He is at the back of the order, so there is no pressure on him. Put some pressure on him so he knows he has to be more disciplined at the plate. Only way to fix his lacksadasical way.

Carlos Pena is who the Yanks need to get to take over 1st base. It’s been rumoured and a rumor I like. He is a get on base kinda kid and hits HR’s. He is quick and agile. Cheap to get.

As for the relievers, the Rangers are the only ones who are going to deal and Otsuka and Gagne would be a major upgrade over the crap we have now. Look for the rest in our farmsystem and get rid of everyone but Vizcaino, Proctor, and Mo.
Otsuka, Gagne, Proctor, Britton, Vizcaino, Mo is a nice bullpen to have. Even keeping Myers would be fine, but he is not a lefty specialist so stop with that already.

Torre’s bullpen blunderby: Rob Neyer
posted: Wednesday, June 27, 2007 | Feedback | Print Entry

I’m 100 percent sure that Joe Torre is trying to win.
Well, maybe 99 percent sure. I know just enough about quantum physics to know I can’t be 100 percent sure about anything.

But I’m 99 percent sure that Torre is trying to win. After all, someday he’s going to be elected to the Hall of Fame as a manager, and there aren’t many Hall of Fame managers who weren’t really, really trying to win.

You had to wonder last night, though. You had to wonder, while watching Scott Proctor walk home the winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning, with Mariano Rivera never having thrown a single pitch in the game.

As a friend wrote me last night, a few seconds after Corey Patterson trotted home with that winning run,

It’s just insane. There is no logical reason why, facing a situtation WHERE YOU CANNOT GIVE UP A RUN, OR YOU LOSE (and fall two games under .500), you would choose Proctor over Rivera. This is managing to a statistic — the save — rather than to win. According to Torre’s logic, you use Proctor when you simply can’t give up a run, and you use Rivera when you can. Absurd.
Indeed. I’ve been harping on this since (at least) Game 4 of the 2003 World Series, when the Yankees lost a 12-inning game and Rivera never left the bullpen. But Torre keeps making the same mistake, over and over and over again.

Last Saturday in San Francisco, the Yankees lost a 13-inning game. Rivera never left the bullpen. In fact, every relief pitcher pitched except the Yankees’ best relief pitcher.

Granted, Rivera had thrown 20 pitches the night before. So we’ll cut Torre some slack there. But last night? Rivera hadn’t pitched at all since that 20-pitch outing last Friday. Last night he was as well-rested as you’d ever want your closer to be. No slack on this one.

In Torre’s autobiography he wrote, “I’m more concerned about winning the game than trying to cover my butt.”

Really, Joe? Next time you’re on the road and the game’s tied in the ninth, prove it.

To be serious, I think there are two solutions to the 1B problem. First, acquire Seung Yeop Lee (or Seung Yeop Yee as the Japanese spell it) from Yomiuri Giants. I think he shared the most HR title with someone else in the World Baseball Classics (8 HR, I think). He tried last year but no MLB teams signed him. That’s strange to me. He is definitely the best Asian hitter at the moment, and it is obvious that he wishes very much to go to MLB. He broke the HR record in a single season held by Sadaharu Oh, a record that Matsui has never been close to. And his defense is reasonable. Finally, his wife is gorgeous.

The second idea, put A-Rod to 1B and find a 3B, or move Jeter to 3B and find a SS.

I think it a good idea to move the lineup around more seriously. I do not buy the idea that one player will feel more comfortable playing the 1st, the 3rd, the 7th or something. Just move them around so that they are regularly reminded that the boss, the GM, and the fans want wins. Moving A-Rod to the 3rd is a good idea. He could not protect the 3rd at bat too much because pitchers try their best to get the 3rd out so as to reduce possible damage. Meanwhile, there are not many protections behind him. Try to create more threats to the opponents by moving A-Rod forward.

