Archive for Front Office
Meet the new Boss, not the same as the old Boss
Posted by: | CommentsI saw only bits and pieces of the George Steinbrenner Yankeeography this week. At some point, I’ll sit down and watch this entire odd to the Boss, but what I saw was reminiscent of a distinct era in Yankee history, one long gone.
The Boss of the 1970s and 1980s was a man unto himself. He was loud and brash. He wanted the Yankees; he wanted headlines; he wanted championships. Despite his early promises of hands off management, he courted controversy and attention as a moth to a flame.
Steinbrenner’s shenanigans worked in the late 1970s as the Yankees won. The team members hated each other, and many players had a love-hate relationship with their boss – the Boss. Yet, the Bronx Zoo years remains one of the more colorful eras in Yankee and New York history, and nostalgia for that era reigns supreme. Whether we should yearn for those days of Billy and Thurmon and Reggie is another question entirely.
In the 1980s, a few years removed from the Yanks’ last world title, George wore thin. He hired, fired and rehired managers on a whim and was impatient with his GMs. A revolving door of players came and went, oftentimes in a matter of months as George tried to put together a team according to his and his so-called Baseball People’s ideas, and the farm system was neglected. The Yanks won more regular season games in the 1980s than any other AL team but post-season success eluded them.
In the 1990s, a new Boss emerged. Suspended at the start of the decade, George couldn’t interfere, and Gene Michael, Brian Cashman and the Yanks’ Front Office were free from the constraints and demands of the Boss. A last-place finish in 1991 guanranteed them Derek Jeter in the following year’s draft, and the rest is history.
George came back and let his employees run the team. He would roar, but it was all for show. No one was fired, and the good times rolled.
Today, George is ailing. Rumors of Alzheimer’s have swirled around him for the better part of the decade, and he rarely makes appearances at games. He speaks primarily through Howard Rubenstein and has turned control of the team over to his sons and daughters.
This week though George showed up at the office for a few hours, and he made some headlines. Promising to come to New York for the playoffs, he said, “Let’s keep it going.”. And that was it. No threats if failure follows; no promises of an easy October. Just a weak encouragement.
Once upon a time, we would yearn for George-inspired stories. Nothing makes for better headline fodder than a roaring lion. But that’s not George anymore. His influence is on the wane, and while we might pine for the Boss-inspired Years of Terror, the Yankees are better off without it.
Yanks block couple of Red Sox on waivers
Posted by: | CommentsOnce the trade deadline passed, things were going to be tough on the Yankees. Atop the AL East and with a growing lead, they would have last dibs in the AL for any waiver claims. This meant that the second-place Red Sox have been in a position to block any potential Yankee moves all month. Since both teams have been looking for pitching, that would seem to put the Yankees at a disadvantage — and it has to an extent. Not that they were necessarily interested, but the Sox did claim Billy Wagner before the Yanks had a shot. Who knows how many other times that happened with different players.
Yesterday we learned of the Yankees pulling two moves that hurt the Sox, though not in any truly significant way. First we heard that the Yanks put in a claim on AAA 1B/OF Chris Carter, whom the Red Sox placed on waivers at some point this week. Carter, who is on the Sox 40-man roster, is believed to be New York-bound in the Wagner trade. The Yanks claim means that Carter will remain a player to be named later, and will most likely change teams after the season ends.
This isn’t just a move to stick it to the Sox. As Buster Olney notes, this could put some pressure on the Sox in terms of their 40-man roster. Moving Carter would free up a spot that then could be used to add Paul Byrd or return Daisuke Matsuzaka from the 60-day DL. Now they’ll have to make another move. Placing Carter on waivers again would mean the Red Sox cannot pull him back, so if anyone claims him he cannot be sent to the Mets for Wagner after the season (obviously).
Just before we learned of the Carter claim, we heard that the Yankees put in a claim on Brad Penny earlier this month, and that the Red Sox pulled him back. This blocked the Sox from trading Penny to another team, meaning they could not get a Justin Smoak-type prospect in return for the recently released righty. We also heard yesterday that the Yankees might have interest in Penny. Could he be any worse than Mitre and Gaudin? Wait. Don’t answer that.
While the Sox have the traditional advantage of a blocking position, the Yankees are making their own moves to make life hard on the Sox. I wonder whose moves have hurt more. The Sox could have blocked any number of pitchers the Yankees might have considered trading for — though the pitching-starved Sox have not traded for any save Wagner. The Yanks have forced the Sox to make a 40-man roster move, possibly two, rather than clearing one for free. They also blocked the Sox chances of getting anything, even a pittance, in return for Penny (though no return was guaranteed).
