Hopefully Alex’s presence in the lineup and club house will be what this team needs to get on track again.

Go Yankees!

Being a Yankee GM you are often put in a lose-lose situation.

I would say, let’s give Hank and Hal a shot at this and see what develops.

As far as them not attending games in NY, I think both guys would rather avoid looking like Dad in that regard. Especially when things aren’t going well. Doesn’t mean they don’t care. They just know what’s it like to looking like Big Brother, watching over the players.

I think both guys recognize many of the mistakes of the past are coming home to roost this year. Hank has said as much in the numerous interviews he gives. I also think both guys, because of their previous time with the Yankees, are not likely to make the same mistakes that setback the franchise for a long time.

So far, its just their first year running things. I think we need more time to see how things play out.

I really believe management is counting the days until the end of the season. Not saying they aren’t going to try and improve the team at some point. They may but, it won’t be at the cost of the future.

They can’t wait to out from under some unwieldy contracts and have the flexibility to be creative.

Perhaps, I am giving all the parties too much credit.

But, all I can go by is what I have seen done in the minors the last 3 years.

If they approach the problems at the major league level with the same competency they have had in retooling the farm system, the team won’t be down for long.

Time will tell if that happens.

if we at least get down to agreeing on what the questions are, we’re making progress.

...to be continued

the point is that it’s not a cutting edge organization at the present. the results show that clearly.

but if the steinbrenners are the problem, how do you get around that?

...become a baseball fan in general and wait for new ownership?

i will say hank and hal spent the money last fall to keep arod,posada, and rivera. but is that all they can do? you would think hal with his mba background could put together a management structure for the yankees . we know hank doesn’t go to yankee games in new york . does hal? are these guys really interested?

there are some dysfunctional issues here.

bottom line is the team stinks.

All of these issues are subject to collective bargaining.

There is only so much they can do alone. The rest of baseball has no problem taking the Yankees money.

That isn’t going to change anytime soon unless they are able to reduce payroll enough to make the money they lose less substantial.

That is completely an ownership issue. George went along with it very begrudgingly but went along with the other owners on it.

But it was also put into place before the massive growth in industry revenue and the leveling of player salaries.

The labor deal in baseball still has several years to go.

randy,

cashman actually agrees with you. this is exactly what he’s tried to do over the past three years – put an entire organizational management framework in place.

As hard as it is to believe – the yanks didn’t really have this before 2005 – or at least they didn’t really have it in any kind of developed form.

The organization was split into the tampa faction vs. the new york faction. That was mostly it. There was no uniform management structure.

Cashman has talked about his over and over again – he’s never really talked about what he’s done since getting more centralized power in 2005.

He talks a lot about putting a management structure in place and trying to get the yankees to run like a real organization instead of as a hodepodge of factions.

The place where this lack of organizational structure was the worst was amateur scouting. There was no coherent management structure that looked at domestic international scouting vs. international vs. minor league scouting vs. major league. It was all ad hoc.

Cashman is the one who started to change this and stream line the team into a real organization.

You’re right they are way behind in statistical analysis. But that’ because of ownership that had always placed more value on perceived star power rather than facts.

If you look at the facts there was no way you sign Sheffield instead of Vlad, for example.

The issue you bring up are actually the very reasons why so many people here are supportive of Cashman.

For the first time the organization is being run like a rational, business rather than as a fiefdom.

how much money do they spend each year on fighting this system? i don’t remember reading much about the yankees and other big market teams doing much about it. why give money to tampa bay or kansas city?

why not fight it tooth and nail? the new stadium is designed to put a dent in what they pay, but i’m sure there are other things the yankees can do if they have the will to do it .

call the small market teams bluff. get small too. put them out of business. that’s some leverage to use when negotiating revenue sharing. the yankees could also do what tiger woods threatened to do when the pga threatened to force him to do what he didn’t want to do.

he said that he’d leave the tour and nike would start another pro tour with him as the star. the pga backed down. the yankees could leave the system and start their own league. there’s nothing stopping them from doing it.

they don’t have to accept an unfair system. they could do more to fight it.