Wild Thought: If Not For Small & Chacon…
Posted by Steve L. on January 2nd, 2009 · Comments (5)
Do you think, if not for the gifts of Aaron Small and Shawn Chacon in 2005, that Brian Cashman would not have been brought back as Yankees GM (after the 2005 season)? Think about it. Without Small and Chacon – two nobodies from nowhere who went on to pitch like Cy Youngs – the Yankees would have most likely not made the post-season in 2005. The Red Sox would have won the division and the Indians would have won the Wildcard.
Would not making the post-season in 2005 be reason enough not to bring back your GM? Nah, probably not. But, when that follows the year where you blew the ALCS, needing one win and having four chances…well…maybe someone would have to pay for that…albeit right or wrong.
Oh, well, it’s just a wild thought for today.
I believe Torre would have been the one to pay for that. Ever since 2004, Torre was the one who caught all the blame and all the heat for Yankee failures. Even though the more logical person to blame would be the one who constructed the team, Torre got the blame for every little thing that went wrong after that 04 collapse.
I can be wrong with this, but I don’t really seem to remember any heat on Cashman prior to his construction of the 2005 roster and rotation. Once Pavano and Wright became what we all knew they would be, along with seeing exactly what Tony Womack could do for a Yankee team and the supers low start, everyone started to see some flaws in Cashman’s plans. However, despite those poor moves, Torre still got all of the heat in the headlines.
Ugh, that just reminded me. Tony Womack…really? I remember sitting in my apt. at school and seeing the report that the Yanks signed Wright and Womack and just started shacking my head. Bad move…those 04-06 Yanks will always be the Miscellaneous Yankees to me. Lots of random parts moving around that clubhouse, hard to fall in love with teams that have so many players coming in and out.
Just think of how many random players, or old veterans went in and out of the clubhouse in those years.
And did we really hold a press conference for the arrival of Kei Igawa?? Man…sorry, lots of bad Yankee memories are pouring through right now
I can be wrong with this, but I don’t really seem to remember any heat on Cashman prior to his construction of the 2005 roster and rotation.
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Going into the season they had
Mussina
Johnson
Brown
Wright
Pavano
That’s why Cashman didn’t have any heat. Small was a minor league filler pickup, Chacon was acquired sometime during the season.
The lineup pretty much remained the same, Womack was to replace Cairo @ 2b.
Do you think, if not for the gifts of Aaron Small and Shawn Chacon in 2005, that Brian Cashman would not have been brought back as Yankees GM (after the 2005 season)?
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I could see a housecleaning, with both Torre and Cashman gone.
Given the events of 1980 & 1995, I was as surprised as anyone to see Torre return.