At some point, someone’s going to have to do something about these terrible calls that have a measured impact on the game. This ALCS Game 7 should be tied in the top of the 7th. Instead, the Red Sox have a one-run lead because the umpires missed yet another call.
Bloggers to beat writers: Suck it up
EJ Fagan over at our old home has a great piece up on the beat writers’ overreactions to the non-news emanating from Tampa right now. His point – and it’s a good one – is that the Yankees are under no obligation to rush their decision simply to create news for writers searching for off-season, pre-free agency stories. Check it out.
Like nails on a chalkboard
If Tim McCarver and Joe Buck love Jonathan Papelbon so much, why don’t they just marry him?
Meanwhile, considering how poorly Sabathia and Carmona have pitched the last two nights, I’m starting to get the sinking suspicion that the Yanks just flat-out sucked during the ALDS. Cleveland’s pitching isn’t really that good.
Update 1:11 a.m.: Unsurprisingly, Eric Wedge’s stupid decision to pinch run for Travis Hafner with two outs in the 9th of a tie game has come back to haunt him. Trot Nixon will now bat against a lefty with two on and one out in the 11th. Do these managers never learn? Pinch-running against Papelbon with two outs is pretty useless.
Update 1:16 a.m.: Nevermind. That worked. And I sure am glad the Yanks never made that Melky-for-Gagne trade. What idiot suggested that?
A sober reflection on “A fork in the road”
After reading the comments on the fork in the road post, I thought I’d follow up a bit. I enjoyed the discussion, and thought some good ideas came out of it. I really believe that the more we talk about these issues, the more we’ll all learn. Remember, I’m no expert. I’m some dude who thinks about baseball a lot and posts his thoughts for public viewing. You guys are the crux of it all. You call me out when I say something stupid, and you lend different ideas to the ones I present. That’s why this site works so well.
Honestly, my biggest problem with what I wrote is how I presented it. It was written over the course of a couple of days, and as I progressed the ideas kind of shifted. In essence, the beginning didn’t mesh with the end, and the middle didn’t do a good job of transitioning. What follows is what I think I should have written — only better, because it takes the discussion we had into consideration. And I’m sorry, but it’s going to be another long one. I’ll leave out the pictures this time.
As I mentioned in my disclaimer, the Yankees would never take the more radical path. They have the resources to stay in contention, so they’re going to continue along that path…if they can. This is where I’ll defend the “gut the team” notion. The essence is simple: The Yanks might not have much of a choice in the matter.
The other side of the Torre story
On Tuesday, I voiced my support for Joe Torre. My reasoning, like many others, is that there simply isn’t anyone else better suited to manage this Yankees team. That remains my positio today, though as I read more I’m realizing that I’m succumbing to certain biases. Who knows? Another three days of mulling this issue might make me turn around. Bits of knowledge like this one, found at NoMaas (a site I’ve grown weary of this year), will do much to expedite a change in my thought process:
All managers, as a group are most effective in their early years on the job. I did a study of 103 managers who managed at least 600 major league games, a group basically including all twentieth-century managers who had significant careers and are now retired. The study documented something which is apparent if you just look at the records. A huge percentage of managers have their best seasons a) when they first get a chance to manage, and b) in their first years on the job.
Nonetheless, the most obvious fact about managers is that almost all managers become ineffective after two or three years in a position.
The most important question that a manager asks is “What needs to be changed around here?” Any manager, over time, loses the ability to see what needs to be changed.
There is the manager’s loyalty to his players. A new manager owes nobody anything. He can bench or release unproductive players without apology. An established manager can’t do that – not only because of his own reluctance to break faith with players who have given him their best efforts, but because of what it means to the rest of the team.
Another thing…the game of baseball changes, over time, much more extensively than most people realize. The way the game is played now is very different from the way it was played thirty years ago.
The older a manager is, the more likely he is to fight those changes. Older managers are trying to play the game the way it was played thirty years ago, usually without realizing it.
Of course, this not to say that managers always have their best seasons early on. Look at Bobby Cox. He managed the Braves, then was relegated to GM duties, and then returned as manager and went on the infamous division title streak. Many think that Cox is “losing it” today, but I don’t remember his job coming into question during his tenure, despite a lack of playoff success. Then again, I’m not a Braves fan, so I’m not always privy to what they’re saying about their manager.
The most eye-opening parts of that passage are the final four paragraphs. Joe is very loyal to his players, almost to a fault. In many instances, it worked out — Bobby Abreu is a good example of this. However, that’s not to say that Joe’s loyalty is the only way to get things back on track. Perhaps sitting Bobby for three or four games would have gotten him back on track faster. Who knows?
The point is, there are two sides to every story. Yes, many of us want Joe Torre back, and there is a valid argument for that. However, as I’m beginning to realize, there is a reason just as valid to can him. To me, this makes the decision that much more interesting.
