What Is Your Biggest Fear For The Yankees Going Into the Playoffs?

What is your biggest area of concern for the Yankees going into October? CC's lack of playoff success? AJ's up and down season? Andy's arm? Joba's big question mark? Running out of gas? Possibly facing a good pitching team in the Tigers? A-rod and his October demons? A possible Red Sox or Angels match-up in round 2 (and having to go to those two parks where the Yanks have had trouble)? Looking ahead to the second round and getting pounced on in round 1? A key injury? A guy like Brian Bruney or Phil Coke imploding in a big spot? Jorge Posada catching every game? Etc...

The Wall Street Journal thinks they may have clinched too early. Hopefully it won't be the Sports Illustrated Cover curse. I posed that above question to a few friends and was curious what their response would be. So I e-mailed them and let the e-mail chain roll for a day. Here's what I got:

Andrew: For me, the biggest fear, as Joel Sherman alludes to, is home run reliance. This team has hit a tremendous amount of home runs and have hit them up and down the lineup, especially at home. But what happens if the wind is blowing in in October or they face hot pitching or they go on the road to a park like Detroit where you can't as easily hit it out? Will they be able to adjust and win with small ball? I don't mean bunting (Joe Girardi has shown an annoying tendency to bunt with good hitters and I, personally, HATE it), but hit and runs or getting the guy in from third with less than two outs.

A guy like Robinson Cano is the perfect example: will he press too much to hit one out at home that he won't do what it takes to get the job done and continue his awful regular season RISP hitting? The fear I have is that they go into these playoffs as they went in the last time they faced the Tigers in 2006: a tremendous offensive lineup that couldn't adjust to October baseball.

Ben: I have to agree with Andrew. As with most of the recent Yankee playoff failures, I fear that this team's regular season success and ability to dominate their opponents will fail to translate into postseason success.

One of the great things about the Yankee dynasty is that whenever they were down and seemed out, they never pressed, which is why they were so successful. We don't know how well this Yankee team will respond to the pressures of being down in a series or facing a possible elimination game.

However, for the first time, I believe Alex Rodriguez's lack of postseason success in recent years has become one of the less worrisome concerns.

Jay: Not to be off topic but Chuck Knoblauch...wow. I had to pass that along.

Glenn: For me, it comes down to the starting pitching. I'm not worried about CC and Peter Gammons had a great article on ESPN.com yesterday on why we shouldn't look this his past postseason history as a guide for what will happen this time around. I'm also not worried about Andy because even when he doesn't have his best stuff, you can always count on him to give you everything he does have and sometimes, that's good enough.

The biggest question mark is Burnett. With him, it feels like you have to flip a coin every night and see what side it lands on. I'm encouraged by his last few starts, but he put together a string of great starts in the middle of the summer and then suddenly forgot to pitch again. I'm hoping that's not the case this time around.

Paul: Everything is well said so not much more to add. Just a couple things:

1) It's tough being a Yankee fan sometimes because it’s all or nothing so of course everyone has worries because it’s simply difficult to go all the way

2) I agree that pitching is the key, the hitting should be fine. One thing not to underestimate is that it seems like the culture of the team has changed (for the better). All the pie celebrations, etc.. shouldn’t go overlooked. This team seems like they are having fun and pick each other up so I’m happy about that.

Dad: One big problem I could see is the outfield defense. Damon is awful out in left and Swisher is an adventure out in rightfield. Teams may also try to take advantage of their arms are take the extra base. That could prove pivotal in the playoffs.
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So there you have it. It looks like it will be the Tigers in the first round. What's your biggest fear for the Yankees?