SHOWALTER GETS SCREWED!

The announcement came down alittle while ago and the 2012 Manager of the Year awards were given out. Read about it HERE. For the National League, the Washington Nationals Davey Johnson won. No brainer in my opinion.

For the American League, Bob Melvin of the Oakland Athletics won.  Wow.  I didn't see that coming.  Buck Showalter of the Baltimore Orioles should have won.  How in the world does he NOT win? His team gained 10 games on the Yankees in the AL East and played a very tough playoff against them.  In fact, he scares the hell out of me.  Bottom line, the Athletics had a better team for Melvin than the Orioles were for Buck. The difference was Buck made his boys believe in themselves and in that regard, they did an incredible job.  Sure alot of the credit goes to the team itself for playing so well, better than their numbers said, but Buck deserves a helluva lot of credit here too.  BYB would have given him Manager of the Year in the AL.

Congrats to Johnson and Melvin.  Good work this season.
 

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THERE'S NO PRESSURE FOR GIRARDI AS LONG AS THE YANKEES WIN

ESPN’s slant on the Yankees is historic and gets under the skin of every Yankee fan out there. We all see the allegiance it’s people have against the Yankees in their subtle way and has for years. It’s surprising that even the New York based guys fall into the trap, but I guess when you get paid by the devil, you do their dirty work too. Can I fault them? No, but I understand them and you should too.

Big headline today in ESPN.com titled Pressure could pop Girardi out of NY. Yankee fans don't need to read that kind of headline, in fact, you don’t even need to read it, Ill tell you what it said.  In a nutshell, it’s not about the pressure that will bounce Joe Girardi out of New York, it’s whether or not the Yankees are going to be champs in 2013, that will determine whether or not Girardi comes back as manager after his contract is up... something every Yankee fan already knows.  

The Yankees are winners and for the longest time we have all seen great seasons where everything works right and then there are years like 2012 where they grind it out with busted ankles and losing streaks and holes in their bats. Sometimes the planets don’t align the Yankees way.  And let’s be frank as to not think that this problem is contained to ONLY the Yankees; sometimes that happens to every team at one point or another.  To isolate that to just the New York Yankees is ridiculous.  Boston Red Sox anyone?   

Joe Girardi said it best in Wally Matthews’ piece when he was asked about whether or not he feels pressure going into 2013 knowing it’s the last year of his 3 year deal: “No. The pressure, as you can see, I put on myself, because I expect us to win everyday, and as you know, I get alittle grouchy when we don’t, so that’s probably not going to change whether I have a contract or not.”  He’s right, I mean, let’s face it, if Joe and the Yankees don’t win in 2013, Joe may not come back as manager and he may go home a millionaire anyway, but is it  really "pressure?" Not exactly.  Sure, you want to succeed and I actually give Girardi a lot of credit if you think about it. The Yankees were riddled with injury, riddled with re-shuffling the lineup and juggling the pitching…sometimes too much, but we all know the guy's got balls and that stems from his playing days. He’s a competitor and deserves more credit than he’s gotten.

Look, my feeling is this;  the only “pressure” every manager has is trying to win the whole thing, that goes for  Bruce Bochy and Jim Leyland. Look at Davey Johnson and the Washington Nationals.  Are you going to tell me that not having Stephen Strasburg in the rotation didn’t matter in their demise this playoff? Well, it did matter, because most likely that’s one more win under their belt, maybe 2 if they have momentum after a Strasberg win. That didn't happen and they had an amazing season and lost worse than if they were actually going all the way. That's my opinion of course. That's pressure. Sure, there’s no way of truly knowing ,but is Strasberg is available, I’m playing the odds.

Sure, the same could be said about our K-4, Curtis Granderson, Nick Swisher, Robinson Cano and Alex Rodriguez.  I play those odds and I put them in the lineup because they are big money guys that are true talents… They crapped the bed, but how do you not bet on them in big situations?  The point is Joe Girardi did what he could with the lineup he had and benching all of them would have been stupid, so he benched who he could based on performance, it didn’t work but Joe Girardi isn’t swinging their bats for them, they are and they sucked at it.  

