Really now, I thought after they put a through whipping on the Cubs and with Rafael Furcal back, the Dodgers would take out the Phillies in 5, at the most 6. But now with the Phils taking the first two games and nobody hitting besides Manny Ramirez, I'm starting to wonder if L.A. can even get a game. Bottom line, Joe Torre needs to wake his team up and fast, starting tomorrow against Jamie Moyer or else this series will be over before it started. And I'll have to look forward to a sad baseball season get even worse with the Phillies in the World Series.
When it comes down to it, Joe Torre felt that his 4 championships would stand up to 7 straight seasons of the Yankees not winning the World Series. But he was wrong. And while the argument could be made that Torre should've taken the deal the Yankees offered him (in which he still would've been the highest paid manager in baseball), when it came down to it for Joe Torre the 4 championships made him feel like he had every right to be Yankee manager until he was ready to retire.
Yet, the facts are the facts and they start with an owner who puts more of his money into his team then any other owner in the game. And for that reason George Steinbrenner deserves the right to say that the finality of the 7 seasons have not been good enough. The owner deserves the right to feel that if he's giving his manager the best players in baseball, as he does every year, should have more to speak for it then a bunch of playoff appearances. He deserves the right to say that if he's paying his manager two times what the second-highest paid manager makes, that manager should take his team all the way.
Joe Torre made his legacy in pinstripes, not the other way around. He became a Hall of Fame manager, mostly because of the quality of players Steinbrenner provided him with and while he did a great job altogether, bottom line is that he should've won more. Now it's time to move on and if the Yankees hierachy is smart they'll give Don Mattingly a chance to manage the team.
Like him or not, George Steinbrenner puts an enormous amount of money into his team. That said, Joe Torre, who has deservedly enjoyed the longest tenure for any manager under Steinbrenner, needs to go. The Yankees are not about division titles and wildcards, they're about championships and now they've gone 7 years without one, 4 years without even going to the Series. Since Don Zimmer left as Torre's bench coach, the Yankees have suffered through the worse playoff collapse in major league history, lost in 4 games to a Tigers team they were heavily favored to beat and lost to an Indians team they were also favored to defeat. It's time for Joe Torre to go. He's not Casey Stengel and he gets paid $7million a year. The Yankees need to move on, get younger, stop going after big-name free agents, make Joba Chamberlain a starter, keep Jorge Posada, keep Mariano Rivera and give Don Mattingly a chance to manage the team.
I can't be the only person who thinks that regardless of the Yankees win tonight, Joe Torre once again showed how clueless he can be as a manager. After all, there was just no logical reason for Torre to use Joba Chamberlain and Mariano Rivera in Game 3 with the Yankees up by 5 runs. Torre can talk about "one game at a time" all he wants, but why waste your two best relievers when you don't necessarily have to? Jake Westbrook pretty much took the air out of the Indians tire after he gave up Johnny Damon's 3-run homer and if Luis Vizcaino and Kyle Farnsworth can't hold a 5-run lead then they shouldn't be on your roster. Unless Torre thinks that his job being on the line is going to inspire his team to win this series with two more routs, using Chamberlain and Rivera tonight could come back to hurt his ballclub.
