The Sunday Links
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- August
- 17
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It wasn’t pretty but The Yankees found a way to beat the Royals. Brian Heyman has the story.
Sidney Ponson pitched well again. This notebook also has updates on Joba Chamberlain, Hideki Matsui and Derek Jeter.
The Sunday Baseball Beat looks at what the Yankees need to do for 2009.
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Royals-Yankees this afternoon. Brian Bannister against Mike Mussina.
This entry was posted
on Sunday, August 17th, 2008 at 3:16 am by Peter Abraham.
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Chad Jennings
Sam Borden
Is 6 games back with 39 to play really 100% assured that they aren’t making the playoffs? If the Yankees win tomorrow, which they have an excellent chance of doing, and Boston happens to lose, to a good pitcher, Marcum, the Yankees sit 5 games back… That’s unrealistic?
I’m not saying it’s going to happen, but putting it out of the question is beyond naive. I’d say the chances don’t look too good, but writing articles on 2009 is silly. If I didn’t watch baseball all year and I just read this article, my educated guess would be the Yankees were 13 games back in the wild card.
Make the Kids earn it.I love that in that article.Kennedy and Hughes was rushed to fast and they are still prospects and have not done anything to earn a rotation spot.
And be tough?Get rid of Giambi and Abreau?That was also important.
Hopefully the Yankees will do those two first.Tired of prospects and veterns who do nothing for this team.
I hope they get a win for Moose today. Seeing him get to 20 wins is really all thats left to root for.
I agree about Giambi, but not so sure about Abreu. We might need him.
Very funny video. Check this out.
http://claybuchholzloveslaptop.....world.html
Why would Teixeira harbor some “secret wish” to play for the Yankees? um, maybe the same reason big time free agents always want to play for the Yankees- it’s the biggest stage in the country and the Yankees can offer more money than any other team. simple as that. to say the Yankees don’t have a shot at him is baseless. the “transition” period will be short for the Yankees. they will be there in the end once again in ‘09. plus, converting Damon to 1B is an absolutely terrible idea. a lack of a great arm at ONE outfield position isn’t nearly as big of a catastrophe as some think.
Yes, I agree about Damon to 1st being a terrible idea. If they can sign Teixeira then they need to do so. As far as pitchers, I would bring back Mussina and/or Pettitte if they’re reasonable with their demands. However, I hope we see Hughes and Joba again in September because they need the innings and it offers another opportunity to evaluate them before the 2009 season.
As far as experience coaches, I would be shocked if Randolph wasn’t the 3rd base coach or bench coach next season. I think the Steinbrenners will insist on coaching changes and I can’t really blame them. They can move Thomson to 3rd base and get rid of Meachem, who frankly stunk this year as a Yankee coach. Must of been some bad memories of his time as a Yankee player.
“Whether he should need it or not, Cano clearly requires an occasional boot to the posterior. The Yankees need to find somebody willing to administer it.”
I’ve been saying this for months – Bring back Bowa or someone who can screw Robbie’s head back on.
We could see some signs yesterday that he had perked up with Melky’s demotion – It would be great to know if someone sat Robbie down and made it clear to him what is going on.
Damon to 1B was an original idea – how many first basemen have been lead-off hitters in the MLB? Interesting idea imo – he’s definitely athletic enough.
Interesting stuff though – and some more shots at Girardi.
DFox …have you seen this team play ALL SEASON ?….Have you seen how they choke TIME after TIME after TIME after TIME ?….Did you notice them go 3-7 on a recent road trip and do their VERY BEST to drop 2 straight AT HOME to the lowly Royals ? Do you think there is a switch that they can just turn on and start playing BETTER for ALL the remaining games ? This team has no heart. This team can NOT hang when it is Put Up or Shut Up time. When the pressure is ON,,,,they are OFF…..Tell me how that is a formula for doing ANYTHING BETTER in the games to come ?
DFox and have you seen this team play ALL SEASON ?….Have you seen how they choke TIME after TIME after TIME after TIME ?….Did you notice them go 3-7 on a recent road trip and do their VERY BEST to drop 2 straight AT HOME to the lowly Royals ? Do you think there is a switch that they can just turn on and start playing BETTER for ALL the remaining games ? This team has no heart. This team can NOT hang when it is Put Up or Shut Up time. When the pressure is ON,,,,they are OFF…..Tell me how that is a formula for doing ANYTHING BETTER in the games to come ?
sorry for the duplicate post….my bad…
I wonder if Posada was playing this year, if this team would be playing with this type of effort?