In any case, I love to see this kind of stuff. If you have the chance to make life a little tougher on your opponent, especially when he has the ability to make life hard for you, then go for it. There’s no reason to let the Sox skate by and make easy moves.
The bullpen and bench are always in flux
Posted by: | CommentsThink back to April, if that doesn’t cause too much psychological pain. Entering the season, many had questions about the team’s bench and bullpen, and April didn’t do much to eradicate those fears. In fact, with the bullpen pitching to a 6.46 ERA in that first month, they only exacerbated concerns. The bench, once looking deep, was depleted after injuries to Alex Rodriguez and Xavier Nady. While the bench and bullpen isn’t nearly as important as the starting lineup and the starting rotation, good teams usually have a few useful players in both areas. The Yanks, it seemed, did not.
In baseball, a team changes over the course of a season. A team is not the same in April as it is in August. It’s easy to forget that in April if the team is losing. The bullpen was just bad then, and it was tough to see a road to recovery. Ditto the bench. With the Nady injury further sapping the team’s depth, there weren’t many options. It looked like the team might be good, but would lose a few games because of these glaring weaknesses.
We’ve often said that a bullpen’s strength is its malleability. Again, ditto the bench. It’s difficult to find quality bench players and relief pitchers, because if they were good they’d be starting. Even veteran relievers are no guarantee. How many times does a team sign a veteran reliever in the off-season and then immediately see his production dip? Just look at the Royals, who signed Juan Cruz. He’s now looking like Jose Veras, only Cruz is under contract for this year and next for multi-million dollars. Veras was expendable at the league minimum.
Over the course of May the Yankees showed their flexibility and depth by shedding the ineffective parts of the bullpen. They optioned Edwar Ramirez and Jon Albaladejo and DFA’d Jose Veras. Brian Bruney’s injury hurt the bullpen depth a bit, but the Yanks were able to move Al Aceves and Phil Hughes up, much to everyone’s delight. Even David Robertson and Mark Melancon got chances, but as they faltered the Yankees again showed their flexibility by demoting them when needed.
All of a sudden, the bullpen was a strength and it could grow even stronger between now and the playoffs. Brian Bruney has looked better in his last few appearances. If he can get close to his April production, that’s a massive boost. Damaso Marte hasn’t allowed a run in his last five AAA appearances and could join the team soon, possibly for the West Coast swing. Add Chad Gaudin’s dominance of righties, and you have a pretty damn strong bullpen. One of the strongest in the league, in fact.
In early February, before we knew of A-Rod’s hip injury, the bench looked as deep as any. Among the backups were one of Nick Swisher and Xavier Nady, one of Brett Gardner and Melky Cabrera, Jose Molina, and Cody Ransom. That’s a pretty formidable bench. However, the A-Rod and Nady injuries moved Swisher and Ransom to the starting lineup, meaning even lesser players would take their places on the bench. And then there was the period where both catchers were hurt, forcing the Yanks to carry Francisco Cervelli and Kevin Cash. All of a sudde, the depth had dried up.
Fast-forward a few months, and the Yankees once again have a solid bench. They’re replaced Ransom with Jerry Hairston Jr., who plays more positions, is better on defense, and is a better hitter. Getting decent production out of both Melky and Gardner has soften the blow of losing Nady. Jose Molina is back and providing his excellent defense at catcher. True, Ramiro Pena languishes now, but once Brett Gardner gets back the Yanks will have 25 usable players on the roster. How many teams can say that?
The reason that both the bullpen and bench are currently strengths is not that the Yankees acquired quality veterans over the off-season. It’s because they left themselves a lot of flexibility in their roster construction. All of the reserve players either had options or were easily releasable. When they proved they weren’t cutting it, the Yanks made the necessary moves. They were backed into corners in a few instances, but once players came back from injury they were able to compensate. It looks like things are back to where they’d hoped at the start of the season: strong bench, strong bullpen. Crazy thing is, they could get even better in the next few weeks.
Cashman draws obvious parallel between Halladay and Santana
Posted by: | CommentsOver the next 12 days we’re going to hear plenty more about Roy Halladay. Whether or not the Blue Jays actually intend to trade their 32-year-old ace, the media will continue to speculate. And why not? It makes for a good deadline storyline. Brian Cashman wants to put a damper on that. Not only has he implied that the Yankees will not empty the farm for Halladay, but he also pointed out the meaninglessness of the trade deadline this year.
