This whole Joe Torre thing
Posted on October 20th, 2007 – 12:12 AMBy Howard
These days, if I have SportsCenter or Baseball Tonight or the XM going while I’m doing something else and I hear the name, I have to stop for a second and figure out which one they’re talking about: Joe TORRE or TORII Hunter.
Nice to have the drama elsewhere for now. I’ve never had much use for the Yankees, except as a team to root against under just about any circumstance, but I have considered Joe Torre a classy and understated presence amid the noise that is the Yankees. He let you know what was on his mind without shouting or making a scene, and has presided over a cast of wildly talented characters that could provide unexpected challenges at the drop of a bat.
Now that the Yankees insulted him into departure with a salary cut/incentive deal, the fallout should be interesting. Before the Yankees can figure out what they’ll do to juice their rotation (Johan?) or upgrade their outfield (that Torii), they need to convince someone to take the managing job — and then figure out whether their top talent is going to stick around or test free agency. If some combination of A-Rod, Rivera and Posada decides to go elsewhere, the Yankees restructuring could be baseball’s best winter sideshow.
Being the guy who replaces Torre is going to be one of the most thankless jobs in baseball because the comparisons will be constant — and the likelihood of having to do that with lesser talent than Yankees teams of recent seasons will be pretty good. Two of the managing options right now are Don Mattingly, who has a career record of 0-0, and Tony Pena, who burned out the Royals. Or was this the job Joe Girardi coveted when he understandably passed up a chance to work with Andy MacPhail on salvaging the wreckage in Baltimore?
How does this relate to the Twins? Before the Yankees can figure out the pieces they’ll need to acquire for 2008 and down the road, they’ll need to figure out who’s coming and going among the existing talent. If the Yankees were in a more stable situation right now, I could see them being an interesting trade partner on the Santana front.
Right now, it’s not even worth it to go there.
10 Responses to "This whole Joe Torre thing"
I think the Yankees just tossed themselves out of the oven and into the frying pan.
If their current roster could get their acts together, there is no reason that Torre couldn’t lead them back into the playoffs and beyond next year. Now they have insulted him, put his bench coaches in a tough position, and possibly started an exodus with their free agents.
But of course, this is all good news.
Yeah, if I were a manager looking for work, the last place I’d want to go is an organization that just tossed out a guy that went to the playoffs 12 straight years and won 4 WS, all while having the support of his players almost to a man. But then the Yankees would be the last place I’d want to work anyway.
This is the sort of thing that makes me wonder how anyone outside the New York market can actually be a fan of the Yankees.
They have some fine players, but the organization would be a dealbreaker for me.
Yet we’d all like Carl to spend like George does, at least a little bit.
Are they bringing Clemens back? For $17M?
What an insult, a typical American Corporation insult.
If you don’t want the guy (Torre), what’s wrong with saying it’s time for new blood in the form of a new manager, and players too?
Instead they make a fake gesture intended on making themselves look like good guys. How selfish. How denigrating to one of the classiest guys in the history of the game.
And how stupid. They should have re-signed him and gotten their FA’s to rally around the manager and re-sign with the Yankees. Then they could have fired him and had all their players.
Looking for this thing to come back and getting a big, unhealable bite in Steinbrenner’s ass.
And their GM’s ass too. HE’s the one responsible for signing an aging and weak pitching staff.
It’s beautiful to see the Clemens thing come back and haunt them. But instead, they deflect it onto the manager.
A typical corporate coward move.
the yankees have never been quite the same since they parted ways with george costanza.
Even George Constanza would had never recommended not re-signing Torre…
I believe I saw this morning that A-Rod has said that the possibility of him returning to the Yankees is now doubtful due to their managerial situation.
So it begins……………
*Squirms* I Can’t contain my joy, I love watching the richest (and nastiest) organization in the league fall apart. I hope Joe Torre finds somewhere where they appreciate him, he has always seemed to me like a decent person, who was all too often jerked around by the bosses.
Cashman should be the one to go, although he has done a good job with their farm system lately. I hate the Yankees with a passion but Torre deserved to manage the team for the final season at the current Yankee Stadium.
