I love Joe Torre. Most Yankee fans do.
Sure, you can find flaws in his managerial style. His handling of a bullpen (and pitchers in general) has always been sub par. In the early days, when the likes of Mike Stanton, Jeff Nelson, Ramiro Mendoza made up the bridge to Mariano (who had previously made up the bridge to John Wetteland) a lot of those miscalculations were covered up. It didn't matter how he handled those guys because they were all great, big game pitchers who knew what to do without having to be told. You could bring them in in the fifth inning or the eighth inning, it didn't matter. Each one just knew how to get big outs.
Now the bullpen is made up of a motley crew of relative unknown quanities. Scott Proctor has talent and a penchant for getting hit in big spots. Brian Bruney is young and gifted but untested and certainly unproven. Luis Vizcaino is either over worked right now or just simply unable to pitch under the drianing lights of New York (by the way, Vizcaino, even though he has a more well rounded resume than some of the others in the pen, still is far from being a known entity). Kyle Farnsworth is an enigma; a pitcher who can ratchet up the the arm speed to top out at 100 MPH but falls in love with his amazingly average slider and routinely gets hit in big moments.
And then we have Mariano.
It is hard to gauge what Mariano is right now in 07. He is still throwing at 95MPH. He still has moments of brilliance. He can still dominate a game. And many of his problems might be due to the fact that, while the entire rest of the bullpen is overworked, he has been underworked. He needs more games, more moments to get his feel back.
But it is undeniable that Rivera is older and he won't be dominating forever. And while the end has seemed miles away, closers many times have the shelf life of a running back. They have years of greatness and then they fall off the horse all at once. There is nothing gradual about their decline. Rivera has stayed atop the game longer than any other closer in history but he might have fallen off that horse this year.
And with that, and everything else, the true lack of finesse Torre possess in terms of dealing with his bullpen is very much pronounced now. Talent, before, could make up for bad move or a rush to judgement. Now the bullpen needs a more skilled hand and Torre hasn't shown he has that.
Torre's "trust" in certain guys and his distrust of others also been both a blessing and a curse that has allowed him to stay with talented players through tough times, getting the most out of them when it counted and securing true loyalty while also attaching him to less talented players who burned the Godfather of Yankee land time and time again, only to be returned to a role they were obviously not suited for. His loyalty has also stymed younger players at times, especially pitchers, who are routinely given almost no leeway to make a mistake. On Thursday afternoon, as the Yankees were looking for a much needed win, rookie pitcher Matt DeSalvo, who had pitched two wonderful games prior, was struggling mightily against the Chicago White Sox. His pitch count was high but not dramatic. He had given up four runs. He had two outs in the fourth inning. And Torre decided to yank him (no pun intended) for the bullpen, a bullpen that continues to be the most used in baseball. Had that been Andy Pettite or Mike Mussina they would have remained in the game until they blew it up. DeSalvo, who showed a lot of promise in his previous two starts, was given no such vote of confidence. Maybe DeSalvo isn't that great to begin with, and maybe his previous two starts had been freak moments rather than glimpses into the future, but a little more confidence shown him at that moment certainly couldn't have hurt.
So Torre isn't perfect by any stretch. But he is loved, and he should be. The guy is a great coach.
But even great coaches run their course. They get older. They lose their edge. They lose the passion that made them great. I don't know if any of that is true for Torre but what is true is that his team, a team of superstars who many (including me) thought were the best in the AL this year, is 10 games back and looking at a season long battle to just make the playoffs. The Red Sox, in late May, may have already locked up the East. The AL Central features perhaps the best overall teams in the league, teams that seem destined to bring the wild card home to their division. It may take more wins to secure a playoff spot this year than the Yanks are capable of after this horrid, 18-22 start.
So now the question is what happens?
The answer? There is no quick fix. How do you fix Bobby Abreu, Robinson Cano, Johnny Damon and Jason Giambi all at one time? How do you get the team to combine good hitting with good pitching? How do you instill that sense of invincibility, where the players believe, no matter what, they can win the game rather than always believe they will come up one run short?
Replacing the manager probably won't fix that. But there is no denying that, whatever the situation, Torre's magic touch has certainly worn off. If he were fired today it would be justified, it would be acceptable, just as it would have been had it happened after the Tigers series.
Here's the truth, however; it isn't happening.
Here are two of the reason's why;
Roger Clemens - The Yanks made the return of Roger Clemens seem as dramatic as the return of Ceasar after his victory at Gaul. I mean, you would have thought Mickey Mantle had been resurrected and put in center field. It was over the top, annoying and idiotic, and this is coming from a Yankee fan. But the Yanks have invested A LOT in Clemens, win or lose, and Clemens has already said that, if Torre had been fired he would not have come back. Now the Yanks are gonna fire Torre and possibly annoy Clemens? Perhaps the Rocket wouldn't really care, allowing his $28 million to comfort him, but it seems unlikely the Yanks would upset the apple cart that much.
Replacements - Who is taking over? Don Mattingly? While Mattingly may certainly be the future of the Yankee clubhouse why would you throw Torre out to just replace him with a Torre clone? Mattingly and Torre might have two completely different philosophies on how to manage in game but there is no denying that Mattingly, temperment wise, seems cut from the same cloth and as bad as Torre may be in certain areas of managing he will be fired (if he is) not for his handling of the bullpen but for his laid back, blah attitude that looks calm and focused when the team is winning and almost comatose when the team is losing. Mattingly's time doesn't seem to be right now.
Joe Girardi? Again, a wonderful motivator and teacher, but certainly not a firey manager or an in-your-face personality. It also remains to be seen how well Girardi could manage a team still manned by many of his former teammates. Would he feel as free to be himself in a locker room with Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada and Mike Mussina as he did in a locker room filled with young Marlins with no real experience?
The only candidate that seems to make some sense would be Bobby Valentine, who would be controversial and perhaps even short lived, but he would get a lot out of his team, he would get a lot out of his players, he would push each player to be better, and his years in Yankee land would be filled with a lot of winning. But Valentine wouldn't seem to be available until at least after the season unless the Yanks could find a way to get him out of his contract in Japan, and even then the situation would be murky as the Yanks would have two seemingly untouchable coaches (Mattingly and Ron Guidry) who would be thrown together with Valentine, whether the three really liked it or not. Would Valentine agree to a situation like that? To manage the Yanks I would bet Yes, but it would still certainly be awkward at best.
How about Buck Showalter? He already had a run with the Yanks and was one of the architects of building the dynasty team. However, Buck can wear out his welcome both with players and management and, as he sits in the owners box in Cleveland (with a less than secure Charlie Manuel on the field) it would appear Buck already has a chance to perhaps coach a great young team in the future. Would he prefer the Yanks to the Indians? Probably, but he has been down that road already and perhaps he isn't thrilled at the idea of doing it again. However, it would make for an easier transition since Buck and Mattingly are already great friends and Guidry was also a favorite of Buck when the two conversed during spring training visits.
Either way, the line of succession doesn't seem to be one that lends itself to Torre being fired. After the season? Unless the Yanks make a huge comeback and win the world series it appears all but certain that he will be gone, and even with a huge comeback Torre might decide to walk away from the stress of the job anyway. All signs point to him being gone, the only question is, is it after the season or during? Right now, I would bet on Torre being there for the entire year.
Now A-Rod, that's a whole other story.
