NEW YORK — For $201,449,189, you should get just about everything, shouldn’t you? The Yankees have offensive firepower, power starting pitching and the greatest closer in the history of the game. They also might have Kryptonite to slow down the Phillies’ Supermen.

To thwart Game 1 starter Cliff Lee, they have experience. To thwart NLCS MVP Ryan Howard, they have quality lefthanded pitching.
And if they can weaken that pair, well ... this Fall Classic could be over before you have time to memorize all of the exits on the New Jersey Turnpike.
Love the Phillies’ story. Love that they’re trying to become the first repeat champs since the 1999-2000 Yankees, featuring current Yankees Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera; Joe Girardi left the Yankees after ’99. Don’t love their chances, though. And it starts with the guys most responsible for getting them this far.
Lee has elevated his status the past two years. He went from not even being on the Indians’ 2007 postseason roster to winning the ’08 American League Cy Young Award, then putting together an excellent ’09 as he was traded to the Phils. So when you look at his career numbers against the Yankees, you need to keep that in perspective. The bulk of the work done by Alex Rodriguez (1.183 OPS) Mark Teixeira (1.157), Jeter (.985), Posada (.939) and Nick Swisher (.903) occurred before ’08.
“The biggest difference is that he used to throw only inside to righties and outside to lefties, and now he throws to the arm side of the plate, too,” an American League coach said. “Righty hitters used to be able to look for everything middle in, but now he throws it to the other side of the plate. Also, he now throws his curveball for a strike, and he can also bounce it.”
Fair enough. But you’d think the Yankees’ hitters’ success against Lee would give them some measure of confidence against him. There wouldn’t be the same fear factor as there is going against, say, Roy Halladay.
“He’s not one of those guys that scares you with his stuff,” the coach agreed. “But then you look up, it’s the eighth inning and you’ve got one hit, because he’s been so efficient and commands so well. He can run through lineups really quickly.”
Even if Lee does beat the Yankees — and remember, he’ll have to outpitch former Indians teammate CC Sabathia to do so — the Phillies have no one else to stop their raging lineup. No one. The Kryptonite to Lee would be his own teammates.
“Cole Hamels, if he can throw his changeup to both sides of the plate, they have a chance,” a National League scout said. But Hamels has been dreadful against teams vastly inferior to the Yankees in this postseason.
As for Howard, this ain’t brain surgery. He put up a dreadful .653 OPS against lefties in the regular season. In the small sample size of the playoffs, he has performed better: In 13 plate appearances against lefties, he has a .462 on-base percentage and .667 slugging percentage. But Sabathia and Pettitte, who could start five of the seven games, present a greater challenge than Joe Beimel, Scott Elbert, Clayton Kershaw, Hong-Chih Kuo, Franklin Morales, George Sherrill and Randy Wolf.
The NL scout said: “He can’t hit a breaking ball away. If the lefties throw any fastballs in the strike zone to Howard, they should have their heads examined. Howard is the NL equivalent of Alex. Both are hot. Don’t pitch to either one in the strike zone. If they walk, they walk.”
The Yankees simply have more talent, so much so that they should be able to neutralize the Phils’ top talent. In which case ... grab those cheesesteaks quickly, before it’s time to report to the Canyon of Heroes.