To those clamoring for Halladay, Cashman refers back to the Johan Santana situation:
“I’m very comfortable with the decision we made back with the Santana situation,” he said. “Right now, we’ve got Sabathia where the Santana money is, I’ve got a center fielder in Melky, I’ve got Phil Hughes performing for us, and I’ve got Swisher in right, which Jeffrey Marquez was in the deal to help me get.
“So right now, I believe the organization is in a better position because of that type of decision-making. I know people still like to debate it. Debate all they want, I think it was the smart and right move, and we’re stronger than we would have been with one player and the money attached to the player without all the extra players we have now.”
Yes, the Yankees have Sabathia with the Santana money, but remember that Sabathia was no guarantee. The Yankees had to see him actually hit free agency (as they didn’t see with Santana), and then had to convince him to come to New York. While it’s hard to see someone turning down $161 million, two legendary pitchers have in the past. The gamble paid off for the Yankees. But if the economic conditions were different, would it have been as easy to get CC to accept money over geographic preference?
Still, the plan did work. They had an idea of what they wanted to do, and it succeeded. They’ve gotten production out of Melky and Hughes this year, and turned Marquez into Swisher. The presence of those players has helped the Yankees get to where they are today, which is a strong position in baseball’s toughest division.
Some say that the Yankees are in a different place right now, and that the new circumstances call for the Yankees to pursue Halladay. Adding him, so goes the reasoning, gives the Yanks an unmatched top of the rotation. That’s certainly true, but in baseball there are no guarantees. Even a rotation headed by Sabathia, Halladay, and Burnett wouldn’t guarantee the Yankees a World Series. It sure would help, but transactions like this come with no promises.
There’s obviously room for debate on this issue, but it’s pretty clear where the Yankees come down. They could just be setting a smoke screen, as they did when addressing the question of signing both Teixeira and Sabathia. Given the way Cashman has behaved with his prospects to this point, it’s a bit difficult to call his bluff in this case.
As to the trade deadline, Cashman says that it doesn’t matter as much this year because teams won’t be so quick to put in claims. He mentions that in 2000, he and Mets’ GM Steve Phillips would put in claims to block competitors from trading for a player. With many teams looking to shed payroll, they could well let certain players, and their salaries, go if another team claims them. Therefore, there could be a bit more activity in August than we’ve seen in previous years.
It could be a rather uninteresting deadline for the Yankees. They’ll continue to evaluate the back end of their rotation, knowing they could possibly swing a trade later on. As far as Halladay goes, though, even if J.P. Ricciardi were willing to trade him within the division, it doesn’t appear the Yankees are takers right now.
First Half Review: Coaching Staff
Posted by: | CommentsAt 51-37, with the third best record in baseball, leading the Wild Card and just three games back in the AL East, the Yankees had a fine first half. Yet it was a tumultuous three months, wrought with streaks and injuries and strange trends, causing mass panic at times among Yankees fans. Over the extended All-Star Break, we’ll go over each position to see what went right, what went wrong, and how things look for the second half. We already looked at the starting pitchers, relievers, corner infielders, catchers, middle infielders, outfielders and designated hitter, and now it’s time to discuss the coaching staff.
The expectations
After a somewhat rocky first season in New York, we were all looking for manager Joe Girardi to be a bit more honest and forthright when it came to discussing team matters. His in-game strategy was mostly fine, save his sometimes LaRussaian dedication to platoon matchups and the occasional boneheaded move that every manager is guilty of. It would have been nice to see a little evolution out of the manager in those regards, but I don’t think anyone was expecting it.
Pitching coach Dave Eiland was given over $240M worth of new toys this year and was expected to continue working with all the young arms on the pitching staff. Hitting coach Kevin Long was expected to get Robbie Cano back on track, and to also get Melky Cabrera back to being a respectable big leaguer. Organizational do-it-all guy Rob Thompson moved from bench coach to third base coach, replacing the sendtastic Bobby Meacham. Tony Pena went from first base coach to bench coach, and Mick Kelleher was the new guy brought in to take over first. Pena was moved basically to act like a second manager, giving Girardi a wingman in the dugout.
