Jesse Sanchez (MLB) has a nice summary out on the current Manager of The Year race in the AL. With Mike Scioscia atop Sanchez’s list, he later offers Joe Girardi as a “dark horse” for the honor. Here’s what Sanchez had to say about Girardi.
The manager of the best team with the highest payroll in baseball is not often a favorite for the award, but Girardi should be given credit for molding his star-studded roster into a team and keeping his club focused despite the early-season distractions surrounding A-Rod. The Yankees are winning and having fun, which will bode well for Girardi heading into the postseason.
The one statement that stands out to me in this brief blurb is that “Girardi should be given credit for molding his star-studded roster into a team and keeping his club focused despite the early-season distractions surrounding A-Rod.” Now, in terms of “molding his star-studded roster into a team,” maybe I’m off base here, but I would actually thank Brian Cashman and Hal Steinbrenner for that. By bringing in CC Sabathia, Nick Swisher, Mark Teixeira, and A.J. Burnett, the team chemistry has truly come together. Having the right personalities in the clubhouse is what turned this “star-studded roster into a team,” right? I don’t think you can really thank Girardi for that (he has definitely contributed, but it’s not all on him).
Also, in regards to the notion that Girardi kept “his club focused despite the early-season distractions surrounding A-Rod,” I don’t think that’s true either. What kept the club focused was that, immediately after confirming he had used steroids, A-Rod needed surgery on his hip, therefore, he wasn’t around for the first 5 weeks of the season when questions pertaining to his steroid use would have been the most fervent. A-Rod wasn’t there to distract anyone, so, of course, the team wouldn’t have to deal with it as much they would have, had he been there from the beginning. Maybe if Girardi and the Yankees had an exceptional stretch in April I would say that Girardi deserves credit for “keeping his club focused,” but they were 12-10 that month.
Now, don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of things Joe Girardi does well, I just don’t see any of them in this simple blurb. What do you think? Should Girardi be given this much credit for these aspects of the ballclub?
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I wasn’t a big Girardi guy but he’s grown on me.He has just enough Old School in him and handles the pitching staff much better than TORRE AND IS WILLING TO build a run or hit Hr’s.Keep in mind at similar points of their careers Torre was known as ,”clueless Joe.”
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Cashman and the “brain trust” have brought in countless players with talent and charisma and charm and whatever and they never became “teams”. The players have to give up the thought of “me first” for team first and that usually only happens on teams that really like and want to play harder for their manager, don’t get me wrong teams have won championships that have hated each other but most of the special ones were closer groups who played for each other because of the manager or coach. Girardi really instills a belief that everyone is apart of the team by finding ways for everyone to play and get at bats and times to pitch where Torre never did. If you are the last guy on Girardi’s bench eventually you will start and you will have pinch hits and defensive substitutions to hold you on in the mean time, Torre’s last man was the first man on the bus because he didn’t have to shower.
You say he didn’t “keep his club focused despite the early-season distractions surrounding A-Rod” well he did manage to keep the team playing and focused with out the best player on the team for the first month of the season. Had Girardi not had to shuffle through a bunch of useless bull pen pieces (Tomko, Veras, Ramirez, Giese, Marte injured) we wouldn’t have lost as many games as we did with out Arod. He isn’t the greatest manager of all time but he does manage (and well) the best team in baseball for the regular seasons with a team full of egos and contracts and he has them playing like kids at the local park.
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leftylarry Reply:
October 1st, 2009 at 10:42 pm
He’s a very good work in progress.
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Joe came in last season under Torre’s shadow. He had/was stuck with players on their way out like Giambi and Pavano. This was Torre’s team, under new management. He came in a little hard, probably too hard, in order to establish this as his team. It didn’t work, and he may have lost some players’ confidence as a result.
This season was different. He missed the post season and wasn’t fired. Most of the Torre era dead wood was gone, and 4 major players were added who had no connection to the old regime. For the vets, Torre’s book burnd the final planks of whatever bridge remained. And I’m sure he did a lot of self examination in the offseason as well.
Whatever combintion of the above it was, it worked. Girardi came in more confident, and more determined to build a team and have a good time. Remember the spring training pool and bowling competitions? Remember when Swish came he asked Girardi to play his music in the clubhouse? Girardi could have said no. Thiscould have been Torre-Wells 2.0. Instead Girardi encouraged these new players to be themselves,to integrate themelves with their teammates, to have some fun. And incredibly, these 4 players walked on to a team of veterans, with over a dozen rings and 3 hall of famers between them, and they ALL became team leaders in one fashion or another. Don’t think that’s possible without Girardi fostering it.
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Not a fan of Girardi at all but realize that he’s done a decent job for the most part. Still I would prefer the Yanks AAA manager Dave Miley to Joe. Miley is going to get another shot at managing in the big leagues and become very successful imo.
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