On the Yankees beat

I would select Girardi because of his managerial experience. Also, he was a bench coach with the Yankees. These are all pluses over Don. Don maybe the sentimental favorite but not the realistic choice.

they are both bums

I would prefer the ex-catcher and managerially experienced Girardi.

Well, I said three years ago when Donnie Baseball returned to the Yankees as the hitting coach that he would be the eventual successor to Joe Torre.

I’m going to stick with my original prediction, but I do think the Yankee brass would prefer Girardi at this point.

Girardi has the bench and managerial experience compared to Donnie...so it would favor him. Though I am sure Mattingly would be waiting in the wings during Girardi's tenure (if he gets it , that is;)!) Btw, neither person is a bum , Larry...both were class players and individuals.

Mattingly has no managerial experience, and Girardi is still to "green". We need someone who has experience dealing with playoff pressure, and the intense NY media. We also are now fighting with the Mets for both the back pages, and bragging rights as the best team in NY. As a compromise candidate I nominate Bobby Valentine.

To TheHitMan; That was not my comment.Please revisit. It was Bob. I myself have too much class to make a comment like that.

Bobby Valentine?

Please give me what you are smoking.

On the subject of Valentine, I think he is a great baseball mind who does a great job of motivating teams. But that said I don't see it happening in the Bronx. My prediction is Mattingly.

Girardi's got my vote. He has experience and has worked with Torre on the bench. And typically catchers make great managers. He did a good job with the Marlins and kept them in contention for a while. He just wasn't given the tools to go all the way. But with the Yankees he'll have all the tools.

Bringing back Girardi to eventually replace Torre would be a slap in the face to "Donnie Baseball."

To Larry: My apologies! I saw the post and it angered me and in my haste misread whom quoted it. You answered my mistake with class and I know you and most people on here have way too much class to post such an ignorant comment.

To TheHitMan: No problem.

Jim: Once again, thanks for the website on the contracts. The yankees are pretty much locked in to most of the big guns unless eating contracts is in vogue. Some big deals are mere pipe dreams.

FYI: MLBcontracts.blogspot.com

No problem. Love that Web site.

Wouldn't it serve Donnie well to be the bench coach first for a year or two before becoming the skipper?

Girardi.

He has the personality.

Don shows no emotion and is like a younger Torre.

I like Girardi, but 1 year of managing rookies in a small market is not enough seasoning for NY. The way he imploded in FLA is evidence he's not ready to handle the NY market. Bobby V is an exceptional manager, but he'd be a disaster in the Bronx. If the choice is Mattingly v Girardi, I would have to go Mattingly. But if it's wide open, and we are looking for someone closer to Torre's resume, how about Davey Johnson? He wins everywhere he goes, handles players and press well, and he knows NY.

I think that Girardi and Mattingly would both be good in game managers. Seems to me that the most important qualities for a Yankee manager are the abilities to manage the egos (the players as well as The Boss's) and deal diplomatically with the media. Girardi's recent feud with the Marlins' owner (which ultimately led to his firing) tells me that he isn't ready to be a diplomat like Joe Torre. Mattingly, on the other hand, is a former Yankee captain who has many years of experience dealing with The Boss, the NY Post, etc. I think that both guys would be good managers, but I'm going with Mattingly.

On another note, what about the idea of Derek Jeter becoming a Pete Rose type player/manager? I think it could work.

the reason don shows no emotion is that he is really stupid like forrest grump plain dumb

If the choice is between Mattingly and Girardi, I'd choose Girardi.

I'll tell you who I'd like to see managing the Yanks after Joe goes; Paul O'Neill. Too bad that he wouldn't consider it. He'd light a fire under these guys!

Jeter could not possibly work as a player/manager. It's not his personality. I don't think anyone could handle that job in NY, or in the modern spotrs era of 24/7 coverage. Regardless, Jeter would be a disaster.

Brilliant stuff there, Bruce.

Last time I watched the movie, Forrest Gump was a phenomenal over-achiever and excelled at everything he did in his life.

I think Donnie Baseball would take that.

Bob, author of the insightful 9:35 comment,and Bruce are likely one and the same. He was equally brilliant in the Lax blog over the spring. This is his latest on Glauber: http://weblogs.newsday.com/sports/football/bob_blog/2006/10/tikis_time_up.html#comment-69386
Impressive stuff, no?

It saddens me to see the nasty comments about Donnie Baseball, one of the all-time great Yankees, who was nothing but a class act all the time.
The only reason I'd hate to see Mattingly hired as manager is because inevitably he would be fired, it's just the nature of the business and I think if he were fired he'd leave the Yanks for good or at least a very long time like Yogi did.
I'd take either guy as a manager though, they're both smart guys who played the game the right way and it has carried over into their coaching careers.

i know bowa would implode under media pressure but he has the fiery temperament this club needs. i wish he were the bench coach next to joe, not mazzilli.

if donny succeeds torre, he'll need a hard-working bench and pitching coach at his side. donny's a leader but not a deep thinker. same could be said for torre.

