Bleeding Yankee Blue: YANKEE MANAGEMENT IS THE NEW DEFINITION OF INSANITY

Sunday, August 31, 2014

YANKEE MANAGEMENT IS THE NEW DEFINITION OF INSANITY

This season has frustrated me to no end. I wanted Derek Jeter to retire with one last ring. I wanted to look at the standings of the AL East and see the Yankees on top. The formula just hasn't come together and you know what....I want action! We are Yankee fans. We do not accept failure....and when things fall apart SOMEONE must take the fall.

I think about the fundamentals of being a manager. I don't care if you are a manager of a restaurant or a major league baseball team, if you don't execute you have to answer to the higher powers that be. If you don't perform, someone else will take your place. It should be no different here. The Yankees are an underachieving baseball team. Point period. The writing is on the wall and unless the Yankees turn it around. If we miss post season action for the second year in a row, heads need to roll.

What do I mean, exactly?

If this season is over in September....clean house. Sounds harsh, but maybe this is what the organization needs. We have the talent here, but the execution is lacking. I don't care how experienced a player is they will all have their slumps and to help improve a player, you need a great coach. Instead, the Yankees just seem to try the same thing and cross their fingers.

We have a problem with what I like to call "Insanity overload." What is insanity, exactly? I like Albert Einstein's definition in this case:

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

I think it describes the state of the Yankees perfectly. We just seem to repeat, cross our fingers and just hope and pray for different results. The Bronx Bombers have a problem with offense. Our team is filled with veteran players. Sure, they know how to hit and you can tell me that the players should be the only person held accountable for not performing but as players they need to make adjustments too. They need to adapt. A manager is supposed to help make that happen. If it was only up to the player then we wouldn't need to employ Kevin Long.

I respect Kevin Long, but we have been saying for awhile now that he is on thin ice, read IS KEVIN LONG ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK?. At what point, does Yankee brass need to realize that the managing piece is not identifying the problem and fixing it? There is a pattern here, and it is not a good one.

Larry Rothschild is not without his own fault. For me, there are just so many red flags here and I have been searching for something that gives me a boost of confidence in this guy. I mean, to me he just looks lost and doesn't know how to really develop people anymore. I'm not the only one either, Mike O'Hara had his own opinion on this in HEY LARRY ROTHSCHILD...YOU GOTTA GO! When I look at the state of the pitching rotation this year I scratch my head and just wonder WHY we still have this guy here. We lost 3/5 of our rotation this year. To me, that says something.

Granted, I am not blaming him for CC Sabathia's knee injury or Michael Pineda and the pine tar however, I think as a pitching coach he should be able to identify mechanical issues that can help prevent the injuries AND make our starters more durable in games. That has not happened, and the bullpen has been overused all year. I look at these examples and I am not surprised that he has been tied in the news with the idea of a six-man rotation, read that HERE. It's not a new idea for baseball but is this really a solution to the problem? We have an overachieving rotation right now as it is and pitchers are a creature of habit. So is giving the ball to Pineda every 6 days instead of 5 is going to make him more effective? I don't buy it.

And what about the relievers? They already work extra hard when our starters can't go deep into games. So does a 6 man rotation give them a better chance to rest if they starters or rested? Or does it simply mean they have to clean up a mess for more of the starters? Another thing that I read today just made me even more critical at this point. Dellin Betances has been a superstar for us this year. He was under the spotlight even when he was in the minor leagues and we were grooming him as a starter. So when I read THIS article and see so much talk about using two pitches, I can't help but be a little confused here. This kid was a starter, so he had more of an arsenal. Is Rothschild not digging deeper here? Maybe I am making too much of this, but I hate when there is untapped potential, and we send the wrong message.

This isn't personal, it is just business but our managers here have to take some of the heat here. BYB's posts about them are a broken record. I do not believe that Joe Girardi is the problem here.... yet. If the Yankees miss the post season again it will be hard to ignore that the management played a big role in this. The roster was revamped this year. The players can't be the scapegoat here. It's time to stop the insanity! But to do that, the Yankee brass need to bring in managers with some new ideas because these guys.....just have not cut it!