How do we understand the Baseball Prospectus calculation that when we entered September, the Red Sox had a 99.6% chance of making the playoffs? That the Red Sox’s failure to make the playoffs is an event we’d expect to see once every 250 years? Combine this with FanGraphs calculation that at one point in last night’s Yankees game, the Rays had only a 0.3% chance of winning – does that mean that the Rays’ comeback was of a magnitude you’d expect to see once every 333 games?

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