Even though baseball’s playoffs are still in full swing, us fantasy leaguers are keeping a close eye on the pending off season moves by teams.
Right now, more often than not, those moves involve baseball managers — something that doesn’t affect our players a whole lot unless you get one of those Dusty Baker types that only likes to play veterans and would rather sit your young up and comers.
That said, it’s hard not to pay attention to the headline hogging drama in the Big Apple, where King George is yet again musing whether Yankees manager Joe Torre will walk the plank.
This isn’t the first time this has happened. What’s different this fall is that Steinbrenner apparently told a Bergen Record beat writer that if the Yankees didn’t advance far in the playoffs, Torre was toast. Of course, we all know by now that the Yankees didn’t get past the Cleveland Indians, and now Torre’s job hangs in the balance.
I think arguments can be made on both sides in this case. The most compelling reason for sacking Torre is that he has gone seven years without a World Series and three years of getting bounced out in the first round of the playoffs — all while managing the team with baseball’s highest payroll, over $200 million, I believe, and this, in a city with a storied franchise that has always had to live up to high expectations even more so since George bought the club.
That being said, I find it hard to find fault with the Skip. Going into the season, the Yankees starting pitching STUNK. Don’t forget on Day One it was supposed to be:
- Andy Pettite
- Mike Mussina
- Chen Ming Wang
- Carl Pavano
- Kei Igawa
Phillip Hughes and Joba Chamberlain were barely on the radar screen, and Roger Clemens was still shagging flies with his sons in Texas. Now, if that rotation isn’t a recipe for success, I don’t know what is. One of the ESPN commentators said this week it’s like the Bill Clinton campaign refrain in 1992: “IT’S THE ECONOMY, STUPID.” In this case, “IT’S THE PITCHING, STUPID.”
Anybody who knows baseball knows that when it comes to the playoffs, they’re won with pitching and defense — and the Yankees aren’t particularly strong in either. This, in my opinion, is why the Yankees didn’t win the division title, and were bounced out of the playoffs in round one yet again. Joe Torre, I believe, is the person responsible for even getting the Yankees in the playoffs the past three years with pitching poor teams that really didn’t deserve to be there. Sure, you could argue the team has gotten off to successfully slower starts in each of the past three years, and that’s due in part to Torre’s laid back approach, but it’s also that same manner of managing that has kept him at the helm for so long. He can manage a team of high dollar All Stars, with the egos and baggage, and all the other issues they bring to the clubhouse. He knew how to handle the press and never let himself get out of control (see Tony LaRussa this spring).
So, if the Yankees’, er, braintrust, as it’s called, really want to improve the team this offseason, they shouldn’t be looking at Joe Torre, they should be looking in the mirror.
