What They're Saying: Umpires, The Overmanager, and ALCS Recaps

If you were out of the country since the playoff started and just read the media coverage of the playoffs, you'd probably think the umpires were the reason we are about to watch the Yankees and Phillies in the World Series, while the Yankees are here despite Joe Girardi. While that has been overblown quite a bit, the umpiring has been quite awful this postseason and Joe Girardi has been a little, um, anxious. And other people played in a part in the ALCS besides Girardi and the umpires. Let's see what the media has been saying about it:

• Gene Wojciechowski of ESPN says yes to increased instant replay...for the World Series. Buster Olney agrees.
  

• ESPN.com looks at the men who will be calling the games in the World Series and Baseball Prospectus rates them.

• Joe Girardi was not treated kindly at times. Jon Heyman says that Girardi "seemed to suffer from temporary insanity or incompetence at times in the ALCS". Slate seems to agree and calls him The Overmanager. Keith Law says his #1 key for the Yankees is to "hog-tie Joe Girardi and leave him in a clubhouse locker". Almost makes you yearn for the days of this overrated guy.

• Rob Neyer takes them all to task and says that most teams would loved to be overmanaged to within 4 wins of a World Series title.

• The ALCS: Ken Davidoff recaps the clinching Game 6 and so does Shysterball. Baseball Musings looks at what went wrong for the Angels, while David Pinto congratulates the Yankees. Steven Goldman congratulates the Yankees as well with some great analysis with one very true fact: "at least there were no umpiring controversies in the last game".

• The biggest controversy at the end of the ALCS? That CC won the MVP over A-Rod. Please, people. There are more important things to worry about. I think that A-Rod and CC were both great. CC won two games for them; Alex, maybe one. That's why I give it to CC, though I would have been fine with Alex winning or them splitting. Who cares? It's a meaningless award! And A-Rod not winning gives him extra motivation in the World Series (you know he must have some sort of bonus if he wins the World Series MVP).  

• Big League Stew votes for the split of the MVP. Mark Feinsand says that A-Rod was great but not as great as CC. Dugout Central gets their panties in a bunch over A-Rod not winning.

A few other articles that I couldn't fit elsewhere: Rob Neyer breaks down Johnny Damon and Bobby Abreu and asks if either or both are Hall of Fame worthy. Joe Posnanski breaks down his Top 10 Hitters Ever (A-Rod is not in the top-10 if you're curious, but Albert Pujols is). MLBTradeRumors is reviewing the trades of the past decade (there's surprisingly not really any Yankees ones on there, yet). Jonathan Papelbon is a weird motherfucker according to Deadspin. Lastly, a former Yankees prospect, Ross Ohlendorf, is headed for an internship in Washington. I know that the trade looked good at the time, but the Yankees could have sure used Ohlendorf in 2009.