Hey, Joe
Well, it’s not going to be dull:
Joe Girardi thought back to when he replaced Mike Stanley as the New York Yankees’ catcher in 1996, Joe Torre’s first season as manager. “I remember walking into spring training, the first day, and people saying, ‘Boy, you’ve got big shoes to fill,'” Girardi said Tuesday. “I thought, well, I wear a size 13.”
That’s the spirit, JG.Although doesn’t it seem quaint now that Mike Stanley’s shoes would be big ones to fill?I don’t think I could pick Stanley out of a lineup anymore.
My initial take is that this is really good.I like Mattingly fine but I didn’t get into the team until he was falling apart, so I’m not emotionally attached to him the way a lot of Yankee fans are, but more importantly, he’s got bubkes big-league experience.Joe at least has had the helm of a major-league team, and just from what I’ve seen on YES, dude is a smart guy.This is the better choice.Is he going to survive the entire contract?I doubt it.But I’m pulling for him. And congratulations to the tabloids, who can keep using hacky “Joe”-based puns under the new regime. Heh.
On a side note, it’s another one for the “I remember that dude as a player…shit, I’m old” file.Scioscia, Wedge…it’s weird sometimes.I think Wally Backman is managing the Trenton Thunder or something?(Side note to the side note: I still love Backman for trying to start some shit with Strawberry back in the day even though Darryl is like three feet taller than he is.)
Also, Grady F’in Little just resigned as Dodgers manager, opening up the spot for…Joe Torre?
And filing for free agency in the last few days: Schilling, Torii Hunter, and…Barry Bonds.Any thoughts on where Bonds ends up?Or, more to the point, how likely it is that “at home, Wii-ing” is the correct answer?
As a Dodger fan, I can’t say I have strong feelings one way or the other about the developing Little/Torre fiasco. I don’t feel attached to Grady, so I won’t cry over him leaving. In particular, I won’t miss his (lack of) speaking skills, particularly in the occasional disastrous promotions spots he did.
As for Torre…well, I like Joe Torre. But I would like to see the Dodgers spend that kind of cash on someone more likely to have a direct impact on their offense. Someone like a Barry Bonds. (I kid, I kid!)
Don’t know if you read Schilling’s blog, but he listed the Dodgers as one of the teams he’s interested in signing with as a free agent. Nomar and Schilling managed by Torre in LA – how surreal would that be?
Re Barry: My instinct says go with the Wii-but. Some AL team with more cash than sense might pick him up as a DH-I’m not sure he wouldn’t be quite useful in that role. Also, since he’s now hinting he’d take less cash from the Giants, which I really don’t see happening, he might not need barrels full of it.
I don’t see the Yankees doing it though-or the BoSox.
More concerned with Schilling, myself; hopefully he’ll come back to Philly and he and Moyer can teach the rest of the pitchers how to…pitch. Yeah.
Although “at home, Wii-ing” might be my new favorite phrase.
I haven’t read a lot of press about the Girardi signing, so this may have been said by many, but it seems to show how insincere the offer to Torre was. JT had “incentives” to 8 mil, but his base was 5. JG gets 6 mil a year for three years. JT managed 12 straight post-season appearances. JG managed one losing season (granted it was with as much talent on the Marlins team that Jeter has in his pinky, but still).
I think JG is going to do well, and I’m rooting for him, but the the Lil Steins need to cut it with their disingenuous crap, like suggesting the offer to Torre wasn’t anything other than a kick in the ass out the door. While his father drove the fans as nuts as he was, at least the fans always knew he meant what he said and could respect him for that.
@Chris: Torre’s no better in that regard, I’m afraid. Extemporaneously, he’s fine; he always sounds natural in press conferences and stuff. But he can’t read a cue-card to save his life.
@Nina: As you completed typing the phrase “An AL team with more cash than sense,” every Oriole fan on earth did that Obi Wan disturbance-in-the-force cringe, and didn’t know why.
Leland has already said that Bonds will never be a Tiger on his watch, so I think we’re safe there (God, I love Leland). My husband and I had an at length discussion about the A-rod factor and determined that our infield was very, very full unless we decided to move Inge to a relief spot, which I honestly don’t see as being out of the question.
It’s going to be a long winter.
@EB Actually, it’s 7.5 mil (with incentives) over 3 years, so about 2 something a year.
Still more than the majority of seasoned managers make though, but I can see it to get their man.
One of the interesting sidepoints will be to see how Posada (if he returns) enjoys playing for a man who was his back up catcher…
After they flirted with him last off-season, I’m sort of afraid that Barry might end up with my A’s. It depends if he’ll take a deal like the one they signed Frank Thomas to a couple of years back, one just absolutely laden with incentives. The man wants to make it to 3,000 hits, I’m sure, so I suspect he’ll latch on anywhere that gives him a decent deal. And he’s not as good as he was a few years ago, but he’d still be a damn fine DH.