Besides, move Cano to 1st before possibly trading him. He’s not slow. Ask him to run more so that he could not go to the game drunk. Although he has discipline problem as many people here accused him, he hit a lot of 2B and 3B when he hit. That’s a good thing for a 1st at bat. Give him more responsibility. If they really want to build the team around him, do that and teach him how to be the leader of the team.

I don’t care. Not a stat geek.

I just know what I see. The pitchers walk too many guys.

And everyone knows in late innings when you walk someone, that someone scores.

“Actually before you send Bobby Aboo Aboo somewhere tie him to the wall in the batting cage put a catcher’s mask on him and drill him with 95 MPH heat from the pitching machine and don’t let him wear a cup either MAYBE HE WILL GROW UP AND ACT LIKE A MAN!!!”

“VOID GIAMBI’s contract I don’t care if you have to plant roids at his house do whatever it takes!!!!!!!!”

“Post Igawa up for Japanese teams to bid on him.”

HAHAHA those are good

Here’s a reason: the streak earlier this month was an aberration.

Want some other reasons? Start reading from the top…

Still, as my man, Ron Benbow admonished– thanks for the blog incidentally– “We shouldn’t lose faith.” Not just yet anyway.

Trading any of the core player on the team at this juncture reeks of panic. Cano, I concede, is having a middling season thus far. He’s tense and anxious at the plate and swings at every pitch whether in the strike zone or not. As Ron observed, he seems behind in the count in virtually every at-bat, and instead of driving the ball to left and center-field, as he does when he’s thriving, he’s pulling everything to right field.

Still, Cano is the best young player on the Yankees’ major league roster and probably has more potential than any position player in their entire system, save Tabata.

For those searching for hope and light amid this dark malaise, I offer the following:

As we all know, winning begins with quality starting pitching. And if we define a quality start by 6+ innings ceding three runs or less, the Yankees received another one last night; the third quality start on this otherwise woeful road-trip. This bodes well. And if the Yankees can bolster their bullpen and add a bat at first-base, there is no reason this team can’t win 50+ games after the All-Star break.

The bullpen, indeed, has been wretched. But the offense bears its share of blame as well. Bullpen work is taxing enough physically. But when a reliever constantly enters tie and one run games to hold leads, and anticipates that a single mistake will end in disaster, because his offense can’t bail him out, he avoids the strike zone or nibbles on the corners and induces walks. I suspect that Proctor and Bruney fell victim to this the past few games.

The third-hitter in the lineup, whomever Torre decides to put there, also needs to start hitting. Quite frankly, I don’t perceive Matsui a much better option there at the moment than Abreu. Matsui’s mired in a slump every bit as intractable as Abreu, and Matsui doesn’t earn walks with same frequency. (Matusi 28 BBs; Abreu 40 BBs.)

Were I Torre I would consider stacking his productive bats. That means batting Damon(if healthy), Jeter, A-Rod, and Posada in succession and not worrying whether lefties and righties alternate. In fact, tonight, against a tough lefty-handed pitcher like Bedard, don’t be surprised if Torre bats Jeter and AROD consecutively, and marshalls his right-handed bats by sitting Cano, playing Cairo at 2nd and Phillips at 1st.

Things look grim right now, I know. But there’s no reason why the Yankees can’t put together succession of streaks in the second-half that mirror the one they went on earlier this month. They have more talent than any of the other wild-card contenders. And the 1995 season should not be too distant a memory to exclude the possibility.

Without question, Steinbrenner has given Torre too long to right this ship, and Torre hasn’t. As I’ve said many a time, Torre is a grandfather, he stopped being a manager long ago and is incapable of leading this team.

The Yankees have too much talent to have a record like they do. This points squarely at the manager and coaches.

The foundation for any good team is a manager and coaches who knows how to put players in a position to succeed. To do that they need a strategy for success and reasonable in-game management skills. Torre doesn’t demonstate this and I’m sorry, apparently Guidry and Long and the Bull pen coach do not either.

In order for the Yankees to turn the page and move forward they need to fire the manager.

Why not Cashman, give him one more year, he has communicated and is implementing a strategy that will pay off near term.