I’m also wondering if Girardi was the right choice, IMO he has lost this team and it happened a few weeks ago.
gardner is a lousy bunter, damon says he can’t. arod can’t, giambi can’t, abreau can’t…
there are teams like the minnesota twins where every hitter in the major league and minor league system can bunt. they teach it constantly.
bunting is an easy skill to pick up through repetition. if damon can’t bunt, he hasn’t put in the time.
the yankees play limited baseball and it is by design. why would the twins have wanted to make a trade with the yankees for santana last winter when they’d have to teach yankee players how to play the game?
with steroids out of the game, maybe the yankees should start teaching their players how to do some things besides just swing for the fences.
just a thought.
file it under “duh”.
I don’t buy the nonsense that Girardi has “lost the team”.
Joe Torre’s last 4 years in the post-season? A 4-13 record. Lost every series in which he was a favorite since 2004. The last 3 years of his reign, this team played mindless baseball for the first 3 months of each of those seasons. They recovered and made the playoffs because they didn’t have another team in their own division to challenge for a post-season spot as Tampa has done this year.
I love how the media now wants to compare Girardi and Torre, yet leave out those facts in the discussion.
To paraphrase James Carville, its the players stupid. Its on the players. They play the game.
If Girardi has “lost the team” because his team won’t listen to the coaches and be more selective at the plate, learn how to bunt, hustle all the time, etc, that’s on the players, not Girardi.
Like Randy says, this ain’t rocket science. Damon, “isn’t good at bunting”, as he says yesterday, how about this novel approach?
How about coming to the park early and LEARNING how to be better at it?
Hard to force guys making 8 figures to work on their games. They just outright refuse to do it, and when they do, there is nothing you can do about it. They also know it because they hold the cards because of the money they are making. Also, with veteran players, you can’t just send them down to the minors because of their service time.
The dirty little secret? They, not the coaches and managers in MLB hold all the cards.
That’s why when teams say, “We have to get younger”, its really code for, “We have to have good players we can control”.
If the players aren’t listening to the coaches, then it falls on BOTH the players and the coaches. The coaches need to gain respect … that is EARN IT, just like the players need to earn their spot.
Girardi makes a lot of stupid moves. If we can see it, why wouldn’t the players see it? That will mean that the players don’t have confidence in what he wants to do.
Meachem has been terrible.
Good leaders bring out the best in those who follow them. Poor leaders get the results we are seeing from the Yankees right now. Sorry, but the talent is there, but there is no confidence in that team to believe that their manager will make the right calls during in game moves. Too many of them are trying to carry the team by themselves, and the results are not pretty.
SJ, but isn’t that where the game is going now that PEDs are out of it?
However, you right it is on the team, but is it not the managers job to motivate them, get the best out of them???? And what I’m seeing is a lost, lifeless team.
I’ve watched this team for years grind out games, make pitchers work, make teams pay for mistakes and the common denominators that jump out at me are Posada and the Manager…or PEDs.
For a team that supposedly didn’t have the pitching, it is the offence that has let them down. I’m not saying it is over until it is mathematically impossible, but something has to change and it seems like a swift kick in the butt.
I can only imagine what George would be doing if he was still The Boss?
Regardless of who the new faces are in 2009, Girardi will put heavy emphasis on solid fundamentals in spring training with such items as bunting, baserunning, situational hitting, advancing runners, hit & run, and run & hit.
A-Rod will be taken aside and told in no uncertain terms that he is not to strictly swing for the fences and when the signal comes from the (new) 3rd base coach to sacrifice, bunt, or just hit the ball over infielders to score or advance runners, he is expected to do so for the sake of the team. The name of the game will be to keep runners moving and wearing out opposing pitchers in the process. More contact hitting must be seen.
