Thursday, October 18, 2007
Farewell #6
Joe Torre will not manage the New York Yankees in the 2008 season.
The Yankees manager has declined an $5.5 million offer from the front office brass for a guaranteed full-year contract.
This is the ultimate end to a rocky two seasons as his job was in jeopardy after the 2006 season in which general manager Brian Cashman saved.
This past season, more specifically the playoffs, Steinbrenner mentioned that if Torre and the Yankees did not advance to the League Championship series, he would be fired.
Turns out the Yankees did not advance, but there was no word of a release from the front office. With the surprise of a one-year offer, and even a larger surprise of a decline of that offer, the Yankees are now out of a manager after the completion of Torre's current contract.
There are four names that have been tossed around to fill in the manager shoes: bench coach Don Mattingly, former manager John Valentine, Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa, and 2005 Manager of the Year Joe Girardi.
The chances of LaRussa, a four-time Manager of the Year, coming over to the Yankees are very slim. LaRussa has years of experience with big name ball clubs with big name players. He has managed the Oakland Athletics to a title with the names of Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco on the staff and in 2006 he led the St. Louis Cardinals backed by Chris Carpenter and Albert Pujols to a title.
In his lone season as manager of the Florida Marlins, Joe Girardi was awarded the 2006 Manager of the Year with his club finishing fourth in the NL East. He is currently working as a broadcaster and a baseball analyst with various corporations.
He was on the 1996, 1998, and 1999 Yankees squad when they won the World Series. His odds for a managerial seat in pinstripes are greater than LaRussa, but I would not count on it.
Bobby Valentine managed the 2000 New York Mets to a National League pennant and led the 2005 Pacific League Chiba Lotte Marines of the Japanese League to a championship title. He has managed many veteran players. Yankees brass will notice the blank spot on his resume after the 2000 season, but even with that, the chances of a hiring are small.
The best odds for a new manager for the Yankees is current bench coach Don Mattingly. He was signed in 2003 as the Yankees hitting coach, promoted to bench coach in 2006, and may very well be the new manager of the Yankees. Mattingly is a career Yankees coming up in 1982 and setting a record six grand slams in a single season in 1986, more notably, those six slams are the only ones of his career. In that same season, Mattingly won the AL MVP award.
With Torre at his side, Mattingly has learned the managerial role and even took over the reigns when Torre was ejected from a few games.
There are three big names in the front office, including two Steinbrenner's that are Mattingly fans, one of them being Sir George himself.
The chances of Donnie Baseball sitting in the manger seat are close to 80%.
Joe Torre will leave a mark in Yankees history. In his 12 years as manager, he has won two wild cards, six American League Pennants, four World Titles including three in a row. 12 season as the manager, 12 seasons in the playoffs, only Braves manager Bobby Cox has a resume that can rival that. Torre is also a perfect 6-0 as the All-Star game manager.
Joe Torre will be missed, and we will one day see the Yankees retire #6 on Joe Torre Day.
One day, the National Baseball Hall of Fame will send him a call...
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Labels: 2008, Bobby Valentine, Don Mattingly, Joe Girardi, Joe Torre, manager, Steinbrenner, Tony LaRussa, Yankees
Posted by Steve Kenul at 4:29 PM
K.K. posted at 5:15 AM
Girardi would be the ideal choice, because of where he got his experience. He did it with a club that was expected to lose a record amount of games, and was exceptionally young.
Girardi developed young pitching in Florida. And those pitchers were NOWHERE near as talented as the ones the Yankees have (look what happened to them after Girardi left) - the team in Florida went into a tailspin after Girardi left, and some crazy bad managing was going on (like why Hanley Ramirez was stuck batting third for months when he sucks outside of leadoff)
The Yankees need to completely scrap their rotation (obviously) and start young... I'm thinking Pettitte, Wang, Hughes, Kennedy, and like Humberto Sanchez (which would allow Chamberlain to learn the setup role, for graduation to closer when Mariano decides to hang them up)
Based on what I've seen of Joba, he's much better as a reliever, since he fades after about 30 pitches. Maybe they could stretch him out into a starter, but with 2 nasty pitches like that, he is almost primed for relief work, with Ohlendorf.
Steve Kenul posted at 1:26 PM
I'll post something on the 2008 Yankees some time soon. Stay tuned.
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