The latest from Tampa
-
- October
- 25
Brian Cashman is believed to be meeting with the Steinbrenner family.
Hank Steinbrenner said today that the team would abide by the wishes of Bud Selig and may not announce a manager until after the World Series. But if they select a manager today, it will leak out eventually.
Selig would be best served to let the Yankees make their announcement on Friday rather than have four or five days of speculation and rumors.
Meanwhile, ESPN.com is reporting that Joe Girardi could end up with the Dodgers if Grady Little is fired.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, October 25th, 2007 at 4:31 pm by Peter Abraham.
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Peter Abraham
Is that Girardi-to-Dodgers rumor to lead us to believe that maybe something already HAS leaked and that Girardi will be needing a job elsewhere?
I don’t think so.
I would think that Girardi would have to go up against Torre if that job opened.
I hope Girardi gets the LA job. Mattingly will get the Yankees gig and the Steinbrenners will go on a smooth PR campaign trying to sell us on Donnie BB: The Manager era…..
Selig is a TOAD!
Let ‘em announce it Friday! What is the big deal that they can’t/shouldn’t?!?
you can’t keep secrets on the internet.
>> Is that Girardi-to-Dodgers rumor to lead us to believe that maybe something already HAS leaked and that Girardi will be needing a job elsewhere? >>
Or, a clever move by Girardi’s people to put the pressure on the Yankees FO – hire Joe or he’s going elsewhere.
In the meantime, it’s Yankees manager or the horse farm for Donnie.
Pete,
Did Cash say what colored smoke we’ll see come out of the chimney for each candidate?
I highly doubt the Yankees will abide by the “rules”. If Girardi ends up being the Dodgers manager and Mattingly is the Yankees imagine a Yankees vs. Dodgers world series. that’ll be fun.
I heard a lot of buzz on Torre for the Dodgers job too. Poor Girardi, perfectly great candidate but horrible timing. What are the chances someone has to go up against Don Mattingly and Joe Torre two jobs in a row and in a matter of weeks?
Selig is a TOAD!
true, but Irabu is a fat toad
I don’t think the Girardi-to-LA story means there was a leak. Just more spitballing and musical chairs.
If the seat opens up in LA, Girardi may be the hot manager at the right price. It’s time to face the perceptions of Torre outside NY. Torre will undoubtedly have to face the undercurrent – - false though it may be – - that he cannot win without a $200 million payroll full of All-Stars. Girardi has done the job for much less money, with a smaller budget and far less team talent. Also, does Frank McCourt want to create the “cult of Torre” in LA so that it may be tough to fire him or even disagree with him? Would Torre, an old school manager, mesh with McCourt and his flirtations with Moneyball?
So, Mattingly will probably get around $3 mil + incentives. Scott Boras will be happy because the Yanks can put the manager’s salary savings toward A-Rod’s contract.
Apologies, Yankees Chick, I just can’t resist a gal who loves the Yankees AND Dr. Pepper
Yankees Mgr = Mattingly
Dodgers Mgr = Torre
Orioles Mgr = Girardi
Pirates Mgr = Pena
Could happen.
Just because Bud Selig and MLB don’t like a public announcement doesn’t mean the Yanks can’t do business.
Why can’t they make a decision, notify the parties, and move on to notify important third parties, such as Larry Bowa, other coaches, and move on the necessary players (Mo, Posada, Andy Pettitte, and A-Rod)? And if things leak out, they leak out, and you know it will leak out. Would Bud prefer that? The world doesn’t stop just because Bud Selig commands it.
The playoffs didn’t stop Seattle from announcing the hiring of their new manager and coaches.
ESPN – now there’s a reliable source
Thanks, Peter for the update.
I keep checking back for any news.
Frank McCourt fired DePodesta as quick as some idiots called him google boy
i don’t get it. so the Reds can announce their new manager, but the Yankees can’t? is this just a WS vs a playoff restriction?
Rumor – Donnie’s first hire will be Carl Pavano as strength and conditioning coach.
Not letting them announce tomorrow is stupid. Selig doesn’t want it to overshadow the WS, but people are going to be talking about it anyway. I think this story has gotten more coverage than the WS already so why not announce it and let the chips fall where they may?
56Bomber, Girardi turned the Orioles down once already – any reason he’s changing his mind?