Pete
Enjoyed your article, and have some comments:
Setup reliever:
Dan Wheeler is not a FA, doubtful he’d be available from the Rays. Yankees should not pick up Marte’s 6M option. Should buy him out for $250k. Not worth a big contract as situational lefty reliever. 2009 FA class has no-one I can see as a true 8th inning guy. Brandon Lyon and Kerry Wood are FAs, but they might be looking to remain as closers.
1st Base-Definitely goodbye to Giambi and his overpaid bloated contract. Not sure Damon can play 1st. Don’t need anymore 7-10 year, here’s the money, now be a good boy and try and play 100% all 7 years. Eric Hinske available as FA, might be worth a shot for short 1-2 year contract. 2010 FA class at 1st offers nobody, unless you want to convince Chipper Jones to finish his career at 1st in Yankees uniform.
Keep Mussina and Pettitte. Let’s first see how they do pitching the last 39 games of the regular season, and if by some miracle we get in the playoffs, how they perform there.
Yankees need a CF’er, but look at the true CF’ers who would be available by either trade or unloading an onerous contract on us. Some also doubt would be available in trade.
Onerous contract:
Andruw Jones
Vernon Wells
Gary Matthews
Doubt available:
Grady Sizemore
Jacoby Ellsbury
Curtis Granderson
Torii Hunter
Ichiro Suzuki
Josh Hamilton
Jay Bruce
Nate McClouth
Carlos Beltran
Aaron Rowand
Possibly available:
David DeJesus
Rico Baldelli FA
Marlon Byrd FA 2010
Mark Kotsay FA
Ryan Spillborghs
Willy Taveras
Shane Victorino
Matt Kemp
Rick Ankiel FA 2010
Jody Gerut
Your comments and feedback would be appreciated.
Yanks looking up at 4 teams to reach the playoffs but being 6 back with six left to play against the sox means they are still in it. It would be awesome if it comes down to the last series against Boston and I think it will. If the law of averages holds true they have a run left in them(or runs in scoring position) that will at least get them close. If that happens I can live with this season. Not ready to think of if not. Go Yanks!!
sj
have you ever thought why it’s strike three if a bunt is foul with two strikes( i have a lot of off time in the winter to think- some say way too much)?
the reason is that a good bunter can bunt as many good pitches foul as he wants. in the early days of baseball everyone could bunt. games would take forever and you could wear pitchers out if a bunted ball potential third strike was considered a foul ball.
bunting is so easy if you just play with it. it’s really catching the pitch with the bat. the moment i saw gardner jab at the ball with a force that would have hit a fly ball to the shortstop knew he had no clue as far as bunting goes.
as kids we would play pepper and bunt for hours when we didn’t have enough players for a full game. if every 10 year old kid in my neighborhood could bunt, you’d think damon would be embarrassed to say he couldn’t bunt.
the game has changed without peds prevalent. small ball skills are back in vogue. it makes a better game and the yankees need to play catch up in their whole system or teams like the angels and twins will continue to finish ahead of them.
even the red sox who benefitted as much as any team in the steroid era, recognized that speed and small ball skills and defense were going to be more important so a player like ellsbury was fast tracked.
the yankees need to do the same.
SJ44
So true! It’s hard in real life to listen to your boss, when you are making guaranteed money that will earn you more during your contract years than your boss will earn in a lifetime.
Front office and managerial changes are not warranted and won’t make this team one bit better in 2009. I’ve made it pretty clear I’m a Teixiera advocate, but if that can’t/doesn’t happen experimenting with Abreu, Damon or Matsui might be worth doing. You could bring back Mientkiewicz for late inning defense.
Damon and Matsui in final years of their contracts could be good trade chips for a young position player. Cano for Kemp in a multi-player deal could make sense for both teams.
Marte is not a situaitona; lefty and it would be a mistake to try to turn him into one. I don’t like the $ 6M option, but three years for $ 10-12 should be doable. I like the bullpen as it is. Planning the starting rotation is a much bigger concern. If the Yanks can’t sign CC, Sheets or Burnett there’s no one else out there. You could end up with an ‘09 rotation of Wang, Joba, Pettite, Mussina and Hughes and that might work… if they improve their RISP about 50-75 points.
Hopefully they can somehow get Moose a win today
Randy,
Think about it, what’s the rub we hear about Girardi? He’s a hard ass, he’s not as “laid back” as Joe Torre, and the veterans don’t like that.