In the end, there’s pressure in New York, big pressure. I learned nothing from Wally’s piece and neither will you, but I did appreciate hearing that Joe Girardi wants to win and feels bad when he loses.  We didn’t always see that passion on the field in the playoffs this fall.  Nick Swisher was smiling alittle too much after his horrible performance and I didn’t need to see Robinson Cano playing with his gum in the dugout.  That kind of stuff in a pennant race sucks to see if you’re a fan.  

So now we officially close the book on 2012 and look toward 2013.  A season that will hopefully have a healthy CC Sabathia, Derek Jeter and I'm almost certain that there will be a 43 year old Mariano Rivera, there, who, I suspect has unfinished business and still wants to get out there for 1 more shot at a championship.  Andy Pettitte? I would suspect he will come back and hey, the rest of the gang will be there too, including Alex Rodriguez.  Whether you like it or not, our 3^rd baseman isn’t leaving New York. I just don’t see it. So, when the gang gets together next Spring, Girardi will be out there ready to win, and I will be in the front row rooting him on, and feeling the pressure to win, just like him, except he HAS to win. I get to walk away and take a deep breath if they don’t. 

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JOE MADDON'S "COOL DAD" ACT IS OLD

(In Photo: Tool)

I find Joe Maddon’s “I’m the cool dad” attitude as the Tampa Bay Rays manager annoying.  Let’s face facts, Davey Johnson is a veteran manager of the game.  No one said he was a God, but there needs to be some kind of level of respect.  That goes for everyone by the way, but Davey’s achieved quite a bit in baseball, he’s a dinosaur and he’s a World Champion and the other night when he had the umpires confiscate Joel Peralta’s glove because he was suspicious that there may be an illegal substance on his glove, Maddon could have argued sure, but then wait. Now, it turned out there was pine tar on the glove and , well, that’s when Daddy Maddon gets all defensive.

Instead of Joe Maddon just saying something simple like “We’ll see what they find” meaning, MLB, who will now examine Peralta’s mitt and it is now being reported that he will be suspended for 8 games, but he will appeal, read HERE. The point is though, Maddon instead got defensive called Johnson's act “cowardly”   What the hell is that?  Joe Maddon aggravates me. I’m tired of the “cool dad” act, the dad that let’s the kids drink in the basement and then denies it so the kids don’t get in trouble. The act is old.  Be a manager, stop trying to be a friend. 

Now I’ve told you here that I’m not opposed to scuffing a ball once in a while.  I call it baseball.  Many disagree with me and I TOTALLY understand your side, so don’t kill me for my opinion. I just feel like this type of crap has been going on for ever in baseball and It’s part of the game.  I also don’t believe you can lump it into the same category as PEDs.  While you can claim the spit ball is cheating, I don’t see it as being in the same category.  I am also not about to get into a debate about PEDs.  This is strictly about doctoring the baseball.  Again, my take on this is simple, alittle spit, alittle smudge never hurt anyone, but if you’re going to coat your mitt with pine tar and spit right on the ball in front of 40,000 cameras and you get caught doing it, tough noogies, you’re an idiot.    

We’ll have a piece about the spit ball and my take on Jose Valverde’s spit seen ‘round the world this weekend. You should check it out…believe it or not, it involves an interesting perspective and Nick Swisher’s involved.

But back to Maddon and his attitude.  It stinks. Instead of bitching about Davey Johnson, bitch at  your pitcher for blowing it!  Davey Johnson was great, he came out a day later and said quite simply of Joe Maddon that he was a "weird wuss.”  Thems fightin’ words!  That’s a veteran manager telling another manager who thinks he’s God’s gift quite simply “You haven’t won anything yet little man.”  Davey Johnson gets the Hero award of the week. Maddon? Maddon’s the goat.

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