Irabu is a “FAT PUFFY TOAD” from the mouth of George
I could never trust NESPN or Buster Olney they’re always trading.
Girardi could end up having to go against those two within a matter of days, but if it comes down to Joe G vs. Torre for the Dodgers, I would think he’d get the nod over Torre.
Now the Yankees decide to start listening to the Comish? Geez…
Is there still baseball being played now? I thought it ended two weeks ago.
I know that we Yankee fans like to poke fun at Carl Pavano, but seriously – do you think any team would take a chance on him? I wouldn’t be surprised if someone picked him up. The majors are short on pitching. Granted, no one knows if Pavano can pitch anymore because he hasn’t in a year, but who knows? I’ve always thought that he was afraid of the big NY scene. He might be able to resurrect his career in another city.
I still say that he should be made to give the Yankees back their money. Think of all the good that $40mil could have done in the right hands?
ANd the o’s already hired a manager.
You also have to remember Don Mattingly son is part of The Dodgers organization so would Mattingly take the job if he doesn’t get the Yankees job.
Dodgers have the 4th highest payroll (2nd in the national) and they haven’t won a pennant in 19 years.
And with all that money and the famed Dodger scouting and minor league pipeline, they’ve won a grand total of two championships since Sandy Koufax retired, 41 years ago.
Pete
MacPhail covets Girardi – who was his first choice. Supposedly Girardi turned it down based on personal reasons which no longer apply (apparently) – I think we was hoping to see what the Yankee situation held.
MacPhail extended Trembley’s contract for one year based on the success the Orioles had almost immediately after naming him manager but as we all know, the Orioles tanked big time. The Orioles have money and letting Trembley go won’t
be a financial concern to them.
Sorry Pete, I couldn’t stay away after seeing this.
Has everyone read Murry Chass’ column today in the NY Times about Torre’s past contracts and that all of them had incentives (and not just the admitted one for winning the Woeld Series)? The article also notes that Torre asked for a one year extension last off season so he could manage through the last season of Yankee stadium and they were close to a deal when Swindel had his issues… now a one year deal is insulting.
I don’t know how to link to it, but it is on the NYTimes website.
Now I really am done… for the day…
The leak of the Dodgers’ possibility could work both ways. They could see it as Girardi has a place to fall into where as Donnie wouldn’t so they take Donnie. Or they could see that Girardi may be the most coveted managerial candidate (after Torre, ironic huh?)out there and snap him up.
I think that Cashman brought a recommendation of Girardi, but the Steinbrenners feel they owe it to Donnie. Thus, a stalemate.
If what Kat O’brien reported about Hank was true, he didn’t sound to happy today.
You know, I am so over this Torre thing. Whether he lied or Hank lied, I don’t care anymore. It’s over. It’s done.
The Yankees need to pick a freakin’ manager already and start building the team for next year.
End of rant.
One last thing, GO ROCKIES!!!!
Chuck,
Read the column, it reafirms what I’ve been saying all along…Torre is a master a minipulating the media. He had them all crying for him…Some literally (Suzyn Waldman)...He played the roll of victim superbly…Just like he has been playing the roll of baseball mastermind for the last 12 years. Once Zimmer left he couldn’t make good baseball decisions anymore but he was such a nice guy that the media cannonized him.
Laura:
Pavano, “The Rajah of Rehab” is still signed through next Season. His timetable for “recovery” from TJ surgery is
12-18 months, so he could conceivably pitch in May/June 2008. It would be in the best interests of both Pavano(for future contracts) and the Yankees, for him to show something…anything…so the Organization could deal him for cash considerations or MiLB prospects.
VOIII,
LOL. I think your cannonized him means to “shoot someone out of a cannon” not “make (someone dead) into a saint”
Chuck:
We had hand to hand combat over Murray Chass’ column most of the morning on an earlier thread.
Rumor – Donnie’s first hire will be Carl Pavano as strength and conditioning coach.
Nah. I heard he was hired as the team’s driving instructor.
Please hire Girardi.
LathamJoe – That’s assuming that Pavano wants to pitch in the majors. My theory is that he doesn’t like playing baseball, and was just in it for the money. If he retires, he would forfeit the remaining money (right?), so he does the rehab thing. And when the contract is up, he disappears. Except on blogs.
