Raul Ibanez? Really?

One of the overlooked details of the Yankees' 17-year dominance in baseball is their uncanny ability to find aging veterans with just enough talent remaining to contribute to the team. Starting in the late 1990s, with Chili Davis, Ruben Sierra and Darryl Strawberry, the Yankees have had a steady stream of power hitters who were once multiple-time All Stars -- but certainly not Hall of Fame candidates -- sign on for a year or two and outperform their expectations. Do you realize that Glenallen Hill had 16 home runs and an OPS of 1.11 in the final 40 games of 2000 for the Yankees? This year's squad is full of such examples: Andruw Jones, Eric Chavez, Ichiro Suzuki (who looked finished for the Mariners but then hit .322 after being traded to New York), and, yes, Raul Ibanez. Ibanez was a good outfielder for the Mariners and Phillies; he hit 33 homers, had 123 RBI and batted .289 in 2006. But, really, Raul Ibanez hit a game-tying pinch-hit home run in the bottom of ninth and the game-winning home run in the bottom of the twelfth of Game 3 to beat the Orioles? Unbelievable.

The Yankees deserve a begrudging amount of credit for so shrewdly finding these players. That they've had so much success with them is probably a combination of their large payroll, which allows them to take the risk; the extensive talent on the team, which allows them to use such players sparingly, typically as the designated hitter, so they can maximize their effectiveness; and the promise that they'll be in the playoffs, which probably inspires players to perform better. Whatever the case, the Yankees do this well.

With the playoffs' first round now complete, it's tough to see that all the charming teams -- the Athletics, Nationals, Orioles and Reds -- are eliminated. Those left -- the Yankees, Tigers, Giants and Cardinals -- are the ones we've come to expect to do well in the playoffs in the past five years. These games were really exciting to follow but ultimately ended up where they were expected to, which isn't all that exciting.