Joe Torre turned down a one-year offer from the Yankees on Thursday and will not return as manager next season, the team has announced. FROM YAHOO.......................
Just heard it on ESPN... 1 year for $5 million, with bonuses based on teams performance during season. Sad day for the Yankees organization. Will Brian Cashman be the next to go?? It's gonna be a long while before we learn who will manage the Yankees next season. Best wishes and THANKS to Joe Torre for doing a superb job for so many years!!!
Any chance of hiring Mr. October (Reggie Jackson) as the manager?? Steinbrenner will definitely interview him for the job. And Reggie certainly knows the Yankees organization, as well as how Steinbrenner thinks and operates. Definitely a possibility.... THANK YOU JOE TORRE!!!!!
How much was his payroll the last 4 seasons? About a billion dollars and he still can't win the World Series. They need someone to revitalize that team.
don't forget that mattingly has been a bench coach for a while, and we're still waiting to hear la russa's decision, i'm gonna say mattingly.
My brother dates Tony's daughter from what i have heard he will prob go to NY but he did fly to LA this am for a meeting not sure what its about.
If I paying you 7+ million a year and giving you a virtually unlimited payroll I'd expect the World Series every year.
The blame can't be put solely on the manager. Clutch players failed. Players know what needs to be done, there is no reason why the manager should be held accountable. At the end of the day, the same players that delivered during the season were on the field during the playoffs. Alex Rodriguez - 2 for 15, .267 Derek Jeter - 3 for 17, .176 Jorge Posada - 2 for 15, .133 3 key players to most all Yankee victories. Only Alex Rodriguez was above .200! Not even .300! Or even .250! Jeter grounded into 3 or 4 double plays!?! That is very unlike the Duece. During the regular season, none of the starters batted under .250 for the entire season. They swept the Indians for the regular season, 6-0. I'd say Joe Torre did his job managing them during that series. He didn't do much differently this series except act in reaction to the Indians controlling the Yankee players. Let us examine A-Rod by numbers: Category: Season - Playoffs Games: 158 - 4 Hits: 183 - 4 RBIs: 156 - 1 SO: 120 - 6 Let's do some math: Hits/Game SEASON - 1.15 (183/158) Hits/Game ALDS - 1.00 (4/4) RBIs/Game SEASON - 0.99 (156/158) RBIs/Game ALDS - 0.25 (1/4) SO/Game SEASON - 0.77 (120/158) SO/Game ALDS - 1.50 (6/4) OBP SEASON - .422 OBP ALDS - .353 I could do this for the entire Yankee line-up. The bottom line is that the Yankee PLAYERS lost the series. Torre did everything he could. He put his guys in the right spots and made the right crucial changes. In the end, the pitching was rocked (Torre tried to fix that but the other pitching failed) and the hitting came to a standstill. Yes Steinbrenner should expect a WS every year. In fact, I as a Yankee fan do as well. But I am also realistic and understand that on any given day, any team can take down another team. So goes the same with football. The failure to get to the WS or even the ALCS is not the fault of the manager. Last I checked, Joe Torre didn't pay the players with his money. He is given a roster to make decisions with. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink it. This is what the players are liable for. Torre led the players to the water (putting them in position and giving them opportunities), but they didn't drink the water (they failed to act successfully).
i used to think the same way. but, there's a hell of a lot more strategy in the game of baseball then the average spectator would understand, a lot of which even i'm still working on trying to get a grasp of, i mean, it takes a lot of thought to decide who's going to hit in what spot in the order given what the opposing team's pitcher has in his arsenal, as well as relief pitchers and closers. and you need to know what a hitters tendencies are, where they're liable to hit the ball to, etc. i'd recommend picking up a copy of tony la russa's 3 nights in august. i've read it twice, and i've even had the opportunity to grill tony himself on a few of the things he brings up in the book, we had a pretty interesting conversation to say the least, and anyone who does something of the sort with him would agree with me when i say i really do believe he is the greatest mind in mlb today. not bad for a quick little rant...
Ahhh, Grady Little... Isn't he the former manager of the Red Sox?? You know, the manager who kept Pedro Martinez in the game (game #7, to be specific!) too long back in the '03 ALCS... Only to have Aaron Boone (BOONEY!!!) hit a bottom of the 11th inning home run and send the Yankees to the World Series!!!! Great manager he is.... NOT!!!!! Matter of fact, the very next day, in Boston, road signs that typically state traffic conditions, stated "FIRE GRADY LITTLE!!!" regardless of any traffic condition. At least Boston fans are tried and true!
And you'd be sorely disappointed more often than not. What fun would baseball (or any other sport) be if the championship could be bought each year?
well, it's looking like la russa will be back with the cardinals: http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/stories.nsf/cardinals/story/2C6AAB562A8294A08625737A00056C10?OpenDocument
From personal experience with Tony Larussa I would say that the job with the yankees would NOT be a good fit for him. Its not his style at all.
it was time for a change despite torre being a great, super classy guy who was the perfect fit with the late '90's yankee teams. those teams had the fire of a paul oneill. they needed the quiet touch of torre to succeed. it was the perfect fit. the current team is not like those teams and torre doesnt seem to get the most out of them. there is enuf talent that they will make playoffs by beating the dregs of tampa bay, etc. they do not do so well against the better teams esp in playoffs. other problem is his handling of bullpen. he wears arms out so i dont want him in charge of joba, hughes, etc. need a new style manager so i hope its girardi over the same old of mattingly but i cant see that happening. it will be mats and he will probably get them to same place theve been past few yrs one bad thing is way they let torre go. should have been a mutual agreement between owner/manager to say 'we both decided to end relationship together on good terms'. give torre some position (and $) behind scenes so he's happy and comfortable returning to new stadium next yr
La Russa expects to return Cardinals manager talking to team about new deal http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/baseball/mlb/10/20/bc.bbn.cardinals.laruss.ap/index.html
Mattingly will be flying down to Tampa to interview for the Yankee slot. Yankee's minor league manager, Trey Hillman, accepted a position with the KC Royals. I don't think Donnie has the resume that the Yankees are looking for. He's a possible candidate, but I think they want more. 3 years as a hitting coach, and only 2007 as a bench coach. If history repeats itself, 2008 should be a great year for the Yankees. The year after Joe McCarthy left, they won the World Series. The year after Casey Stengel left, they won the World Series.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3073963 it's looking like a 2 year contract, probably in the 7-8 mil range, welcome back tony!
