Posted on 10/29/2007 12:50:35 PM PDT by gridlock
The Yankees have settled on a choice for Joe Torre’s successor as the manager, and it is Joe Girardi, the former manager of the Florida Marlins who won three titles as a catcher for the Yankees in the 1990s. Girardi was selected over Don Mattingly and Tony Peña, who were members of Torre’s last coaching staff with the Yankees.
“The Yankees have expressed interest in Joe becoming manager,” Girardi’s agent, Steve Mandel, said in a telephone interview Monday. “We’ve decided to have discussions with them and we’re moving forward. No timetable has been set, but it’s a process we’re letting take place.”
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(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
That being said this is the old Yankee's Stadium last year before the new Yankee Stadium.
PS if you know of a catcher that can hit over 320 with over 20 home runs and drive in over 80 that will work cheap let them know at www.yankees.com.
He might’ve been a bust when the spotlight was on ...
... but when the spotlight was off, he hit .316 with a .422 OBP and a .645 SLG. He hit 54 HR and had 156 RBI. Spotlight or no - that’s phenomenal. There are maybe 5 or 6 players in baseball capable of that kind of across-the-board production (Albert Pujols, Lance Berkman, Vlad Guerrero, etc.) ... and virtually NONE of them are available to the Yankees. Not to mention that A-Rod is only about 30-years old, and should be producing at that level for another 5-8 seasons.
Alex Rodriguez has his problems ... but talent like that isn’t easy to come by.
H
But see post 06. ‘08 is the Cubs’ year. Hopefully it will work out for ex-Cubs as well...
The nice thing about the Yankees is that amazing talents seem to come along all the time. There will never be another A-Rod, but the Yankees won before he came, and they will win after he goes.
In other words, he belongs coaching a bunch of metrosexuals who play in a Third World slum.
Happiness is the Yankees moving to Vegas after the family sells them.
My bet is they sign Barry Bonds to DH. He’ll replace SOME of the offense of A-Rod for a year or so. That’ll leave Giambi actually in the field ... not good, but better than a hole at the 4th spot in the batting order.
Isn’t Abreu a free agent, too? They’ve been an offensive juggernaught for a few years now ... they’ll take a step back next year. If they lose Rodriguez, Abreu and Posada out of the middle of the order, Clemens and Pettitte at the top of the rotation, and Rivera out of the pen ... they’ll get destroyed by the Sox, and may lose to the Jays.
H
Great choice. Girardi, like Torre, is a good guy. And of course his son is a fan of the World Champion Boston Red Sox and his favorite player is Big Papi.
Joe will be key for the Yankees ability to rebuild with young players.
However, I would point out that his acquisition was symptomatic of everything that is wrong with the Yankees these days. They got him simply because the opportunity arose and because Aaron Boone's off-season knee injury left a gaping hole at third base that needed to be filled immediately -- so they shoe-horned A-Rod into the lineup and had him play out of his natural position.
That's a recurring problem on this team, unlike the teams that won championships in the recent past. They simply have too many players on the field who don't field their positions well, and too many players whose best "position" is designated hitter.
I'm wondering now if A-Rod intended to opt out of this contract all along . . . not just to get out of New York, but to go to a team where he could play shortstop again.
I don't disagree, but if he can't produce when the pressure's on, and can't produce in the postseason, then what good is his talent?
He's making way too much money to just be a cog in a finely tuned machine. He has to be a big-time producer, and he has failed to be anything of the sort.
It's a shame - I thought he was a great pick-up for the Yankees at the time.
What team can afford his salary and also afford his post-season swoon? I'm drawing a blank.
>> I don’t disagree, but if he can’t produce when the pressure’s on, and can’t produce in the postseason, then what good is his talent?
Alex Rodriguez is most of the reason the Yankees were in the postseason in 2007. Without A-Rod’s MVP performance, the Yankees would’ve been out of the wild-card race right around the All-Star Break.
>> He’s making way too much money to just be a cog in a finely tuned machine. He has to be a big-time producer, and he has failed to be anything of the sort.
He’s expensive, but he earned his keep in 2007. The Yankees worked back from a 10+ game deficit in large part due to ARod’s performance. The Yankees were a critically flawed team throughout ‘07 ... A-Rod made them a contender, but couldn’t carry them all the way.
I just don’t think this will be a particularly easy loss for the Yanks to get over. Albert Pujols isn’t available. Lance Berkman isn’t available. Vlad Guerrero isn’t available. How do they replace 156 RBI of production in the middle of their order? How do they replace a man with an OBP of about .420 and a .600+ Slugging Percentage?
With A-Rod, the Yankees were a borderline playoff team that couldn’t get past the ALDS in 2007 ... without him, they’re not a playoff team at all.
H
The 2005 playoffs were a perfect case in point . . . He got a lot of grief for hitting only .133 in those playoffs, but the truth was that the Angels pitched around him for the entire series (which they were able to do because Matsui and Sheffield were terrible at the plate). He had six walks in that series and was hit by at least one pitch, and his on-base percentage (.381) was actually higher than leadoff-hitter Derek Jeter's (.364).
Make no mistake about it . . . there is a rabid anti-Rodriguez bias in New York. I haven't heard a peep about Jeter's miserable post-season performance (he hit all of .176) this year.
Keep in mind that A-Rod wasn’t all that “expensive” at all. The Yankees only got him because Texas was paying a big chunk of his salary for the last few years.
I was listening to WFAN on the way home, and they were going on and on about how the Yankees might still negotiate with A-Rod. After he kissed of $3 Million a year in subsidies from Texas by opting out of his contract, I don’t think the Yankees are going to be interested in talking to him about more money.
Girardi will be great with the “kids”, Cano, Cabrera, Duncan and the young pitchers. Who knows? Another “kid” might come up at third base now. They need more of a “hands on” coach than the veterans that are leaving.
A-Rod was also the youngest player ever to reach the 500-home-run mark. I hope he stays healthy since he’s the best chance in the near future of someone passing Barry Bonds’ career total.
As much as you might not like A-Rod, you gotta love him next to Barry Bonds. I will cheer every time A-Rod hits a home run, because it will be one run closer to Barry Bonds’ date with obscurity.
I don’t dislike A-Rod, although I haven’t followed his career that closely (I’ve been too busy cheering for Manny Ortiz). I hope he helps a team that hasn’t won a World Series in decades, or never, be a contender in 2008. But it wasn’t classy to have the story he’s leaving the Yankees come out on what turned out to be the last day of the World Series (not that he had anything to do with that).
I predict you will eat those words.
Sure, that's what we need. An ardent Red Sox fan complimenting Steinbrenner on the Giraldi choice. Sure.
You want to get rid of Posada, too? Jeez, gridlock, who pissed in your Wheaties today?
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