Someone made an organizational decision to promote Mitre hard.

It’s not surprising, then, that Mitre would be given this much rope despite the lack of results. If he doesn’t do well (and Tomko succeeds) then there is going to be an extreme loss of face and a slight shift in power between those that promoted Tomko and those that promoted Mitre.

I see it all the time.

If seniority and/or performance were how they made their decisions, I think it would sit better with him.

But the Yankees chose Mitre instead; the guy who got suspended for 50 games. And they chose Mitre based on PROJECTED performance NOT actual performance. They never considered Tomko for the job; they refused to stretch him out before Mitre was ready – and Tomko became their 3rd option behind a guy who’d just joined their club – Gaudin.

To make it easier to understand: imagine if there was a job opening in your company or division: you’ve been a good soldier, have plenty of experience, and have worked hard during an important stretch of the business schedule.

You’re clearly in line for a promotion.

Then you find out that the guy that was promoted ahead of you didn’t contribute at all the past few months and was actually jailed for drugs. Your work history doesn’t mean squat to the brass because the guy is a higher up’s “favorite”; their “baby”, the excuse being “he deserves a second chance”.

I think everybody would be a little demoralized, including your co-workers.

And there is NO question that Mitre is someone’s “baby”. I wonder what the bullpen guys like Hughes and Mariano think about Mitre…

After all, there’s always some resentment towards a guy like Mitre. Even if you think it’s not Mitre’s fault, the fact is that he ingratiated himself with SOMEONE to get the job to the point that he pitch this poorly and still retain his job.

That at-bat infuriated me. Not because he grounded into a DP, but because he threw up the white flag of surrender. All this talk about the Yankees working counts is bogus. They don’t, or they don’t nearly enough. Take some pitches for crying out loud. For every home run A-Rod hits seemingly in a big spot, which is breaking news in and of itself, he kills more rallies than he prolongs with this “I have absolutely no approach at the plate” routine.

On Tomko:

Was there any doubt he would pitch well Monday? It sure didn’t help that his strike zone was 5 feet wide. Damon got called out looking on a pitch that had to be 18 inches outside.

On the loss:

A-Rod’s cluelessness aside, I’m willing to chalk this one up to the Earth not quite spinning on its axis properly for a night. CC will be in lockdown mode tonight and don’t be surprised if we jump all over Mazzaro early. We saw him in the Bronx and it took a few innings. I expect the bats to be on fire early in Game 2.

Easy there, tiger. One good performance does not a career make. This is what we call an outlier.

I agree Tex and Arod should switch.Scouting report have to note he’s an easier out,like Yesterday.

The reason Tony La Russa wins is because unlike Joe,his line up isn’t etched in stone.He confuses the scouting reports and the opposing pitchers.

Tony is Anal for sure,but he dominates the NL Central,by winning games they are suppose to win.

I’m an AL person all the way but he is an enigma to watch!