River Avenue Blues

Torre on ESPN’s Sunday Conversation

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I know he’s not the Yanks’ manager anymore, but it’s a great interview that’s worth three minutes of your time regardless. The third winningest manager in Bombers’ history talks Mitchell Report, the pressures he felt in NY, and milking pitchers for another hitter or two.

I’ve come to grips with Girardi being the man in charge now, and I’m sure he’ll do an excellent job, but I still believe Torre’s the guy that should be managing the team. There’s things off the field that need managing too, and Joe was the master at that. Chastise me in the comments if you wish, that’s just my personal opinion.

Girardi lifts facial hair ban?

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Update: Patrick talked to PeteAbe, who said that the no-hair-below-the-lip policy remains in place.

A story making its rounds in the mainstream media today is Joe Girardi’s list of rules. I’m not sure if these are just for Spring Training or if they’ll extend into the season. There are 17 total, and RAB goat Wallace Matthews got his hands on nine:

1. Be on time. No excuse for lateness.

2. Shorts and T-shirts only permitted during spring training.

3. Curfew of 1 a.m.

4. Jewelry – only one chain is permitted. No earrings.

5. Only neatly cut beards, mustaches, goatees. No long hair or “unshaven looks.”

6. No family members in the clubhouse until after games.

7. No cell phones in the dugout.

8. Cell phones only allowed in the clubhouse until one hour before games.

9. No competing speakers in the clubhouse.

No. 2 makes it seem like these are the Girardi rules. No. 5, then, looks like it supersedes King George’s Law.

No. 7 should be fairly obvious…

Cashman levels charges of fiscal insanity

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When the Yanks on the World Series in 1998, they did so with a $73-million payroll. Despite the then-lofty price tag, the Yanks finished behind the $74-million, fourth-place Orioles in the payroll wars. That historic season would be the last time the Yanks lost that battle.

Ten years later, the Yanks are coming off a season that saw their payroll balloon to $218.3 million, nearly $70 million higher than the most expensive team to ever win a World Series. Brian Cashman, who is part of a Front Office that just doled out the most expensive contract in history and high-ticket deals to two other star players, now says that the bloat has to stop:

“We are high,” Yankees GM Brain Cashman said in an interview with ESPN 1050 New York’s Andrew Marchand. “If I could get our payroll lower [I would]. It is not going to happen — not this year. But we have, at the end of the year, a lot of numbers coming off. The combination of building our farm system and getting our salary lines back to where they probably need to be. That’s a process, too, and that takes some time. I’m not particularly proud that we have the highest payroll in the game.

“I just don’t think you are going to get the type of bang for your buck at the type of dollars that you are paying.”

For some Yankee fans, their instant reaction to this quote will be one of concern. The vaunted Yankees are going to enter a rebuilding period? No way, how how.

But what Cashman is saying actually makes perfect sense. With the farm system coming due at the same time a lot of contracts are coming off the books, the Yanks have the cheap, good pieces to plug in to the right holes. At the same time, with a lot of albatross-like contracts — Jason Giambi, Carl Pavano, Kyle Farnsworth — coming due, the Yanks can use that money to snatch up the right pieces.

NoMaas likes to say that if they had $200 million to spend, the Yanks would never lose. If Brian Cashman is true to his word and the Yanks’ brass don’t overreact this season, we may finally get to see what happens when the Yanks put together a well-constructed $180-million machine instead of a $200-million bloated roster.

The Jason Giambi X-Factor

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Peter Abraham reports that Jason Giambi is supposedly in great shape and ready to play this year. Why? Well, because it’s his walk year, of course. Giambi, who’s had three and a half good years and two and a half terrible years on the Yanks, is playing out his age 37 season and could sign another two-year deal with some team if he proves he can still hit this year. While he probably won’t be in the Bronx in 2009, I’ll take a good 2008 from him.

Hank recognizes the Satana-less future

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Says Hank: “We’re one of the five best, and no nobody really knows who’s better than who at this point. There’s Detroit, Boston, Cleveland, there’s Anaheim, and there might be a couple others as well. … With (Johan) Santana, we’d be the favorite right now. I’d like to win it this year. But we had a chance, and it will only get better.”

While WasWatching.com says Hank is expressing some Santana remorse, it seems to me that Hank recognizes that the future will “only get better” with the Big Three around. Considering Hank was long the one who pushed hard for Santana, this is a welcome change of heart from one of the guys in charge.