~~Yeah, Bob Lemon killed the ’78 Yanks and Jack McKeon killed the ’03 Marlins. [wink]~~

Absolutely, Lemon and McKeon were great – just like Morgan with the ’88 Sox and Garner with the ’04 Astros. But that’s 4 guys in the past 30 years. Your inital statement was “But, most of the time, it’s a matter of firing the manager”. That’s just not the case. Most of the time, teams improve through roster change – not firing the manager.

No way do thet cut Farnsworth, that’s plain silly. He is one player with some value come trade time who can be traded.

But the Yankees are NOT about to deconstruct this team. Not with over 4 million tickets sold and YES to prop up.

I would let Alex walk if he opts out. Right now with the partial salary the Yankees are paying him and the luxury tax, what is that, about $24 million? If he opts out he’ll expect $30 million per year and with the luxury tax that’d be about $39 million, for one player. Not happening.

and even if they did pull it off, rebuilding with kids usually takes 3 years MINIMUM, i highly doubt any fans that can’t stand two month of bad playing can stand 3 years of kids getting smacked around.
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I didn’t say I wanted to turn this team into the Marlins or Devil Rays. Just get rid of some of the players.

If you dump Giambi, Damon, A-Rod, and most of the bullpen, you still have Jeter, Posada, Mo, Pettitte, Mussina, Matsui, Bruney, Proctor, Hughes, Clippard, Cano and Melky. You hardly need to “rebuild” when you have a catcher, shortstop, leftfielder, a starting rotation, a closer, and two setup men.

The Yankees need to find a solution to the corners in their infield. Neither is in the system. So they should make that the focus of the team right now — and use the expendable players (including A-Rod) to make it happen.

Hey – that’s a good question – what’s Jack McKeon doing these days? Think he’d like a job?

He did managed the Marlins for 124 games that year and led them to a .605 winning percentage. Of course…the Yanks have 113 games left and that same winning percentage doesn’t even get the team to 90 wins! Yeesh (I find myself saying that a lot).

~~~A mid-season managerial change rarely sparks a team and usually does more harm than good.~~~

Yeah, Bob Lemon killed the ’78 Yanks and Jack McKeon killed the ’03 Marlins. [wink]

A mid-season managerial change rarely sparks a team and usually does more harm than good. Firing Torre isn’t going to do a thing. The players love him – they aren’t going to start playing better because they have a new manager who kicks dirt on umpires or throws bats on the field. And if Torre does get axed, who says that Mattingly, Bowa, Guidry, Kerrigan, Pena et al will stick around? It would be a complete disaster if an outsider was hired and brought in his own people. If Torre does go, you have to at least make Mattingly the manager.

The Yanks need to keep Torre for the rest of the year and make some simple roster changes:

-Get some fresh arms in the bullpen – Britton and Ramirez would be a start. If that means cutting Farnsworth or Villone, so be it.
-Trade for a right handed bat – I’m not talking about Pujols here. Just someone who can keep the opposing manager honest. Even guys like Sierra or Bernie were useful in this role.
-Settle on a first baseman – if it’s Man-K, fine. If it’s Phelps, fine. Pick one and free up a bench spot for someone who can contribute. Carrying 3 first basemen is killing us.
-Put Damon and Giambi on the DL until they are 100%. They need to give up on their playing hurt gimmick and get some rest.

The starting pitching is coming around, the bats will get hot again, the season isn’t over. We can still get back in this thing. Before the season, we all thought the yanks were going to finish 35-40 games over .500. With 70% of the season left to play, is it so crazy to think that the Yanks can play 25-30 games over .500 the rest of the way? If we do that, we’ll have 90+ wins and will be right in contention for the wild card.

bailey, firesaling is a lot harder than you think espically for this team with all the NTCs and albatross contracts.

and even if they did pull it off, rebuilding with kids usually takes 3 years MINIMUM, i highly doubt any fans that can’t stand two month of bad playing can stand 3 years of kids getting smacked around.

A-rod isn’t the problem with the team, what are you going to do with him? trade him? and then what? he’s the best third basemen you can have, what are you going to do trade for less? Especially less offense? The team can’t hit as it is and you want to downgrade the offense?
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I’m not blaming him and I know he’s not the problem. I don’t trade him because he’s bad — I trade him because he’s good. He’s the best trading chip they have among the veterans. No one wants Damon or Giambi. But they’ll take A-Rod. A-Rod is a good player, but I just don’t see the Yankees winning with him. This team has gotten worse every year he’s been here — and while I’m not blaming him fully for that, it’s still a fact. I say trade him at the deadline for a bunch of young players, and then use those players and our own pitching depth to get Tex from the Rangers.

I’m not “giving up” on the season yet — I still think they can win the wild card. But you do have to shake up this team a little. I love Abreu as a player and as a person, but I think you might as well see if anything is out there for him (he probably won’t be back anyway). You need to blow up that bullpen, too. Farns, Vizcaino and especially Villone need to go — we have people in the minors who can replace them.

I would move Giambi and Damon in pure salary dumps. I say this though Gimabi is one of my favorite players. He’s just too banged-up at this point. If someone would take the contract, I’d sell him for peanuts. Damon can still hit, but you get the feeling that the “Iron Man” is going to be hurt the next two and a half years.

You can let Torre stick this year — it doesn’t even matter. I would replace him with Donnie, though. Donnie is just as calm as Torre — which people don’t like — but Donnie seems to be more humane. Last night, Donnie gave DeSalvo a little reassuring pat on the leg after he got knocked out. Torre — who looks like a half-dead Igor-style butler these days anyway — appeared ready to vomit on him. Maybe the players will show up for Donnie because he doesn’t treat them like pets.

They’ll turn it around. I’m not prepared to say they will win the division or even the wildcard–but things will get a lot better.

You can’t fire a guy who has led us to the playoffs 11 CONSECUTIVE TIMES!!! because we are off to 21-28 start. Joe has earned the right to finish out his contract. He is one of the greatest managers in Yankees history–in all of baseball history for that matter. The guy is on his way to Cooperstown as a manager. He is going to get a plaque in Monument Park. His #6 will be retired. Let’s be classy about this.

If we win 75 games and the season is a total bust, we deal with that over the winter. Right now we just wait for the worm to turn.

Last year the Twins were 20-28 and 12.5 back. They went on to win 96 games. While it looks bleak right now, the addition of one or two players can mean a great deal. The addition of Clemens and a full court press to get Texiera could pull them back in. Last year with the addition of Abreu the lineup got stronger, adding Texiera could have the same effect. They will not catch Boston, barring a major rash of injuries for the Sox, but the wild card is possible.