The results
It’s tough to say what falls under the cover of the coaching staff and what doesn’t. Girardi has been better with the media and Rob Thompson is doing a good job simply because no one is complaining about him. The pitching staff isn’t performing up to expectations, and the blame is being put on Eiland more and more with each passing day. Despite some ugly slumps, the Yanks offense has been good and there are few complaints about the job Long has done. Overall, the staff has done well, but let’s break it down individually.
Joe Girardi
Girardi vowed to improve his media relations over the winter and he’s delivered. While what he says isn’t much of a concern, it’s expected that the people running the team be truthful. If someone’s hurt and they don’t know how long they’ll be out, he says it, whereas last year he would try to play it off as minor and say it’ll just be a few days. Choosing words a little more carefully has gone a long way.
On the field, Girardi is basically the same guy as last year. There’s the occasional head scratcher but nothing extreme. If anything, I think we would like to see him a little less platoon crazy, maybe let Eric Hinske play third against a lefty when A-Rod needs a day off, things like that. Oh, and no more bunting before the seventh inning. Just don’t do it.
Tony Pena
Pena’s very respected around the game and is fine as Girardi’s right hand man, but his real value comes in his work with young catchers. Jorge Posada’s defense has improved considerably since Pena joined the team, and he helped nurture straight outta Double-A Frankie Cervelli into not just a passable Major League catcher, but a very good one defensively. In the unlikely scenario that Girardi gets pink-slipped midseason, Pena makes for a damn fine interim manager and would be in consideration as a long-term solution.
Kevin Long & Dave Eiland
The Yankees as a team are leading the planet in OBP (.358), SLG (.471), and (naturally) runs scored (495). There’s very little complaint about the offense, but it would be nice to see the nine-figure first baseman not suffer through prolonged slumps (which he’s already done twice this year) and to see Robinson Cano get back to his early season plate discipline. Something tells me that last part might be akin to asking him to squeeze water out of a rock.
The pitching staff as a whole has been a disappointment, especially when they’ve issued more walks than all but one other AL team. They’ve thrown just 48.2% of their pitches in the strike zone and have one of the worst first pitch strike percentages (57.8%) in the league. Joba Chamberlain hasn’t taken to any recent instruction and it’s Eiland’s job to get him right. If the pitching staff continues to flounder and if it leads to another early postseason exit, Eiland is the member of the coaching staff most likely to get the axe.
Rob Thompson & Mick Kelleher
Thompson has been an upgrade over the departed Meacham simply because we haven’t seen a runner thrown out at the plate seemingly every game. The Yankees boast a mediocre 70.9% success rate on stolen base attempts (the break-even point is around 72%), but I don’t think we can attribute that to Kelleher not being able to read pitcher’s moves or anything like that. He’s done wonders working with the infielders, with Derek Jeter enjoying his best defensive season ever and Cano rebounding well with the glove.
I’m not really sure what bullpen coach Mike Harkey does other than answer the phone and occasionally stand in the batters box when guys are warming up before the game, so I can’t really say anything about the job he’s done.
Expectations for the second half
The biggest expectations for the coaching staff the rest of the year fall on the shoulders of Dave Eiland, as we all want to see the pitching staff start performing up to its capabilities. There’s only one starter on the team that needs to nibble on the corners to survive, yet for some reason everyone’s doing it. Eiland has to correct that — his job depends on it.
Meanwhile, it would be nice to see Girardi employ Phil Hughes as a multi-inning relief ace, but that seems like just a pipe dream and I’m not expecting it. The team has looked lethargic at times (they had one foot in the batter’s box and one foot on the beach in Anahiem over the weekend), so Girardi does need to get on them a bit and make them realize that every game counts. One thing we know for sure: if the team falls short again, the coaching staff is the one that will feel the pain.
Joe won’t go home again
Posted by: | CommentsAs late as next summer and as early as October, the Yankees and Joe Torre will have a reunion of sorts. Next year’s preliminary schedule has the Bombers visiting the Dodgers while this year, the Yankees find themselves just three games worse than the Dodgers.
While that eventual meeting is sure to generate more coverage than any of us could stomach, even a simple Dodger trip to Citi Field leads to a few Torre articles. This one from Newsday caught my eye this week because it seems fairly clear that Torre and the Yanks are on icy terms at best.
Earlier this week, Torre and Anthony Rieber chatted about Torre’s thoughts on both the new and old Yankee Stadiums. The former Yankee manager was unequivocal in stating that he will not be going back to Yankee Stadium. Writes Rieber:
Torre didn’t want to leave the Yankees after 12 seasons and four World Series titles. When he turned down the Yankees’ please-don’t-take-it one-year contract offer, he decided to not look back.
