Also the best manager for this team is coaching across the city for the Mets…anyone have any thoughts on Willie being good for this team?
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Had the Mets not called, he’d be Torre’s replacement, I thought

I’d pass on Piniella…

If it’s “fire” and “intensity” that you want, why not hire Bowa?

Anyway, it’s not that big a deal. Torre isn’t the reason the Yanks didn’t hit in the DS.

With the group of players they have now, Torre is the best manager for this team. They don’t have a team that can be managed because of all the ego’s and Joe knows how to deal with them best. I actually commend him for the changes he made in Game 4. He probably knew they would lose anyway because I’m sure he could tell by the body language the team was dead. I don’t think this group of guys can be motivated by a manager no matter who that manager is. If anything you need to get rid of the group of players before you get rid of Torre, I think you get rid of both if anything.

They would still make the playoffs without ARod, the guy stunk in the clutch the whole year, so if anything they did worse with him in there, so thats a silly argument and he certainly didn’t help in the playoffs, so to say they wouldn’t be in the same position is ridiculous.

Also the best manager for this team is coaching across the city for the Mets…anyone have any thoughts on Willie being good for this team? I think he would be the perfect fit but I doubt he would leave the Mets but anything is possible.

Jeremy, I’ve read that the LA teams are most interested in Arod. Notably the Angels. I dont know what we could get, but probably some combo of Kendrick, Gordon, Santana, Aybar. And if we don’t get a 3b, Cano came up as a 3b, so he could probably move there without too much hassle. I’m not worried about compensating for Arod’s loss. There’s not going to be a vacuum. There’ll be someone there. And please don’t forget about Damon, Jeter, Abreu, Giambi, Posada, Matsui & Cano. That’s more than enough for a lineup. Having Arod didn’t make much difference anyway. Look at this year, they lost 2 guys with 200+ rbi and still won the division.

And the 90s Yanks did a lot more with a lesser lineup. On Boone, no, I DONT want him. I KNOW how badly he did outside of the Wakefield HR.

Shit. This Piniella stuff scares me. I’d rather have Torre another year than Piniella. In fact, I’d rather have almost anyone over Piniella.

Here’s the thing. If they do trade A-Rod, other than stealing Ramirez from the Cubs, who do they get that can come anywhere near A-Rod’s production? Yes, he’s been awful in the playoffs but they miss those playoffs without him last year, and he had some big moments throughout the year in 2006.
I realize Aaron Boone will be a free agent and he’s “clutch” since he hit the most clutch home run you can possibly hit (hey, never mind that the rest of his playoff performance was as awful as A-Rod’s, he knows when to turn it on, extra innings in a game 7). Don’t judge Boone on a season’s worth of work or even a handful of bad playoff games, he came up in the clutch, which A-Rod will never do (sarcasm button was on if this blog doesn’t support that).
Anyone else feeling a little gun shy on the potential Torre move? While I basically feel it needs to be done, I do like the guy and various blogs have scared me off of Piniella.

I wouldn’t have said it before this season, but I don’t think Girardi is a good fit here. I’d love to see Pena get a shot, though, and Bowa would be fascinating to watch. The biggest beef I’ve had with Torre is in his handling of the pitching staff, and Piniella is worse than Torre in that regard.

Plus, though this team needs a fire lit under it, I’m not so sure that Piniella is the right guy to do that.

I definitely wouldn’t want to see Mazzilli take over for Torre.

Agreed. I do NOT want Sweet Lou here. I’d much prefer Girardi, Mattingly, or even Pena.

Pinella would be a terrible choice. Yankee fans were pissed when Torre overworked mediocre pitchers like Sturtze and Villone. How will fans react when Pinella puts Wang out ther for 130 pitches a night and moves Hughes to middle relief after one bad start? If you want to hang this year’s lose on Torre, fine. But bringing in Pinella to replace him is dumb.

The thought of Chien-Ming Wang and Phil Hughes’s arms in the hands of Lou Piniella scares me to death.

Where is this idea coming from that the team didn’t have a chance to win? Did you watch the regular season? This team was GREAT. The lineup was amazing, the bullpen good, and pitching (outside of Wang, who was brilliant) good enough.

The idea that the Yankees had some kind of lousy team is ridiculous.

The team was fine until Torre put Sheffield and Matsui in and took Melky out. The team that went into the playoffs was not the team that won the division — and that is squarely on the shoulders of Joe Torre.

It seems like people have developed instant amnesia. As soon as the Yankees lost in the post-season, it was like the regular season never happened. They had a very good team this year — the best since ’03, in my opinion. Only Torre felt the need to alter it right before the playoffs and we paid the price.