Name Torre’s replacement
Ben’s commentary on the end of an era in New York got me thinking a lot more about the manager issue. I understand a lot of people want to see Torre gone. They decry his bullpen usage — and we’ve been guilty of that on plenty of occasions — and think he has some nonchalant attitude towards managing the game. “Binary baseball fans” (we’ll get more into this term later in the off-season) think he doesn’t play the numbers well enough. I have one question, though: Who do you think should take his place?
- Tony LaRussa? People will point to his personal pitching coach, Dave Duncan, and think it might be a good idea. However, as a commenter pointed out earlier today, how many pitchers came up through the St. Louis system during the LaRussa/Duncan tenure? Matt Morris. Oh, and Dan Haren, but all of his success came after he was traded. Duncan can fix veterans to a degree, but with the young arms in the system, I’m not sure I want Duncan around. As for LaRussa, I don’t really have an opinion on him, which puts me in the minority. Most people are against the idea. I’ll let you have it out in the comments.
- Don Mattingly? Please, let me know what he has done that indicates he’d be a competent manager. What sticks out to me about Mattingly is his reaction to Steinbrenner’s ultimatum for Torre:
“It’s obviously an uncomfortable situation for me. I don’t want to be caught in the middle of this. On the back end of that, Joe knows how I feel about him. He knows I would never do anything behind the scenes or anything else to backstab anybody. It’s not my character; it’s not part of me. I’m comfortable with that part of myself. Joe knows me, too, that I wouldn’t be doing that. My loyalty to him is as long as it has to be, really forever. He’s treated me great, he’s taught me tons.”
1) No one ever accused Mattingly of working behind the scenes. These sound like the words of a guilty man — guilty of something, not necessarily of explicitly lobbying for Torre’s job — to me.
2) If you hate Torre, do you take solace in Donnie saying “he’s taught me tons”?
But overall, he hasn’t done a thing to prove he can manage in the bigs.
- Joe Girardi? First off, he’d be managing a few guys he played with. I’m not sure how this has worked out in the past, but I’m not sure it’d be good for the Yanks. Second, I’ll name you two guys: Josh Johnson and Anibal Sanchez. Both pitched for Girardi, both haven’t been healthy since. The Johnson situation was the most egregious of the two, as we all know the rain delay story. If Girardi told Joba to go out there after sitting down for an hour, I might just storm the dugout.
- Bobby V? I still don’t think he’d ever manage for George. But if he’d be up for it, it’s a consideration.
- Tony Pena? I have nothing bad to say about the man. It’s tough to gauge what was his fault and what wasn’t with the Royals. He took a team that in 2002 hit .256/.323/.398 with a team ERA of 5.21, and turned them into a .274/.336/.427 team with a 5.06 ERA the next year. And then he lost Carlos Beltran to the Astros and Mike Sweeney to injuries, and the team collapsed again (their pitching remained horrible). Clearly, he was not in an ideal situation.
Who else? We’ll take any and all suggestions, and hopefully develop them into a good discussion. For the record, I’m all for giving Torre another contract. I don’t think anyone on this list could do a better job of managing this team.
Yanks face end of an era, but which one?
Everyone likes to point their fingers. (Photo from Newsday/Paul J. Bereswill)
When the dust finally settles in a few days, an era of Yankee baseball will end. How this drama plays out, though, will determine which era ends, and the end result could be something of a surprise.
In one corner, we have George Steinbrenner threatening the end of the Joe Torre Era. If you take the interview with Ian O’Connor at face value, Torre’s gone. The Yanks didn’t make it past the first round of the playoffs for the third year in a row, let alone win a World Series, and King George is not happy.
For now, the going school of belief seems to be that Steinbrenner’s threats were not idle and that Torre is gone. The Yankee skipper spoke of the team not as a “we” but as a “them” during the post-game press conference last night. Peter Abraham noted a few other indications concerning the imminent departure of Joe Torre, and Bill Madden at The Daily News speculates that the Tony La Russa-Dave Duncan team may be Bronx bound.
But what if? What if George Steinbrenner’s interview featured the words of an aging and nearly deposed dictator? What if Brian Cashman enlists the help of the heir-apparent Hal Steinbrenner to push for Torre’s return? What if the rumors of Tony La Russa’s arrival in the Bronx raises too many alarm bells among the Yankee decision-makers?
If the Torre faction within the Yankees can outlast those doubting him, another era will end in the Bronx. The Era of the Boss would officially be over. We know, thanks to Portfolio magazine, that george is not well these days. If Joe Torre keeps his job, Steinbrenner’s public words and Yankee clout are all but gone.
Right now, no one really knows what should happen. Joe Torre made a few bad managing mistakes this week that cost the Yankees at least game two and maybe game four. He has a history of mismanaging the bullpen, but he knows how to handle the Yankees. Furthermore, the players – such as free agents Mariano Rivera and Jorge Posada – love him. If he goes, they may go too.
So it becomes a showdown yet again between the Boss and the only man more powerful than the Boss in the eyes of the New York sports media. In a few days or hours or minutes, someone will win and an era will end. Whatever the outcome, it will affect the Yankees for years to come.
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