In other words, he isn’t as likely as Torre was to let the veterans do whatever they want.
Non-fans of Girardi say, “At least Torre’s teams made the playoffs”! Correct. How did they do in the last 4 years in the playoffs? Terribly.
Why? They couldn’t hit with RISP, couldn’t do the little things to win games, and Torre’s bullpen management (or more accurately, lack of it) came back to bite him in the butt.
So, let’s see……
The same group of guys, under Torre and Don Mattingly, couldn’t hit with RISP, couldn’t hit in clutch situations, and couldn’t do the little things to win games.
Sound familiar?
Its the players. Change the players, you change the results.
That is of course, if you choose the right players when you make the change.
That’s another discussion for another day.
“bunting is so easy if you just play with it. it’s really catching the pitch with the bat.”
Apparently it isn’t easy enough!
The point about peds is interesting – There seems to be a lot of opinion that the removal of greenies from the game is going to lead to younger teams across the board. One thing that is interesting is that the Yanks had a relatively good road record before the last trip. Do teams with younger players have a ‘hang-over’ in road games?
I don’t think Girardi has lost the team – but Pete keeps on hammering on the fact that he has lost the media. Hard to figure why this is a continuing theme in his articles unless Pete believes it affects the performance of the team on the field.
Girardi’s relationship to the team will probably change as well when the roster turns over as much as it will this off-season. A lot of guys associated with the closing (frustrating) years of Torre’s playoff runs will be gone. Girardi was really effective with a young team in Florida – maybe he’ll get another chance to show the same success with a less veteran (i.e. declining and unathletic) squad.
But it’s tempting to say that the one way to judge a manager’s effect on a team is to compare how they do with him with how they did without him. Do the Yankees do better with Girardi than they did without him? Do the Dodgers do better with Torre than they did without him? Are those fair questions?
Confidence goes a long way toward winning. If the players have no confidence in the things that their manager calls, then it falls flat.
Girardi has to earn his place right along with the players. So far he hasn’t. He is not a great manager. He is not getting the best out of the players.
I love how people ignore the biggest problem with the Yankees in the post season these last few years was lack of good starting pitching. If the Yankees had better pitching for the playoffs it would have made a difference in the post season.
Despite all the BS being talked about for how well Girardi is doing with the bullpen, they sure aren’t looking all that great lately either. Girardi mis-used Olendorf.
Leadership is lacking this season. That starts at the top. Girardi is failing in that area. He sits players who are hitting, he plays with the lineup constantly with poor results. Veteran players might not like working under Girardi because they might just know a little better than he does on what they can do and what they can’t.
The players are trying too hard to carry the team individually.
I think Girardi was a terrible choice as manager. I couldn’t stand the decision when it was made, and he has done thing to show that it wasn’t a poor choice. He doesn’t instill confidence in the team. He lacks instinct, he lacks communication skills with the media, that also is translating to poor skills with his team.
“Do the Yankees do better with Girardi than they did without him? Do the Dodgers do better with Torre than they did without him? Are those fair questions?”
I think in a situation like the Mets when the roster is the same, you can reach some conclusions. Otherwise, I think it is impossible to say.
Did Torre do something to screw Moose up last year? Did Girardi do something to screw Phil Hughes up this year? I don’t think either of those could be argued.
The Yankees have a better record than the Dodgers, but are in worse position – Who’s to say who is doing a better job?
you folks can talk all you want about next year but i havent given up on this one. i seem to be about the only one, perhaps its because im in philadelphia and what happened with the mets/phils last year is fresh on my mind. also the fact that i refuse to concede to the red sox until it is mathematically impossible.
we have matsui, hughes and joba coming back beginning this week and remember, its the rays and the sox we’re chasing here, not the yankees…..
one win at a time.
For some reason this is getting caught up in the system, so here we go again.
SJ, but isn’t that where the game is going now that PEDs are out of it?
However, you right it is on the team, but is it not the managers job to motivate them, get the best out of them???? And what I’m seeing is a lost, lifeless team.
I’ve watched this team for years grind out games, make pitchers work, make teams pay for mistakes and the common denominators that jump out at me are Posada and the Manager…or PEDs.
