Oct
29
The Yankees have decided to name Joe Girardi to replace Joe Torre as manager. I like this move a lot, for a couple reasons.
- Girardi is a smart manager whose managed to get a lot out of relatively low levels of talent. Given the Yankees failed forays into free agency-land over the last couple of years, this is going to be a very needed skill. Girardi’s going to have to figure out how to get maximum performance out of several players whose abilities have declined precipitously and several rookies whose talent level isn’t fully known. That sounds like a long row to hoe, but it’s something that Girardi really appears to enjoy.
- t puts Don Mattingly on the coaching market. Mattingly was supposed to be the heir-apparent to Torre, except that no one clued in The Mighty Steinbrenners. Mattingly is going to make a very good manager one day very soon – a better manager than the Yankees really deserve. More to the point, he’s the kind of strategic thinker that wouldn’t work the way the Yankees have gone recently. They need the kind of guy who can stroke the egos that need stroked and nudge the people who need nudged. They need a people person. That’s never been Mattingly’s strong suit.
- The Yankees PR folks don’t have to change their press release templates. They can still use “Joe said…” to their hearts’ content.
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