Heard Pavano was goin to be their new pitching coach since he’s already on payroll. Save money for A-Rod.
hey if torre goes to the dodger he gets to reunite with proctor ! kiss that arm goodbye
Mel,
Thanks for the spelling lesson. The Yankees Cannonized him… the Media Canonized him…
if Pavano is signed by someone else next season, do we get draft picks?
How can you have hand to hand combat when Chass flat out owned Torre?
Once Zimmer left he couldn’t make good baseball decisions anymore but he was such a nice guy that the media cannonized him.
This has always been such a ridiculous BS argument. Has it ever occurred to you that maybe – just maybe – the rapid decline of the starting rotation had something to do with this team’s lack of postseason success since 2003?
I love Zimmer too but his departure had nothing to do with it.
Check out the rotations during the Torre era and the enormous decline in horses in the rotation after 2003:
1996: David Cone, Andy Pettitte, Jimmy Key, Kenny Rogers
1997: David Cone, Andy Pettitte, David Wells, Doc Gooden
1998: David Wells, David Cone, Andy Pettitte, Orlando Hernandez
1999: Orlando Hernandez, Andy Pettitte, Roger Clemens, David Cone
2000: Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, Orlando Hernandez, Denny Neagle
2001: Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, Orlando Hernandez, Mike Mussina
2002: Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, Mike Mussina, David Wells
2003: Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, Mike Mussina, David Wells
2004: Mike Mussina, Jon Lieber, Kevin Brown, Javier Vazquez, Orlando Hernandez
2005: Mike Mussina, Chien-Ming Wang, Randy Johnson, Shawn Chacon
2006: Chien-Ming Wang, Mike Mussina, Randy Johnson, Jaret Wright
2007: Chien-Ming Wang, Andy Pettitte, Roger Clemens
Zimmer was a great guy to have on the bench, but he was not the puppet master that some people believe and tend to give him way too much credit. It’s the starting pitching that has changed drastically and that is the primary reason why the Yanks have not been as successful in the postseason.
It’s a lot easier to win with Cone, El Duque, Pettitte, and Wells than it is with guys like Johnson, Vazquez, Chacon, and Wright.
whoa, from what i read in the other thread stein/levine own chass…
I missed this morning’s thread, so here’s my take on the Chass “revelations” (most of which had already been revealed):
I believe that Torre has actually been pretty consistent. Clearly, he does not enjoy managing in the final year of a contract. That’s why he tried to negotiate an extension in the Spring, and was in fact willing to take a pay cut as part of the extension. Of course, he was setting up 2008 to be a “last year,� but every contract has a last year, and he could always have negotiated another extension in the Spring of 2008.
While Torre said that the incentives were “insulting,� he always maintained that the single-year term was the main problem. I believe that he even acknowledged to Costas that he would have accepted a 2-year contract with those same incentives.
As for the incentives being insulting, it depends how they are presented. Levine was effectively saying “Since you haven’t delivered a World Championship in seven years, you really don’t deserve to be earning more than double the salary of any other manager in baseball. Therefore, we are going to cut your salary to $5 million. It’s still the highest in baseball, so you have no right to complain. And you can earn back that money, and even more, by making a deep playoff run. That should motivate you.� A lecture in motivation from a non-baseball person is insulting.
Now what if Levine presented the issue in financial rather than motivational terms? “You’ve done a great job, Joe, and we have been rewarding you handsomely. You realize, of course, that your salary is well above market value. When we were raking in postseason revenue, overpayment was easy, but now times have changed. Profit sharing and the luxury tax have put us well into the red, and we haven’t been getting the ALCS or World Series revenue to compensate. Therefore, we would like to cut your salary to $5 million, still the highest in baseball. And if you do bring us deep into the postseason, the team will earn extra revenue, and we will reward you for your roll in our success with a bonus of $1 million for each postseason level reached. You should know, however, that we are developing new young leadership, and at some point we will want to make a change. Right now, we feel that you are the best man to lead the team, but we would like to have the flexibility to reevaluate the situation a year from now. Therefore, our offer is for a single-year contract. Of course, if you bring us to the World Series, there will be no doubt that we will want to move forward with you, so we will then vest an $8 million option for 2009.�
Torre would still probably have taken issue with the single-year term, and would probably have rejected the offer on that ground, but we would not having been hearing about “insults.�
In summary:
a) The Front Office was sincere in their offer
b) Torre was sincere in his reaction
c) H&H and Levine, like George before them, are horrible people managers, and they precipitated a war that was truly unnecessary.