For a team that supposedly didn’t have the pitching, it is the offence that has let them down. I’m not saying it is over until it is mathematically impossible, but something has to change and it seems like a swift kick in the butt.
I can only imagine what George would be doing if he was still The Boss?
Randy l and SJ44 -
Excellent point about bunting. When I first began hearing of Brett Gardner and how much the Yankees valued the speed aspect he could bring to the game, I (mistakenly) automatically assumed that the guy could bunt, because that would be a great way for a mediocre hitter to make sure he got to 1st base to put himself in a position to “wreak havoc on the basepaths.” It’s a travesty that major league players can’t bunt. It’s even worse when they make it clear that they prefer not to.
After yesterday’s game, Kim Jones asked Girardi if he entertained the idea of having Damon bunt in another late situation. He answered, “You saw last night. Damon doesn’t feel comfortable bunting. It is what it is.” The statement was one thing; the look on his face? Pure disgust.
To me, a player fortunate enough to be a major league baseball player, doubly fortunate to be on a team like the Yankees who make it clear they are in a pennant race each year, should be willing to do whatever it takes to win each game. It’s amazing to me that on their own they don’t try to shake things up for themselves a bit by trying to bunt their way on, or try different approaches to key at-bats. They’re stuck. All of them, or most of them, anyway, stuck in their own stubborn approaches that right now are not helping the TEAM.
What also dismays me is that even if you go with the idea that these guys are all in it for themselves, why wouldn’t that kind of a guy be RUTHLESS in trying to get on base, drive runs in, in any way he could? Doesn’t that make a player even more valuable in a contract year or even just in general? And even with the proliferation of other statistics, doesn’t RBI still carry a lot of weight?
I don’t doubt the “heart” of this team, and I don’t doubt that the effort, such as it is, is there. What I question is the approach, or more to the point, the seeming lack of imagination in their approach when their usual approach is clearly not working right now.
if we get mark kotsay from free agency this off season would you be excited or not
sj-
i agree about changing the players. as much as i like damon, i was really taken back when i heard him say matter of factly that he couldn’t bunt. if that’s the attitude of veterans, now we have a clue what the problem is.
but don’t the people in charge have to change too because there is a whole minor league system that doesn’t emphasize fundamentals? yankee minor league players are not ready to play when they come up to the big leagues. who let that happen?
i still like the idea you brought up yesterday of bringing in a solid baseball guy like showalter to overhaul the whole system.
if the yankees can build a whole new yankee stadium surely they can overhaul their baseball operations.
michael kay blasted girardi (in fact made it sound like he was mentally challenged or something) because he decided to give johnny damon and derrick jeter a chance to win the game with a single instead of opting for the bunt.
damon is our best hitter with RISP and jeter’s up there too, the pitcher had done a great job of preventing gardner from bunting by throwing the high heat, and damon failed to bunt successfully a few days ago. and add to that the fact that this team seems to have a psychological problem with runners at 3rd with less than 2 out.
it wasnt a by the book call, but passing on the bunt and giving your best RISP hitter the chance to win the game wasnt betting on a long-shot either. but kay made it sound on tv like girardi was conceding the game or something. when damon was striding to the plate, i was weighing the idea of bunting or no and decided i would bunt there but it was just about 50-50 in my mind b/c damon has come through more often than any others, but decided i would bunt him too. but when he didnt square, i had no problem with it whatsoever.
i just couldnt believe kay sounding like an idiot quesioning the strategy as if it was a no-brainer….it wasnt.
doreen-
and for gardner, the threat of a bunt is as important as the bunt itself. a slap hitter like him needs to bring the first baseman and third baseman in so he can beat ground balls past them.
“I can only imagine what George would be doing if he was still The Boss?”
i think it’s safe to say it wouldn’t be a good idea to get in an elevator with him.
one other thing about kay’s call of the situation…i couldnt help but think that if ken singleton was there (or bobby murcer) they would have rescued kay by making the case for not bunting, at least theoretically. Lieter was nowhere to be found, though.
randy l -
Absolutely agree.
I mean, not everyone is Ricky Henderson (thank goodness!
), but it is a basic baseball skill.