The only things that keep me from being sure this is where he’ll go: one, the A’s already have a bunch of 1B/DH/LF guys, and two, probably he won’t take quite as little as the A’s would offer when, yes, as you point out, Sars, the Orioles are still out there, waiting to once again be Angelosed.
That was way too many commas, sorry.
I feel bad for Grady as much as a Red Sox fan can, I guess; I mean, McCourt said Grady would be back in 2008 and then the rumors about Torre started swirling, which I don’t think is fair. That said, I don’t feel that bad. When I found out he was hired to manage LA, I nearly needed sedation. It was like a nightmare come true.
Boston got nothin’ to do with Barry Bonds. We have Ortiz. Besides, the last thing we need is another Hall of Fame-caliber outfielder shadowed by continual media scrutiny. As to LA, I am deathly afraid that Ned Colletti will consider adding Bonds to his arsenal of ex-Giants; then again, the reunion of Bonds and Jeff Kent would be hilarious. Can you imagine Bonds, Kent, and A-Rod in the same clubhouse? I am so glad I’m alone because I just started laughing my ass off.
I personally want Schilling back in Boston because he’s one of my favorites (yeah, I said it). $13M for a 41-year-old pitcher has me a little wary; then again, Smoltz and El Duque are the only two 40+ starters who were any better in 2007 (and so was RJ before his back exploded)…and then again, neither of them made $13M. Personally, I’d take him back for one year at that price, but it’s likely that Theo has other ideas.
His politics gross me out, but Schilling’s IM-politic-ness, I have to love. The guy gets it done, and when he doesn’t, he says straight out that he fucked up or didn’t have good stuff. He’s a horse’s ass, but he’s better to have for you than against you for sure.
And as much as the saint’s-relic bushwa surrounding the bloody sock started to get old, I never thought it was fake.
I would think Posada would be fine if he stays. I remember it was seen as a big awesome selfless deal when Joe was showing Jorge the ropes, basically making himself obsolete. I’ve always thought Joe would be a great manager, so now I guess we get the chance to see.
And, sad as I am about Mattingly, at least he can still be perfect in my mind, as opposed to possibly being a not-great manager.
@Sars: Bite your tongue about the Orioles. I believe MacPhail has emphatically said no to the idea of Bonds coming here. It’s a concept I don’t even want to think about. But…yes, the shudder happened.
I love Joe G as manager. I was a huge fan of him as a player, he brings good game and a big brain (Northwestern, yo) and most importantly in my house, likes the NL “little ball” game style that the Yanks forgot to do about, uh, five years ago. (Go away, Meathead.) Besides, Donnie is a team icon and that doesn’t always make for good player management or carry much weight with the office types when you need to tell them something isn’t working. IOW, I just think he’s too heavily invested in the blahblahblah storied franchise myth to be a good day-to-day manager. (But did I see Yogi Berra manage? No.)
Besides, I’m thinking Donnie will be heading LA way with Original Joe to get some more chops there as a major-league coach, which he needs before becoming a manager. Which I hope he might sometime. Later.
As for Bonds, that not-so-little piggie can wii wii wii wii all the way home.
@ Nina and Sars: “An AL team with more cash than sense,”, not only the Orioles but also the Rangers. A team who has never had a decent pitching staff since its inception, yet continues to sign hitters and “big names”, thinking that will win them games. I think at this point they are more interested in getting big name players (no matter how far down the road in their careers they are, case in point, Sammy Sosa) to get the seats filled, screw actually winning games.
What I find really interesting is that this off-season will feature not one, but two superstars looking for big contracts from much the same limited pool of franchises. The Venn diagram of “Teams that might sign ARod” vs. “Teams the might sign Bonds” certainly has a certain amount of overlap (Anaheim?), and it seems to me that whomever signs first will end up affecting the market for the other.
I think it’s certain that Bonds will find a team, by the way, he’s been putting up good numbers, even though he can’t run and you have to include the caveat that he plays in AAAA.
Also, confidential to the Yankees: please please please PLEASE stick to your guns on ARod. Please do that. Please.
I realize that nobody cares out here, but the most tragic of those, for the team and the town, is probably Torii Hunter. When Kirby Puckett went south, the Twins lost pretty much the only towering local baseball figure they had, and the closest they’ve had to anybody who could fill in — not game-wise, but just team-identity-wise, was Torii Hunter. He seemed at one time like someone people actually cared about, who was closely associated specifically with the Twins and didn’t suck. The souring of that relationship in the hundredth go-round of the great game of How Much Can You Expect A Franchise Player From A Small-Market Team To Play For Much Less Than He’s Worth Out Of Loyalty? is completely sad, to me. That team is constantly holding on by a thread to its continued existence, let alone being competitive, and it’s just another suck-ass development in a suck-ass story.