If the Yanks have to wait a week then the rumors about this official said its…or sources said it is… the yanks will have more rumors then they would if they announce it tomorrow. As soon as they make a decision it is going to be leaked anyway..we will probably know by tonight. MLB should just let the Yanks get it over with. I would think if the Steins called and asked and said they have to do it because of the Arod situation and everything else they would allow it. The only reason why most people in the NY area would be watching the WS to hope that the Sox lose. So they arent losing any fans. The whole rule is a joke if it was the Royals, Tigers or any other team they would allow it.
mmmm dr pepper…. drinkin one as we speak. delish!
JDnotDrew: you are le awesome
“whoa, from what i read in the other thread stein/levine own chass…”
Dude, you could produce a deed with Chass as the listed property, but it still wouldn’t rebut the fact that Chass unequivocally demonstrated that Torre’s previous contracts had the exact same incentives that he now finds so insulting.
Facts are very stubborn things and they hang Torre out to dry.
saucy—Free agent ratings are based on the past two years’ performance, so Pavano will certainly not be a Class A or B free agent.
I think Selig would like a little controversy to take attention away from the dreadful ratings that will result from anymore games like the one last night.
Yankees Chick: weren’t you the one who compared Torre getting insulted to being an abused wife?
To the person from Iowa State who keeps getting obscene posts stuck in the spam filter:
Your IP address gets recorded every time, Einstein. The university has been alerted. Good luck in community college.
The Dodgers can have Mattingly.
Mr. Franco,
Check the rotations of the last seven WS champions…None were as good as the 96-2001 Yankee rotations except the D’Backs who had two great Pitchers and nothing else. The Later rotations were not that bad. He still had the greatest closer in the history of the game and could not manage a BP worth S&*t…The Cardinals won last year with Jeff Weaver and Jeff Suppan as their ancors…Don’t give me the Torre did a the best with what he had crap, he had a 200 million dollar team!
Pete,
Have the Yankees given any indications as to their thoughts on when they’ll be sitting down with A-Rod?
It is not like he will be kicked out of school for swearing
“Your IP address gets recorded every time, Einstein. The university has been alerted. Good luck in community college.”
goooooo cyclones!
either mattingly or girardi would be a fine choice. i’d prefer to see them give mattingly a shot, if only in the absurd hope that he can lead them to a title and quiet the “mattingly curse” idiots. however, it’ll likely be a few years before this team is ready to compete with the heavyweights again.
Yankee in Michigan –
That was an awesome post. It’s all about the presentation!
Pete is like the old WWF wrestler One Man Gang with his smackdowns today.
http://www.onlineworldofwrestling.com/profiles/o/one-man-gang.html
Grady Little is da bomb.
VOIII, I heard the best rebuttal of Chass’ columns I’ve heard thus far by a lawyer who called into Michael Kay’s show around 4:00pm this afternoon.
BTW, if the Yankees are forced to wait until after the World Series, won’t that interfere with the A-Rod negotiations. I would think it would help both side, to have the managerial situation resolved ASAP.
Pete, isn’t Iowa State a community college?
“if Pavano is signed by someone else next season, do we get draft picks?”
Only if the Yankees offer King Carl arbitration, which they likely will not do, since they will have to offer him at least 80 percent of his salary.
Check the rotations of the last seven WS champions…None were as good as the 96-2001 Yankee rotations except the D’Backs who had two great Pitchers and nothing else.
Sure, teams can get hot in October and win the WS. However, the Yanks had a postseason run of success like that because of their strong starting pitching.
That’s exactly my point. Stack the rotation with arms who will eat innings night after night and they can enjoy another run of success like that again.
Frankly, it won’t matter who manages the team if they build the depth in that rotation again.
BTW, Yankees Chick I loved that analogy to Battered Wife Syndrome. Very Clever and an apt metaphor, too. Good for you.
Yankees Chick, apparently, is hot and clever.