Do the Yankees teach it at least in their rookie, instructional league? I’ve heard where that’s where most of the actual baseball teaching gets done and that once a player progresses to the subsequent levels of minor league ball, there is less and less teaching going on?
And if they do, is it that the better (read “power”) hitters are no longer encouraged to work on bunting, but on how to work on their hitting – hitting breaking pitches, hitting to all fields, etc.)?
Girardi hasn’t lost the team. What we are seeing is the foreseeable by-product of years of careless team building resulting in a forfeiture of Yankee Pride.
When the organization got used to plugging in established stars and taking their, shall we say, eccentricities as part of the package, they started watering down Yankee Pride. This Pride is about more than winning it all. It’s primarily, IMO, about HOW you go about winning it all. Yankee Pride is about doing everything right and being the best at everything, every day, every game. (Think Joe DiMaggio).
Little by little, the FA lust and mentality that allowed trading of prospects cleansed the organization of “homegrowns” (except for Jeter and Po and Mo and Pettitte), leaving very few young men raised in appreciation of what the Yankees really are to baseball. Not all trades and FA acquisitions were bad, of course. Some transactions brought men like O’Neil to the team. His eccentricities included a preference for death over failure of any kind. In my opinion, however, The Core (Corps?) of Four is the only remnant of Yankee Pride, with very honorable mention to Matsui who truly seems to get it. (A-Rod wants to get it, but always seems busier being A-Rod first).
Joe Torre was the key ingredient, even in the decline of the dynasty, IMO, because he had the gravitas, the chops to demand that 100% effort and shame any player who didn’t give it. But even Mr. T’s mojo seemed to be wearing off as evidenced in the playoffs since 2001.
Enter Joe G and you have gained youth and a more modern approach, along with an intolerance for sloppiness and a penchant for fundamentals. But you have also lost Joe T’s ability to demand and get that extra something, the ability to shame a big money player back to basics and remind him that he’s nothing compared to the real Yankee giants.
Rebuilding from within and getting younger is great for obvious reasons. But one less obvious, yet tremendously important benefit of rebuilding from within is restoring the desire within every young player on the field to be Joe DiMaggio, to be perfect every day in every way and to accept nothing less.
Um yeah lets trade for a player hitting .161 3 homeruns, 14 rbi with a .261 obp.
doreen-
i don’t know what the yankees do with teaching bunting, i was at the rays minor league complex last spring. while price, the #1 draft pick, was pitching live bp to hitters, back at the screen a pitching machine was set up and players were bunting from balls coming in from about fifteen feet in front of them.
the machine was sending in pitches that seemed to simulate about 100 mph. players were having trouble with the drill, but they were being coached closely on how to get it.
the rays, at least, seem to teach bunting.
David Cone during a game last week mentioned on air that he was watching A-Rod laying down bunts during BP. I know it’s against conventional wisdom but with the RISP situation lately, I’d have no problem with A-Rod laying down a bunt. Would Girardi go there?
murphydog -
By the time Joe Torre came to the Yankees, he’d had a chance to manage – and fail – before. He had experience. Girardi is and will be a good manager, but no way can you compare the two. It’s not a fair comparison, IMO. In addition, Torre came to a team on the upswing; Girardi’s team is a lot different than the one Torre inherited.
But I do agree that the infusion of FAs from varying backgrounds has diluted a lot of the “Yankee Pride.” A lot of lip service is given by the free agents about how important the pinstripes are, and I think to a degree, they believe what they’re saying. But I don’t think they truly understand what they’re getting into. Also I always hated, absolutely hated, the crew that came here to “get a ring” – Jason Giambi included, but Randy Johnson being the prime example of someone who was coming here for all the wrong reasons.
And as you say, not all the FAs have been bad. And to kind of backtrack on Giambi, I will always be back-and-forth on how I feel about him.
murphydog -
I re-read your post. Um, I agree about Torre’s gravitas. I suppose what I focused on was that Girardi just cannot have that at this point in his career.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/f.....A96F948260
according to this article from 1989 ,lack of bunting skills has been going on for a long time.
if whole generations of players couldn’t bunt, who’s going to teach young players to bunt?their coaches, it looks like, couldn’t bunt either.