He said he already made his goodbyes to The House That Ruth Built after his final days as Yankees manager following their defeat in the 2007 ALDS to Cleveland. He hasn’t been back since. With the ballpark being slowly torn down, he’ll likely never get another chance. He’s OK with that. “When I left there, I would have been very surprised if it wasn’t my last time,” he said. “I took everything in. I had so many great memories there.”
Torre said he bought a couple of Yankee Stadium seats, something he has also done for other defunct stadiums he managed in (Shea, Fulton County in Atlanta, Busch in St. Louis). But he didn’t want any other memorabilia from Yankee Stadium other than what he packed up from his office.
“I’ve been asked, and even some people from the Yankees have called me, ‘Is there anything you want here?’ ” he said. “I already made arrangements for a couple of seats . . . Aside from that, everything that went on there was enough for me. It really was.”
Torre also told Rieber that he doesn’t want to visit the new Yankee Stadium unless of course it is with the Dodgers in October. He might just get his chance to visit anyway.
These sentiments from Torre are a part of the continuing feud he has with the Yankees. It was clear from his book that he has little respect for the men running the show right now, and while he should carry some of the blame for the messy divorce and probably outlived his years in New York, the Yankees and, in particular, Hank Steinbrenner messed that one up in 2007.
Joe Torre will long be remembered as a great Yankee manager. He won four rings and 1173 games. He never missed the playoffs, but since leaving after 2007, he hasn’t come back. He missed the closing ceremonies at Yankee Stadium and the All Star Game. He shouldn’t have, and that one is on Hank.
Girardi gets the dreaded vote of confidence
Posted by: | CommentsTo the lay person, a vote of confidence might sound like a positive. You always want the confidence of your boss, so when a general manager says he has confidence in his manager, well, that sounds like the best possible thing. Right? Not to the sports fan. We’ve seen this song and dance plenty of times. Team is struggling. General manager or owner steps up and says he has complete confidence in the manager. Team slips a bit further. Manager gets fired.
In this way, Joe Girardi couldn’t have felt well after hearing Brian Cashman’s most recent comments. The supremely talented team, assembled by Cashman and helmed by Girardi, has been slipping of late, and more than a few fans have called for the manager’s head. That doesn’t seem to be in the immediate plans, but if we’re to believe that a vote of confidence puts the manager on the hot seat, Joe’s job may be on the line.
Sweeny Murti has Cashman’s gushing words about Girardi:
“I think Joe’s done an exceptional job,” Cashman said. “We’re scuffling right now for three weeks, but he’s not humped over, slumped over, he’s not down and out and woe is me or depressed or on edge or tight. He’s keeping his guys up, he’s keeping them positive.”
“He’s doing everything he needs to do,” Cashman concluded.
Translation: win or else. For his part, Girardi understands the implication. “I know the drill here,” he said. “You win or you go home.” Indeed. It’s a foregone conclusion that if the Yankees fail to make the playoffs for a second straight year, Girardi will spend the off-season tidying his resume.
Murti notes the lack of attractive in-house options should the Yanks can Girardi before the season ends. Realistically, if they so chose that path it would have to be Tony Pena. The 2003 AL Manager of the Year has been with the Yankees for a few years now. Not only would he be the leading option for a mid-season managerial change, but he’d have to be high on the list should Girardi not make it to 2010.
This isn’t the first time Girardi has received a vote of confidence from the Yankees brass. Back in September Hank Steinbrenner noted that “Joe will be back.” Yes, that sounds like a good thing, but again, the translation was, “Joe will be back, and if he loses again he’s out.” Yes, we like reading far, far into these statements given to the media.
Thankfully, the Yanks turned around a few weeks of poor hitting last night in their 8-4 win over the Braves. A win tonight would put the thought of firing Girardi further back in our minds.
Reading Joe Girardi’s tea leaves
Posted by: | CommentsOver the weekend, a crack appeared in the Yanks’ Front Office façade. It wasn’t an outburst from Hank or a strongly-worded press release from Howard Rubenstein. No one was fired, and no one was put on notice.
The crack was the rather public spat over the Alex Rodriguez situation. It involved some anonymous “he said/he said” articles, and a whole bunch of backtracking by Yankee officials. While everyone seems to be on the same page right now, I believe Joe Girardi’s job security may have suffered because of it.