How did Joe Torre’s inability to manage a bullpen lead to losses in the 04-07 playoffs?
I’m really finding it difficult to comprehend this position.
WFAN just reported that no manager will be announced on Friday.
“Check the rotations of the last seven WS champions”
Yes, the 2005 Chicago WS had a terrible rotation. I mean, I think the bullpen had to pitch a whole 2/3 of an inning that postseason!
In 06, the Tigers gave it away due to their youth. Their rotation was really good too. And the 2002 Angels too.
Rubinstein just announced no announcement is immediately forthcoming.
ISU Fight Song:
“O we will fight, fight, fight for Iowa State,
And may her colors ever fly.
Yes, we will fight with might for Iowa State,
With a will to do or die,
Rah! Rah! Rah!
Loyal sons forever true,
And we will fight the battle through.
And when we hit that line we’ll hit it hard ev’ry yard for I. S. U.”
With lyrics like that, no wonder the ISU kid’s posts were filtered as obscene!
Yankee fan in Mich, So I assume you were in the room with them in Tampa when Joe received his offer? How else would you know how the offer was presented? Since both ways add up to the same sum. i.e. paycut + 1 year + incentives = Torre insulted, it matters not. Torre chose to look at the offer as an insult when it was clearly a business decision. He then went to the media and fanned the flames of the war that did not need to happen. He should have said Thanks but no thanks and moved on. Now he’s on every TV show (HBO, Letterman, etc… and media outlet, burying the Yankee brass. But Hey, He’s the Classy one….
The votes are in from Florida and Pavano has turned the offer to be conditioning coach down. He will instead be next years Manager for our yankees. With Jeff Weaver as his pitching coach,Raul Mondesi bench coach. Rumors are Conseco will take over the strength and conditioning program.
A recount was not needed. All parties agreed that he was the best FIT for the job.
If cashman convinces hank, hal and George ( i am still skeptical if he has any input any more) that they should take girardi over mattingly it will be the biggest positive impact cash has made on the yankees since he became General Manager. But Cashman has never done a single thing I wanted him to do in the last five yrs or so besides signing pettitte, clemens and arod and not trading away Hughes, chamberlain and kennedy so I dont think he is going to start making me happy now. I dont understand why the owners wanted Donnie to be the manager so badly before the interviews even started. If they were choosing him before the interviews, liked Girardi better at the interview and are still picking Donnie, they might as well have not had any interviews. They already knew all three of them extremely well, they had all been on and/or coached the yankees for significant periods of time so what was the point if the interview wasnt changing anything? I guess just to keep the yanks in the spotlight while the sox are in the world series. All I know right now is every one in that organization seemed to finally want a change after seven yrs of not reaching their goals (it certainly took long enough and i thought torre would never leave.) If they choose mattingly, there is really going to be no significant change in the personality of the manager or the way in which the manager manages the game. Why preach about how we needed a change and it was time for a change and then, hire a man who is almost the same manager. I dont get it. You want a change hire Girardi or even hire pena. You want no change whatsoever – go with mattingly. Then, we can re-sign arod, mo, posada, abreu, pettitte and Mienky and have the exact same team as last yr. Except that team wasnt good enough to beat the indians in the ALDS and Im pretty certain were not good enough to beat the sox in the ALCS either.
the yankees brass deserves to be buried.
Torre’s bullpen management in Game 4 (bringing in Jeff Weaver) could certainly have led to the loss of the 2003 WS.
Torre’s overuse of Tom Gordon during the 2004 regular season could have led to his implosion in the ALCS.
Torre probably should have brought in Villone to pitch to Granderson in Game 2 in 2006 (since Mussina was struggling and Granderson struggles against all lefties not named Mike Myers).
Beyond that, bullpen usage wasn’t a problem. Bullpen construction, however, may have been, e.g. – Three lefties in the pen against the lefty-less Marlins in 2003 – No lefties in the pen against Cleveland this year, leading to loss of Game 2
S.o.S.27;
Don’t forget Mel Hall has Director of Public Relations.
Roy Hobb’s comments about Pavano as the new Yankee Strength and Conditioning Coach may in fact be the funniest thing I’ve have seen in print all year…well done!
Let’s get ready to toast our new skipper, “Donnie Baseball”!
“WFAN just reported that no manager will be announced on Friday.”