BLOG FORMATTING SUGGESTION: I think the above lines should be placed AFTER the signature of the person responding. The mistake that was made between the signatures of bob and Larry is very common. I found the actual signature confusing myself when I first came on board.

I thought Giradi did a great job with the Marlins this year, but he just wasn't given a long enough and fair enough chance to fully succeed. I think his dismissal had more to do with politics than talent. I also agree that Mattingly may be chosen for sentimental reasons and that Girardi could probably use a few more years experience (although he's got great potential.

Girardi did do a great job with a young team. Telling his owner to shut on during a game was a bad move. Moreover, the GM calls the shots in that organization, and expected input into the personnel decisions. Joe appeared to engage in a bit of a turf war with the front office. That was also foolish, as anyone could have told him who would win that fight. He showed a lot of promise, but needs seasoning. A year or two on the bench, followed by another managing stint in a smaller market, and he should be ready for the Bronx.

All this seasoning and experience is a bunch of phooey.

Look at all the experience that we've accumulated over the years in terms of veteran players and the coaching staff have gotten us.

Every time the Yankees play an "inexperienced" team, everyone talks about how the younger teams will have trouble.

Guess what?

Inexperience kick our butts each and everytime.

Don't even mention that nonsense to me.

I'll take inexperience and fearless over your phoney baloney experience and scared anytime.

Oh and I forgot to mention that applies to managers as well.

Girardi is the best manager for the Yankees, experience or not.

Case closed.

Eric is actually Joe Girardi's agent!
All kidding aside, Girardi, being a catcher would fit the mold of some of the good managers out there like Scoscia and Torre. I actually liked the fact that he told the owner to shut up, although that is obviously not good for job security. Can you see him telling George to shut up? Man, that would be funny.

You know what I find funny about today's game.The mgrs. and coaches are caught on camera going through pages of stats and whatever to make their next move or future moves. Most of the coaches and mgrs. played during the time when stats were in your head. Most of the moves were common sense. I relish the day when a relief pitcher was brought into the game and stayed in to finish the inning. There are times when JT would come out 2 or 3 times for pitching changes just to get out of the inning. I like mgrs. who trust in their staff to get a righty or left out. Thou I believe Girardi would be a better choice in the near future. I believe Mattingly would have more trust in his players and get more production over the long haul. What I'm trying to say Mattingly will make a good mgr. but not just now.

Girardi due to his experience and I htink catchers make good managers

Jim,

Off topic - How come the Yanks aren't bringing back Rick Cerrone?

Thanks

Between Girardi and Mattingly -- defintely Girardi.

Girardi was sand bagged by the Marlins. They were not honest with him about the direction of the organization and he showed class with how he dealt with Loria and his bs.

As for Derek Jeter as a player manager, no way. Can you imagine what would be going on with ARod if Derek were the manager? No thanks.

I beleive that Girardi and Mattingly would make good managers. I would like to see Mattingly become the bench coach next year and at the same time retain his role as batting coach. I think losing him in that role would be similar to when Lou Piniella became the manager and was no longer the batting coach. Piniella was a GREAT batting coach (just ask donnie baseball).

If Mattingly can handle both roles well then we would have a better idea about manager next year.

If Girardi is on the staff this year and they fire Torre during the season, Girardi might get the job. Ohterwise, if Torre is not brought back next year then both Girardi and Mattingly would have an equal shot.

In any case both guys could handle it.

While Girardi had success, it was with young not yet established players who probably listened to him more readily than a team of veteran All-Stars might.
Also, if Joe had friction with the GM and owner, would he clash with George?
Admttedly Mattingly has no experience so the Yanks may be boxing themselves in by only considering these two guys.

To manage the Yankees a candidate must have managerial experience to even be considered. By experience, I mean "playoff" experience. We all saw the importance of "playoff" experience last night. The Mets signed Wagner for occasions just like last night. Game 7, tie game, 9th inning. No matter how badly he may be going, he must be in that game. Randolph managed well without Pedro and Hernandez, but can you imagine the Yanks in that position and MO not being in the game? Willie learned more last night, than he did all year. I know it's an old saying but, "ya dance with the one that brought ya." A manager with playoff experience, doesn't make the mistake Willie did.

Torre did by benching Melky and going with Matsui and trying Sheff at first base instead of going with a better glove, which cost them in game 3.

It was a no-brainer to play Sheff and Matsui and sit Melky and/or Phillips in the postseason during the first two games.

If Melky and/or Phillips played instead of Sheff and Matsui and the Yankees had trouble scoring runs in those games, the media would have called Torre an idiot and a disgrace for benching two All-Stars and replacing them with a rookie and a utility guy.

