No playoffs? On to 2009.

Yep, the New York Yankees season is over for 2008. For the first time since 1995, the Yanks are not going to the playoffs. All great streaks must come to an end, but I bet no one thought it would have been because of the emergence of the Tampa Bay Rays (formerly known as the Tampa Bay Devil Rays).

But kudos to the Rays, from the front-office to the players, for going from last to first. The funniest thing was hearing that the Rays didn’t know who was going to throw out the ceremonial 1st pitch for their home playoff games. As Puff Daddy would say, “Jill, that’s a good problem to have”.

Obviously I won’t be cheering for the Red Sox, and I have no emotional connection to either the Angels, ChiSox or Twins (the AL Central is still not settled), so that will leave me cheering for the Rays in the AL. As for the NL, I’ll go with the Cubbies. Everyone else has ended their droughts in baseball, so I think they are due.

As for what I think will happen for the Yanks in the off-season, here goes:

• Brian Cashman stays. Who else wants to deal with the Bronx Zoo, or has the capacity to actually do it?
• Jason Giambi is gone. The Yanks have too many people who bat lefty and have fielding issues. At least Damon has some speed and plays a respectable left field. He could also move to 1st base, if need be.
• Bobby Abreu will be offered arbitration and it will be left at that. They won’t work around the clock to make a deal happen. If Bobby leaves, the draft picks come in anyway. They need to start bringing catchers along – clearly Jorge Posada will not be playing catcher for the duration of his contract.
• Carl Pavano cannot be back. Please!
• Andy Pettite was terrible in August and September. Not sure if he will be back, or if he will try a “Roger Clemens” deal where he comes back in June instead of Spring Training. I think he is going to retire.
• Mike Mussina finally got his 20 win season, which was nice and will hopefully end the stupid HoF talk about if he is worthy. The Yanks will offer a 1-year deal max, but whether that is enough for Moose is something else.
• Robinson Cano will be traded. I think Joe Torre and Larry Bowa would be happy to have him because Bowa knew how to get the best from both him and Melky Cabrera. Cano doesn’t seem to have clicked with Girardi.
• At first I thought CC Sabathia would be a lock for the Yanks. But the Brewers have put an enormous strain on him with pitching on 3 days rest for the past 3 starts. And if they go far in the postseason, you know he is getting the ball any time it is possible. I’m thinking that AJ Burnett moves within the AL East from the Blue Jays to the Yankees.
• Ben Sheets will not be coming to NYY. Neither will K-Rod or Derek Lowe. Now Brian Fuentes as a bridge to Mariano Rivera? That’s a possibility.

With that…. Go Rays! Go Cubs!