So this means that that Torre has a chance now!
(Ooops – sorry – I’m still 2 weeks back emotionally…)
Payroll total does not equal on-field success.
Top 10 teams in baseball with the highest payroll…
4 made it to the playoffs.
6 didn’t.
1 is the Baltimore Orioles who haven’t had a winning season since 1997.
3 of this years playoff teams are from the bottom 10 playoff teams.
1 is of those teams is playing in the World Series.
This notion that the higher your payroll is, the more post-season success you should have is ridiculous.
It’s not 2001.
VOIII-
I know what Levine said in the press conference, and if that’s what he said to Torre, I can uderstand why Torre was insulted.
Jonathan,
The overuse of the better arms in the pen left them useless in the past 4 post seasons. See Mariano 9th inning game 4 of the 04 ALCS. Yeah they were not big hits yada yada yada…A Mo on top of his game ends it right there. and we don’t have the most embarrassing collapse in baseball history to feed Redsox Nation.
Pete,
That’s hilarious re: the guy from Iowa State. What an idiot.
I agree with you Pete, it will leak out. But Selig has a point, why not wait until after the World Series?? To me, it is bad business to be announcing your new manager during the playing of the series that you think you should be playing in, you know?
It just further emphasizes the contrast b/w the Yankees and the Red Sux right now. IMO
Hope it is Mattingly who gets the nod.
cheers
Torre will end up replacing Willie Randolph, unfortunately for Willie.
Latham Joe,
Its between Hall or Chad Curtis(jeters choice).
“Roy Hobb’s comments about Pavano as the new Yankee Strength and Conditioning Coach may in fact be the funniest thing I’ve have seen in print all year…”
Obviously, you are not familiar with the comments of one Giuseppe Franco.
Random managerial comments:
Dodgers: 2-years & out for Grady Little. Wow, what were the odds of that? Like Zim’s kid brother, without the game sense.
Orioles: New vacancy predicted by May 15th, 31st at the latest. Sorry Dave. McPhail will have to pull some kind of amazing sales job on Girardi to get him to sign up there. Girardi is smart, he’s got much better odds in another division.
Yankees: What color smoke is coming out of the chimney at Legends Field?
Pirates: Maybe Pena. Maybe Grady Little to establish that warm comfy clubhouse? Maybe Bowa to kick some butt? Who knows—does anyone watch the Pirates anyway?
If I’m Joe Girardi and don’t get the Yankees job, do I have better odds of seeing the postseason in Baltimore, LA, or anywhere else outside of the AL East…or Chicago?
‘03 fine he stuck with Weaver too long. However people on this blog want to talk about 3-14 in the last 17…so ‘03 we are not counting ‘03
Beside if Wells doesn’t take himself out of Game 5, it might be a different series anyway so…
Tom Gordon, has never, never gotten a big out in any pressure situation. Just ask Phillies fans how he did down the stretch in ‘06. Or any Red Sox fan how he did for them in ‘99 ALCS.
Gordon was overwhelmed by the situation in ‘04, not Torre’s fault.
Fine Villone should’ve pitched to Granderson. If you want to make that case, sure. But if it didn’t work out and Granderson still gets those runs in, Torre is 2nd guessed for not leaving in a veteran to work out of his own trouble.
Besides, losing Game 2 is not why the Yankees lost that series. It was because Randy Johnson was not able to do what was expected and Jaret Wright was pitching an elimination game.
Hardly the fault of the manager when these are the players he has to choose from.
I wonder if Selig is frowning on Minnesota for making a trade yesterday, oh wait that was the Timberwolves, nevermind!
Highest Payroll sure doesn’t ensure success, I understand that. but when you have A-ROD, Jeter, Posada, Giambi, Moose, Pettite, Wang, Cano, Matsui, Abreu, Damon, etc… You should win a few post season Games. The fact that the Yankees have had the most talent year in and year out and could not get out of the first round is a reflection of the lack of commitment to winning…which is a reflection on Torre. How do you explain the last three seasons starts? They came out of the gate ridiculously flat. Blame the injuries if you want, for this year. but three years running? This Team was NOT prepared to Play games in April. when you lose games in April it has an effect on you in October, as you would have had to empty the tank to make the post season.