Torre just can't win no matter what he does.

"It was a no-brainer to play Sheff and Matsui and sit Melky and/or Phillips in the postseason during the first two games."

Correction: First few games, not first two games.

They needed better pitching and defense. Not offense. Moose didn't hold the lead in game 2. What would have happened if they go to Detroit up two games?

You're right either way he can be second guessed.

I'm not critizing Torre. I was just pointing out that Torre changed his line up and he didn't go with the team that took him to the dance.

"I was just pointing out that Torre changed his line up and he didn't go with the team that took him to the dance."

The only reason why Melky and the other guys played was because Sheff and Matsui were injured.

Those guys would have never seen the field had they not been injured.

Matsui isn't Wally Pipp and Melky Cabrera isn't Lou Gehrig. Matsui is the far better player overall and you don't sit a guy like that in the postseason. Matsui has also been a pretty goof post-season hitter during his career.

Playing a perennial All-Star and a borderline Hall of Famer over a rookie and a utility player was simply a no-brainer. Melky and Phillips were going to get their chances to play defense in the late innings if/when the Yanks had the lead.

Torre did what every other manager in MLB would have done; played his All-Stars in the postseason.

Anaconda:

You're only half right about Matsui and Sheffield. Melky became a regular in left field because Matsui got injured. Once Matsui was healthy and ready to play the field, I agree he was rightly the starting left fielder again- a star of Matsui's magnitude shouldn't lose his position due to injury. However, the Sheffield situation was different. When he went down, the Yankees used a bunch of guys- Bernie, TLong, Guiel, Crosby, etc. Then in August they traded for Abreu to be the regular right fielder. When Sheffield was ready to go, he had no right to return to right field, because the Yankees had traded for a legit. player to play there. Torre knew this and , in my opinion, went too far to accomodate Sheff by moving him to first base. I know it's a second guess now (but hey, isn't that what this blog is?), but the post season lineup should have been Matsui LF; Giambi DH; Phillips/Wilson/Gueil combo at first,and Sheffield off the bench (along with Bernie who had a ton more yankee credentials then Sheffield and Torre didn't worry about insulting him).
There's something to be said for chemistry.

yankeenut and others:

As a result of the wrist injury to Giambi in September, Joe Torre only played the full All-Star lineup with Sheff and Matsui TWICE as a tune-up during the regular season and before the playoffs began.

In those two tune-up games, the Yankees scored 16 runs against the O’s (9/27) and 7 runs against the Jays (9/29).

Keep in mind that Torre pulled the majority of his starters by the 7th inning in both of those regular season games because he wanted to rest his starters as much as possible. Let’s also not forget that Sheff had hit two lasers for homeruns in that final weekend series against the Jays and he certainly appeared to be getting on track with the stick again.

In Game 1 of the ALDS, this same All-Star lineup scored 8 runs against the Tigers and the game was never close.

You don’t sit these guys down in the postseason when they scored 31 runs in the three games they played together as a full lineup.

It is true that the Yankees scored just 3 runs in Game 2 at the Stadium against Verlander, Zumaya, and Todd Jones. However, if you recall, they had scoring opportunities like crazy the entire game and stranded something like 16 runners. They also had to deal with the late afternoon shade that really affected the hitters’ vision against those 100 MPH+ fireballers and couldn’t get that big hit in the late innings.

Given these indisputable facts and variables, it’s very hard to ridicule Torre in good faith for sticking with his All-Star lineup in Game 3 (w/ Bernie minus Sheff) against a guy like Kenny Rogers because he hadn’t beaten the Yankees in more than a decade and most everyone in that lineup had huge career numbers against him.

Unfortunately for the Yankees, Rogers pitched the game of his life and the Big Unit just flat out sucked. Give Rogers credit. He pitched a great game against this lineup and nobody on the planet expected it.

I have a hard time slinging mud at Torre for his decision-making during the first three games of that series when his All-Star lineup were scoring runs like mad and then just flat out vanished in Games 2-4.

When you really look at the overall picture leading into the postseason, I believe every other good manager in MLB would have done the same damn thing as Torre did in Games 1-3 because any manager would have been chased by men in white coats and put in a padded room if he had gone a different route and decided to bench two of his All-Stars in favor of a rookie and a career backup infielder.

Sometimes the other team deserves credit, too. It’s not always the manager’s fault when your team loses.

The Tigers just executed on the field when it mattered most and the Yankees didn’t. End of story.

What say you, Jim?

I don't think anyone is slinging mud at Torre here. And he's definitly not the reason the Yanks lost the ALDS. I've said it before and I'll say it again, we lost because the Tigers had superior pitching.

It was not my intention to insult Torre's moves. But if Melky was good enough to start and played a great left field then he should have been considered before game 4. And Sheff with all his bad attitude should have been the odd man out. Offense didn't matter much in the ALDS so we could have used better defense at 1st.

