The Yankees have been an incredibly frustrating team to follow over the past 6 seasons. It’s one thing to watch your team rebuilding but it’s quite another to watch an All-Star team falter in the post-season year after year. Hopefully this year will be different but I also thought last year would be different, and the year before that. In an effort to figure out why the Bombers keep on losing in the post-season, I decided to look at the great Yankee teams of late 90s (’96-’00) and what I found was puzzling. The Yankee teams of ‘01-’06 were considerably better, at least statistically, than the teams of ‘96-’00. From ‘96 to ‘00, the Yankees’ winning percentage was .601, an average of 97 wins per season. From ‘01 to ‘06, their winning percentage was .609, an average of 98.67 wins per season. In fact, the worst Yankee team of the past decade was the 2000 team (87-74), which won the World Series. The championship team of ‘96 won only 92 games and the Yankees have won more games than that in every season since 2001!
I can’t figure it out. What is it that made the Yankees better in the regular season and worse in the playoffs? And I’m not interested in any theories of the “Yankees suck” variety. I want serious answers. Anyone?