Truth about Yankees and Kevin Long, by Lisa Guerrero
If you ever wondered why the Yankees gave hitting coach Kevin Long a three-year contract last winter - which is unheard of for hitting coaches - Lisa Guerrero might have the answer.
In her latest blog post for The Los Angeles Times, Guerrero writes from Arizona, where she is attending Long's wedding. (Long was college teammates with Scott Erickson, aka, Mr. Lisa Guerrero.)
Anyway, she writes:
"Kevin is the hitting coach for the Yankees and came really close to heading to the Dodgers this season with Joe Torre. Instead, he stayed in New York out of loyalty to the team that gave him a shot in the big leagues (in 2007) after toiling in the minors for 18 years, primarily with the Royals organization."
Hmmmmm, so perhaps he was going to leave with Torre and Mattingly, which makes sense because Mattingly likes him a lot and originally Mattingly was going to be Torre's bench coach. And perhaps Cashman stood in the way by offering three years.
Oh, and in case you're wondering, here's Long's thoughts on the offseason:
Kevin thinks that New York might make Derek Lowe the priority.
“We need to solidify our starting pitching,” he told me. “We were the only team in baseball last year with less than three starters that threw 100 innings (Mike Mussina and Andy Pettitte). We have to address the pitching situation first.”
In terms of Manny, Kevin adds, “He’d be a great fit for the Yankees. We’d love to have him. We have the resources and it’s hard not to think about what the Yankees could do with him in the lineup. You’d have to say that if we shored up our rotation and get Manny, we’d be the front-runner next year.”
BTW: Another great find by waswatching.com.
E-mail
Facebook
Digg
Delicious