Of course hind sight is 20/20 that's what this blog is.

Sheff has had a bad attitude his entire career, but the Yanks signed him anyways a few years ago and knew exactly what they were getting.

Attitude or not, he is a borderline Hall of Famer who has hit 450 homeruns in his career. He was starting to rake in the final weekend series as evidenced by his two laser beams over the left field wall.

You don't sit a guy like that in the postseason if he is healthy.

Plenty of players have had bad attitudes over the years (Sheff, Unit, Jeff Kent, Frank Thomas, Barry Bonds, Manny Ramirez...etc), but that's not a reason to bench someone in the postseason.

I agree the Tigers did everything they possibly could to win the ALDS, but I do think the Yankees played as big a role in the outcome as the Tigers. Yes, the Tigers were near perfect, but the Yankee offense came up absolutely lame. Yes, credit the victors. But Yankees don't get any sort of pass, not in the least. And even people within the organization admit Torre made several wrong decisions in Games 3 and 4. But what can you do?

Torre NEVER should have put ARod in the 8 slot; that was just plain dumb. I do not understand what he was thinking.

That stated everyone makes mistakes and Torre has made his share but he is still the right guy for the job.

The Yankees problem is pitching and they will not win the WS again until they aquire 2 top flight starters. How that will be done is Cashman's issue. Some tough decisions lie ahead for him.

Sheff "border line Hall of Famer"? You gotta be kiddin' me. This is what happens when people just look at numbers. We have all seen Sheff play his entire career. Is there any poster out there that would put Sheff in the Hall of Fame? On the "Shoulda\Woulda" front, remember in game 2 Mussina set up a run that scored on a sac. fly with a wild pitch.

Like it or not, Roy, but Sheff is going to finish his career with 500 homeruns.

That is usually the benchmark for a Hall of Famer.

Like it or not, anaconda, Sheff will not go into the Hall of Fame. With the steroid issue involving Sheff, his homerun numbers will be evaluated skeptically. Numbers are just that. Numbers. We have all seen Sheff's entire career. We can judge the player by what we have seen him actually do on the field of play, and we can judge firsthand if he is one of the "elite" players in his era. Sheff is not elite, Sheff is no Hall of Famer, Sheff is not even close.

I don't know if Sheff will end up in the Hall or not. That is not my point. However, he'll have roughly 500 homeruns by the time his career is over that he'll be in the discussion and the writers will vote on it - hence my characterization of Sheff as a "borderline" Hall of Famer.

Personally, I couldn't care less if he makes it or not. You are arguing that he is “not even close” to Hall of Fame status and my point is that you're wrong and his career numbers prove that.

I’m not carrying water for Sheff whatsoever and the baseball writers and voters can decide where he ranks in history. But to say that he is “not even close” to a Hall of Famer when he is going to finish his career with 500 homeruns is foolish on your part.

Every player who has finished his career with 500 homeruns who are eligible for Cooperstown have indeed been voted into the HoF as of today.

That may change when McGwire, Palmiero, and Sosa are eligible, but it is a fact no matter how much it annoys you.

With the on-going steroid scandal, hitting 500 homeruns no longer makes a player either an automatic Hall of Famer, or a even a "borderline" Hall of Famer". Stop "crunching" numbers and 1st ask yourself, "was Sheff 1 of the "dominant" players during his era". The answer is clearly no. The discussion of whether Sheff is even a "borderline" Hall of Fame candidate ends there. If you think that Sheff and his possible 500 homeruns makes him "borderline" Hall of Fame, than what about Fred McGriff, and Harold Baines? These are all very good players, but certainly not "borderline" Hall of Famers.

You can hate any player or manager you want (Sheff, A-Rod, Torre...etc), but you are focusing on an irrelevant phrase [borderline Hall of Famer] that had little to do with my overall point.

My point was that you don't sit a guy like Sheff with the numbers he has put up in his career in Games 1 & 2 of the ALDS and replace him with a career backup infielder.

He was starting to get into a groove during the last weekend of the regular season as evidenced by his two lasers he hit over the LF wall.

Frankly, you also don't sit guys like Harold Baines or Fred McGriff down in the postseason in favor of a career backup infielder either.

Whether any of these guys make it to the Hall or not was completely irrelevant to my overall point.

I really thought your Sheff "is a borderline Hall of Famer" post, was sincere. Let it go.

Shef is not going in, will never get over 25% of the vote. Neither is Raffy or Sosa, you are living in the past Big Deadly Snake. That said Torre magaded by ego, excepting Arod, not ability. It's not his fault they lost, but he did nothing to advance the cause. If St L wins I will be sick. Despise Tony the Joke, and they were the weakest team to make the post season. This WS is bad for baseball and bad for my blood pressure.