Greetings from Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. SU actually took in an NHL game last night here – very exciting. Hockey is always better in person.
Well, the Girardi haters are no doubt happy today. Too robotic, too serious, too uninspiring, too much following his binder, etc. SU says he had a very good 10-year run and had to manage his way through the retirements of Posada, Rivera and Jeter along with the A-Rod chaos which as we all know, was more challenging than any of these others. He has a World Series ring and over the last several years, made the most of an inferior roster provided by Brian Cashman.
It sounds like Cashman recommended to ownership that Girardi should not be brought back. According to Andrew Marchand, part of that decision stemmed from some disagreements this season about player usage – specifically Chris Carter. Say what?! Cashman and the analytics people thought he should be playing Carter more. SU says this: if that was the reason you were fired, more power to you! If Chris Carter was so great, don’t you think some major league team would have signed him after the Yankees released him? That was a bone-headed signing and credit to Girardi for not playing him more than they did.
SU asks this question: if the Yankees had made it to the World Series, does he get brought back? If the Yankees won the World Series, does he come back? Or was this decision made months ago? SU says that is the case – this was a done deal. Look, Joe Torre was fired after about 12 seasons and having made the playoffs in 2007 – again. No shame in this for Girardi. SU says he was a very good manager who should have been brought back to take this team to the next level. No one manages a bullpen better than him. The immediate media stories talk about being too stressed, burnt out and ready for a change. Maybe, maybe not.
Rob Thompson, the bench coach, seems to have the inside track for the moment. But SU says: are you ready for the A-Rod era to begin? Hal Steinbrenner is a big fan. We could have J-Lo as the bench coach, a whole new strength and conditioning program that would work wonders – many upsides here. Seriously, A-Rod will be a great manager. He is a student of the game and connects well with the younger players – especially the Latino players. Great with the media. No one is mentioning it yet. SU says keep an eye on this.
So, sports fans, let’s hear from you? Good that Girardi was let go? Time for a change? Unfair? Not so easy to replace him now? Do not give me Dusty Baker or any of the other non-sabremetric types. We want an analytics approach here.
Sports Update Intergalactic 
Girardi to manage Washington?
Interesting. He would do well with a veteran line up and has NL experience. Also wonder if Jeter would bring him down to Miami? Probably not as they are primed to lose 100 games for a few years in a rebuild.
When Torre was let go you heard that the team had grown to lack discipline, so they brought in more of an authoritarian personality. Now do you go the opposite way? How about Nick Swisher then (only kidding)? It is really a shame that after putting up with all of Cashman’s bungled moves (including Carter) and having to endure the A-Rod calamity, that Girardi doesn’t get to enter the promised land with the new generation of prospects. Thumbs down (and not in a playful way) to Cashman for this move.
I don’t see them hiring from within if they made the move now. They are most likely trying to find the trendy name out in the market, or bring back a manager we have not seen in a while.
I think the guys out there are not the analytics types, e.g., Dusty Baker, even Willie Randolph who has Yankee pedigree. If Mattingly is let go, his name will pop up but he is terrible managing relievers and is not a numbers guy. I think they will stay internal and even look at the Wilkes Barre team.
The decision was definitely made months ago. The Yankees have been “ahead of schedule” all year. Not many thought they were getting past the Indians and then they ended up taking the Astros to 7. Any other manager is getting a 5 year extension after that type of performance.
I did like Girardi as a consistent decision maker based on mostly the stats. is that good or bad? I say it was safe? Yes, we had many inferior rosters. Torre was so lucky to have an owner willing to go all out to “purchase” a winning team. Yes you had the core four but a whole lot more too. Just from a likable perspective Girardi never gave you any real reason to like him or dislike him. He was boring. Some Billy Martin personality would have helped. Too many pleasantries between the Yanks and Red Sox too over the past 10 years. I guess you can thank Jeter and Pedroia. I would have liked to see how Girardi would have managed such an up and coming bunch of solid players. Certainly many people will predict them winning between 95- 100 games this coming season. One Verlander type is needed to get us over the hump…. that’s all. Whoever takes over will be in a great situation. Maybe Isaiah Thomas is available.
So long Joe. Thanks for a solid effort. Enjoy the kids. Maybe grow your hair a little. The marine look doesn’t do it for you.
PS If he could have changed one thing in how he coached the team I would have said to be more aggressive in stealing bases. If that’s all I have to complain about in his approach then he really did a pretty good job.
PSS So if Arod is given the job would he be the first manager who had taken some form of steroids during his playing days? How about becoming a player-coach….maybe not.
After overperforming for a majority of his tenure (according to sabermetrics, he did not this year), I think this a poor move. At least when Torre was fired, the organization had a known successor (Girardi or Mattingly)- both of which were known commodities.
After a run to being within a game of the World Series, why shake this up? Why mess with the formula? If the Yankees bring in a Brad Ausmus type, I will further not understand the thinking behind this move.
The younger players may have viewed him as a friend they way they talk about Francona in Cleveland- but as an authoritarian, they knew the message was simple- Do your job, all else will take of itself.
If Game 2 of the ALDS does not happen, are we in this situation today? I refuse to believe that Cris Carter was the reason behind him losing his job since the last time he played in pinstripes was before the All-Star break. Is Cashman worried about the safety of his job as his contract is expiring after next year? Does he want a scapegoat if the success isn’t replicated from this season? Clearly more questions than answers. The hope is that the search is not too lengthy.
John Farrelll is available.
Can’t say as I am surprised and don’t really have strong feelings one way or the other– he was gone short of a WS victory. I will have strong feelings if ARod is even in the running–after his antics with the Yankees, I would never accept him as a manager, and never accepted him as a Yankee player. I would have to suffer through that by never listening to any of his interviews and rooting for him to be thrown out at every turn. The analogy for me is having to suffer through John Sterling as the voice of the Yankees for 20 years– I would search on XM for the local broadcasters of the Yankee opponents just not to hear him–he ruined the 90s for me–always about his stupid homerun calls but he could never call the action on field correctly. I miss Rizzuto, White and Messer. I guess I have turned into my father and grandfather who would reminisce about Red Barber and Mel Allen.
I like Girardi and consider him to be better than most but I saw him as a tier below Torre so kind of always had that in the back of my mind. Still, I’m not sure who is the better option right now. Moreover all the ideas that are swirling around about why they didn’t want him back don’t really add up. He manages from his binder but he doesn’t embrace statistical analysis. He doesn’t relate well with players but they rallied around him in the playoffs. It just doesn’t seem like there are many truths out there which leads me to believe the Yankees just decided to make a change for no particular reason and that’s OK but it adds a new variable going into next season and I’m not sure why they would want to do that. And getting rid of a guy who is mostly well liked and respected and pretty good at his job without a really good reason just feels bad, karmically.
And I don’t know if the Chris Carter story is true but if that is the explanation that Cashman is going to go with, then he should be fired too.
I guess there is the possibility that he didn’t really have his heart set on coming back. If that’s the case, this is for the best.
Also, there’s the point that the Yankees underperformed given their run differential. I get that. I’m a big fan of run differential. But, the previous three years, they greatly overperformed their run differential. And I’ll leave it up to some division of the Elias to analyze it but I believe that the run differential this year can largely be explained by the fact that that about half of Aaron Judge’s homeruns were meaningless.