The story took off when Girardi originally penciled A-Rod into the lineup on Friday but announced shortly before the game started that Alex would be getting two days off instead. Some papers reported it as a benching due to his poor play while most news outlets recognized that a player coming off a serious labrum procedure shouldn’t be playing 38 games in a row. It was a rest, but from where did the demand for rest come from?
Over the last few days, the story has continued to swirl. Linda Robertson reported rather skeptically that the decision to rest A-Rod was mutual, but she also noted that some have alleged a behind-closed-doors fight between A-Rod and Girardi. The Big Lead’s Miami sources echo Robertson’s piece. “Why didn’t you sit me against the Nationals?” A-Rod is rumored to have asked.
In the New York papers, Brian Cashman has denied ordering a benching, and Girardi says he didn’t want to do it. Rather, A-Rod sat to rest his fatigued lower body. There is no doubt that the team is better off with a well-rested A-Rod, but that’s almost beside the point.
Meanwhile, the CC Sabathia saga adds a new dimension to this sordid story of injury management. In expressing his belief that he would start this weekend against the Mets, Sabathia fielded a question concerning the cause of his injury. What led to this soreness, reporters wanted to know. “It could be the 120 pitches this year,” Sabathia said.
By blaming the pitch count totals, Sabathia is indirectly implicating Joe Girardi. The big lefty has thrown 119 pitches or more three times this season, most recently on June 11 when he went 123 pitches. Last year, he threw four starts of 120 pitches or more. All of them came after July 2. Is Sabathia saying that Girardi has not managed his arm well enough? Reading between the lines, I certainly think so.
Meanwhile, in The Record today, Bob Klapisch calls the next stretch of games a “critical phase of [Girardi's] managerial career.” While Klapisch cites using Mariano Rivera in the 8th against the Mets — a move I will always support — he also questions whether Girardi is under a microscope for the way he drives his players.
Maybe this second-guessing in the media is a big nothing, but maybe the Yankees’ Front Office is putting some of these stories out there. Are they questioning Girardi? Is he on the hot seat — or at least in the on-deck circle for the hot seat? He doesn’t deserve this treatment, but someone in the Front Office doesn’t seem too happy with Girardi. If this year doesn’t end in Yankee-defined success, I wonder what his managerial future will be.
Yanks praising Girardi’s leadership
Posted by: | CommentsThe mold for a good manager is cut from many a cloth. For 12 seasons starting sixty years ago, the Yankees had a cantankerous old man at their helm. For 12 seasons starting in 1996, they had a master of calm leading the charge. In between, they had strategic geniuses, feisty former players, the calm wisdom of Yogi Berra and everyone in between heading the team.
This year, we have seen Joe Girardi grow into the mold. A few weeks ago, as the Yankees were struggling their way out of April, it seemed as though Girardi was on the hot seat. Now that the Yanks have gone 15-5 over their last 20 and find themselves in first place by themselves, everyone loves Joe.
Take, for example, this George A. King III column. Since King is relying on quotes and stories from the Yankees themselves, we can’t go too wrong with it. In it, he talks to Mark Teixeira about playing for Girardi. The Yanks’ first baseman seemingly loves Girardi.
“The good thing about Joe is that he is consistent. He expects a lot out of us but you look at him and you can’t tell if we won or lost,” Teixeira said. “Your leader needs to show confidence. The manager can’t be upset after every loss. He can’t be angry all the time.”
Later on, Teixeira added a bit of hyperbole. “Out of all the managers I have had, he is the best I have had by far,” he said to King.
Now, that’s high praise considering how Teixeira’s last two managers were Mike Scioscia and Bobby Cox, both highly respected in their own rights. Of course, Teixeira could just be saying what anyone would say of his or her employer. Of course, I love my boss! Who doesn’t?
In a way though, what Teixeira says about Girardi is something we Yankee fans saw in Joe Torre for 12 seasons. The Yankees would win, and the Yankees would lose. They would top all of baseball three years running, and lose in the first round of the playoffs three years running. When they would lose, though, Torre remained mostly unflappable. Some criticized it, but the players responded well to his stoicism.
The job in the Bronx isn’t Girardi’s first. He had a tumultuous one-year term in Miami heading the Marlins. However, he earned his stripes, so to speak, while serving as Torre’s bench coach, and perhaps he’s finding his way now as a similar type of manager.
