Adding, on the Yankees: it appears that Brian Cashman loads up on big, slow power hitters who are mediocre fielders. Year after year. Note this year's Twin Towers Plus, Judge-Stanton-Gallo, along with Sanchez, Torres, and Rizzo. They built themselves an "all short-porch" ballpark a decade ago, and they've stumbled ever since, yet they fit the same sort of teams to their park. Their pitching is never much, but it's not clear if that's the fault of the pitchers or that the pitchers work in a place designed for pop-fly home runs. Aaron Boone, in end-of-year talks, seems to be saying that "teams have passed us", even though the Yankees spend and spend.
Yankee hitters are not necessarily to be coveted.
The Yankees were 6th in MLB in team ERA this year. So not clear what you mean about the pitching. The hitting was what failed them this year. And Tampa is darn good so it was the wild card for them. I suspect if they played Boston 10 games they would have split them. They missed DJ also. The Yankees were 92-70 this year. If that is failure I am in favor of failure.
Edit: Over the past 4 full seasons they have 91, 100, 103 and 92 wins. Not bad. As we know with the Nats bad things can happen to good teams in the playoffs. And you may even play cheaters.