a 200 million dollar payroll doesnt have to win the world series every yr – that is obviously not going to happen. But when the highest payroll in baseball times two cant even win the alds three yrs in a row and hasnt won a world series in seven, its not bad luck. It means the wrong decision are being made, the wrong players are being signed and money is being wasted and practically flushed down the toilet. People are right, torre really isnt the one to be blamed. His decision in the post-season didnt help but it wasnt the in game decisions that destroyed us, it was the construction of the bullpen, the bench and most importantly, the staarting rotation. Spending 8 million on Igawa, 10 million on wright, 8 million on farnsworthless and a pro-rated 28 million on clemens certainly didnt help us win. The 20 plus million going to giambi didnt help either. Nope torre isnt the reason we arent winning, cashman is. I dunno when the time comes when cash can start taking some blame.
Yankee In Michigan –
I agree with Doreen – excellent post. Unfortunately, it will fall on deaf ears. Several people have tried to clarify those things, and it just gets ignored. There are people that aren’t simply satisfied that Torre is gone – they want to be sure that he gets dragged through the mud as well.
The fact is that Torre clearly stated in his press conference that trust and commitment were important to him and that he didn’t feel the offer refelected that. I don’t see how he has turned around his story now by saying that the length of the contract was insulting. That was part of his point about trust and commitment originally.
Either way, Torre is not manager of the Yankees anymore and I don’t see the purpose in analyzing what he said and trying to find some ill intent in his words. It’s a silly campaign, IMO. It’s time to move on.
Mo overused in 2004? He pitched 78 innings…that’s overused?
If Mo had been on his game?
Let’s see in a 1 run game, he gave up a walk, stolen base, single.
You are right, if he hadn’t been overused in the regular season, he wouldn’t have been smacked all over Fenway that night.
It happens, sometimes the other team wants to win too.
More of the 2004 collapse can be blamed on guys names Tony Clark and Ruben Sierra coming up in big spots.
More of the 2004 collapse can be blamed on Gordon choking in Game 5.
More of the 2004 collapse can be blamed on having Kevin Brown and Javier Vazquez pitching in a Game 7.
Dave,
You don’t get it. How can we just assume the way Mattingly would manage this team?
Yes, he has a laid back personality. So what? Does that mean he’s a pushover too?
Mattingly has never been the man in charge so we have no idea what kind of manager he’s going to be.
Under Torre, neither Willie Randolph nor Joe Girardi were getting into people’s faces when they had the bench coach gig during the Torre era.
We didn’t see that kind of hardass attitude from them until they got their own gigs and became the men in charge.
How are you so sure Mattingly isn’t going to have that kind of fire in his belly as well?
You are simply speculating on something in which you have no idea what you’re talking about.
Selig is an ass.
He’s handcuffing the Yankees for no reason. If they announce. it’ll be a one day story outside of NY. If they hold on, it’ll turn into a circus and when wil lit be the right time? After the victory parade in Boston, after ARod opts out, After Mo and Po get courted by other teams?
I repeat, Selig is an ass.
How many of you feel that Dustin Pedroia looks like Guiseppe Franco minus the pompadour?
I doubt if Selig’s ban on announcing the Yankee manager will have any effect on their free agent signings. Cashman will simply inform ARod, Mo, Posada, and Pettite – and their respective agents – on who their managerial selection is and they’ll negotiate from there.
FRom today’s NY Times:
“The Yankees signed two players from the Israel Baseball League on Wednesday. Outfielder Jason Rees, who is from Australia, and catcher Eladio RodrÃguez, who is from the Dominican Republic, were signed to minor league deals. Rees played for the Bet Shemesh Blue Sox , managed by the former Yankee Ron Blomberg, in the inaugural season of the league.”
YES,there is STILL time to throw Ron Blomberg’s hat into the ring!! MY choice is Bloomy, the made most famous for being the first DH, the best sideburns and this quote ”
“The sun always rises to the top” – Ron Bloomberg
Drive 4-5:
I heard about those signings on an earlier Post.
A certain President of a NY Baseball Organization is on the Board of Advisors for the Israeli Baseball League.
Coincidence?
Latham Joe..who might that “Advisor” be?
i was pretty much kidding about the draft picks/pavano…
good to see there’s such a knowledgeable bunch here though!