In the end, it’s never easy to discern how much credit a manager deserves for a team’s success. Clearly, Joe Girardi’s team isn’t perfect. After all, he couldn’t trust another reliever last night and used Al Aceves to relieve Andy Pettitte in the 6th and then serve as the bridge and set-up man to Mariano Rivera. That’s not Girardi’s fault though; he plays the cards that are dealt to him.
When the dust settles in October, we’ll have a better sense of how Girardi handles a team with the potential go all the way. Right now, as the Yanks sit in first place at the end of May he looks good. Let’s see where the chips fall in four or five months.
Looking at an inaccurate Steinbrenner biography
Posted by: | CommentsWhere would the Yankees be right now without George Steinbrenner? It’s absolutely impossible to say for certain, other than “not like they are now.” Which can be a good thing or bad thing, depending on your worldview.
Whenever I see something George-related, my ears and eyes perk up. Peter Golenbock, of The Bronx Zoo fame, recently published a biography of The Boss, titled George: The Poor Little Rich Boy Who Built the Yankees Empire. It’s on my reading stack, but unfortunately it’s a ways down. Seeing as I might not get to it for a while, it was nice to see Hugging Harold Reynolds post an interview with the author, wherein he talks about his subject.
While the whole interview is worth a look, my favorite part came when HHR asked Golenbock about Hal and Hank — specifically about how the team will be run and how it will be different from their father’s reign. Says Golenbock:
What the Yankee fans can expect in years to come is a much more rational approach to running the team. With George at the helm, he would ignore the advice of his talented baseball scouts and general managers, often making stupid or ill-advised personnel decisions. Buying Steve Trout was just one of many such decisions. Hal and Hank will be more likely to trust their baseball people and sign players who will help them more often than not. The signing of Sabathia, Burnett, and Teixeira are proof that they will sign talented players, not too-old retreats or pitchers with reputations who are injured, as George did. Since the Yankees will be making a fortune from ticket sales and from the YES nature, their overspending won’t break the bank. In my opinion, the Yankees will be a much more dangerous franchise going forward.
A franchise more dangerous than one which won six championships under George? Now that’s scary good. Then again, citing only those six championship seasons overlooks a number of other factors, including the Yankees cellar dwelling in the late 80s, and that the late 90s dynasty was assembled while George was banned from baseball. Still, to say that the franchise will be run better seems a bit of a stretch.
Why isn’t George higher up on my reading list? Other than having more interesting books ahead of it, there’s another reason: factual accuracy. Murray Chass (h/t BBTF) points to Goldenbock’s history of inaccuracies, and warns of much the same from George. This isn’t just Chass’s criticism; these errors have been acknowledged by the book’s publisher, John Wiley & Sons.
What does that mean? It means that Goldenbock has written another baseball book, another book about the Yankees, and that’s not good. In fact, it’s downright dangerous. It’s dangerous because whenever he has written a baseball book, Golenbock has created errors for posterity.
Years from now some kid will take a Golenbock book out of his school library and think he is reading an accurate history. Golenbock and accuracy are an oxymoron.
…
The review includes an expression of regret from the author for the mistakes and a statement from the publisher, John Wiley & Sons, which said in part, “Regarding Peter Golenbock’s book, we are currently taking steps internally to correct the errors which will be reflected in the next reprint.”But the reviewer must be faulted, too. “As an avid baseball fan,” he writes, “I’ve enjoyed Golenbock’s past works, which include collaborations with former Yankees Graig Nettles, Billy Martin and Sparky Lyle. Those associations gave me good reason to expect ‘George’ to be interesting and entertaining.”
How could he have read those other Golenbock books without finding the same kind of faulty writing he exposed in “George?” He would have had to have read the books with his eyes closed not to see them. The Lyle book, “The Bronx Zoo,” for example, contains 68 factual errors.
Sixty-eight factual errors. Don’t they pay people to go through books and find these? It might seem like Chass nitpicks with some of these errors, but I don’t take issue at all. If Golenbock is making simple errors on things like hotel names and the handedness of a batter (uh, Duke Snider was a righty?), what other lazy errors is he making?
One of these days, we’re going to get an 800-page biography of Mr. Steinbrenner, and it will be glorious. It won’t dabble in psychology and try to define George’s various compulsions and neuroses. It will cover the man and his effect on the people around him. Hey, maybe that’s a future RAB project. I think we’d have more than a few willing participants.