I don’t think this is a huge tragedy for the franchise, actually. Hunter is a great player, and I don’t know the whole history there; psychologically it’s a loss for the team and the fans, but if the Twins can’t afford him, now’s the time to cut him loose, because he’s 32, and at this point, he’s going to get paid for what he WAS worth, what he’s already done. He’ll have good years in the future, no doubt, but: 32.
From what I understand, he could still sign with the Twins; he’s also saying he’ll still be able to run like he does now when he’s 40, by way of explaining holding out for a longer-term contract. Maybe he’s right, maybe not. He *is* going to get hurt more; he’s probably going to lose a step; the Twins would have to play him to amortize the investment, even if he starts to suck. The Yankees put themselves in this position with Giambi and no matter what your budget is, you kind of can’t let the big stars who think their bodies aren’t subject to the laws of nature dictate how you write your line-up.
I mean, if Hunter can get a big payout, that’s great. But if I’m the Twins, and I already offered him 15 mil a year? I’m letting him become the Astros’ problem, PR issue or not. Morneau, Mauer, and Santana is not a bad base of operations; Liriano’s coming back…I can’t speak for the perception in the Twin Cities, but that team is taken seriously around the rest of the league. As a fan of an opposing team, Hunter is the least of our worries.
Not only is Joe G smart as Cathy said, but he has an f’n *engineering* degree. He’s brilliant!
SteveL.
Engineer (heh)
Question for the Yankees fans around here: how do you expect (or how would you like) the Yankees to make up for A-Rod’s production in 2008?
The comment Sars made on Torii Hunter basically sums up my thoughts on Mike Lowell, who I would like to have in Boston again, but not for more than 3 years at $13M-$14M, which is probably the annual salary he’s looking for. He’ll be 34 this offseason and if you’re looking for 4-5 years of 124 OPS+, 34 is not a good age to start, especially when you have no history of doing that for long stretches. He strung together two years of nearly 130 OPS+ back in 2003-2004. The rest of his career features numbers like 77, 90, 110, 105, etc.
I love Lowell, but I think Boston fans are highly overestimating his value at this point because they so underestimated him at the beginning of the season. Consider Ortiz, whose season only seems disappointing on the surface because his HR total dropped from last season. Lowell beat Ortiz in RsBI, hits, games, ABs, and singles. Ortiz beat Lowell in Runs Created, Win Shares, average, OPS, total bases, doubles, home runs, XBH, and AB/HR. You tell me who was really more valuable.
No, no — I totally agree that there’s very little that the Twins or Hunter could or should have done differently. It’s just the way things develop, and it’s extremely unfortunate. And psychologically huge. If you didn’t live in Minnesota when the Kirby Puckett stuff happened, it’s hard to understand how huge it was. He was the most beloved person in the state, bar none, I am convinced. He could have easily been governor in a walk if he’d wanted. It was absolutely horrible when his eye sort of spontaneously popped and he just…couldn’t play anymore. And then — it really did seem to be out of nowhere — he turned out to be a gigantic, quite possibly abusive jackass, which people had managed to kind of…not know for a really long time, and then he got incredibly unhealthy and died, totally unredeemed, really. No opportunity for anything good to happen in that story other than a total, humiliating, horrible downfall and then an abrupt death.
There was a lot of crossover between this and the famous Sex Boat scandal with the Vikings, and the result is that as a sports town, the place is just…demoralized. Utterly demoralized. And this, to me, both because he’s leaving and because he’s leaving in a non-amicable salary dispute that divides fans into people who blame management and people who blame the player…it’s just more. Not anybody’s fault, necessarily, but…it’s more.
I think the Twin Cities are hurting sports wise right now, and Torii is just another blow. With KG going to the Celtics (oddly and Manny to the Bruins, Randy Moss to the Pats and Big Papi to the Sox…Boston has stolen our stars!), the Wolves aren’t expecting much (and having trouble selling season tickets), the Vikings are lucky to be on TV, and we’ll see with the Wild (injuries to the top 3 players don’t help). We’re a good sports town, but how much can you take?
And Torii said when the new ball park deal went through that he wanted to be around to play in it. Not so much now apparently.
Hee, Wally Backman used to manage our independent league team here in the Tri-Cities (southeastern Washington state) before we went “big-time” and got an affiliated team (Rockies single A).
He was always … colorful.
He got arrested for a DUI here (which is what got him fired as the D-backs manager), then while on probation for that, got into some domestic disturbance and wound up back in jail.
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/story/2004/12/04/backman041204.html