DFox,
If the Sox lose today and the Yankers just happen to win. You have to look at the next series in Toronto. You’re lookin at a sweep buddy and most likely 10 to 12 out by next weekend.
It’s nice to have pipe dreams though DFox! I guess it makes your season worthy??
Doreen:
“I suppose what I focused on was that Girardi just cannot have that at this point in his career.”
I agree. It’s not something I was criticizing Girardi for, just taking account of it and adding it to the overall recipe for a lost season.
Losing Joe T., a borderline HOF player in his day, meant losing that “intangible” element of being able to say to any player on his team: “I played with the best. And you, son, aren’t fit to hold their jock.” Not that Joe T ever said that, but he could have and they all knew it.
Pete completely lost me when he talks about Cashman needing to hire a Stick Michael figure to help him GM. How utterly pathetic is that? Ugh – obviously Pete is no fan of Brian. Why should what fans think affect whether Cashman is brought back (never mind the fact that the decision is up to him)? Fans are hypocritical and impatient. They want young players, but they don’t want young players to struggle. I love how Pete fails to mention that Cashman’s plan, beginning when he got full power in 2005 (and it takes guts to stand up to George), has only just begun to take shape. Their farm system has been rejuvenated and Damon has done a great job (I think this year must have been an aberration, unless Hal has tightened the pursestrings). We’ve already seen some very promising young pitching, but we do have to be patient as the our top positional prospects are in the lower minors. We can not judge Cashman until further down the line, when the youngsters they drafted show themselves to either be major league caliber or not.
After what Phil did last year pre-injury and then in September/October, I had absolutely no problem giving him a spot in the rotation. He struggled at the end of ST, but so what? Lots of pitchers do………Was Pete saying, after Phil looked so good early in ST, to send him back to AAA? I don’t think so. Ian, I agree with.
Andy and Moose? No thanks – one will do nicely. I would go with Moose; Andy has just not had a good year – too up and down.
Bowa? I have no problem bringing him back because he’s a great coach, but as a security blanket for Cano ? Please – if Cano can’t handle life as a professional ballplayer (and he plays like an amateur), then I don’t want him on this team.
Betsy:
I am in fact a big fan of Cashman. I just think he needs some help with player evaluations, which is a widely held opinion in baseball. His assistant GMs are either lawyers or stat guys. He has no Stick Michael type, which is something virtually every other GM has.
Peter,
But, you are far from being a fan of Girardi and it would be nice to admit it because that’s the perception many of your readers have of you.
randy – why don’t you stop posting here, and go find a nice Minnesota Twins blog, since you love them so much?
Hi Pete
I wasn’t aware of that, to be honest. If that’s the case, I have no problem with what you said. Stick is still in the organization, so they still have him to use if they want him. I think he was wrong to want to include Phil in the Santana deal and I think that will be proven out over time, but Stick absolutely knows his baseball. What exactly does he do with the Yankees, Pete? Does he help out in the scouting department?
I meant also to say in my post that I agree with you about Joe. He is such a smart guy that there’s no way he doesn’t learn from this experience. He’s generally done a very fine job, but he has made some peculiar decisions. I guess I can chalk this up to him trying to be almost too creative. Knowing Joe, during this off-season he will spend a lot of time wondering what he could have done better. This lineup will look a lot different with Giambi gone and possibly Abreu, and whomever in CF. A more flexible, younger lineup may play more to Joe’s strengths……..that and good health. He was given a stacked deck from the beginning.
Interesting discussion… a little too much bashing, but I think we’ve covered the warts on this team.
One thing that “Yankee Trader” brought up is what is foremost on my mind. Centerfield. When Giambi and Abreu are let go, there is a lot of offense that goes with them. I like Gardner and would love to see him in CF, but he’s not the answer to the power drain the Yanks are looking at (2009 thumpers: ARod, Nady, Matsui, Posada). I think the Yanks need a big bat in CF. That’s going to have to come via trade… and its going to be expensive.
As for a big bat ON A LONG TERM CONTRACT at first, I’m leery. That Giambi contract was horrible. We’ve had a clunky roster for years, largely due to that deal. I’m not looking forward to that mistake being repeated. Yeah, I know Teixeira is not Giambi… still his will be an unmoveable contract.