For Those Who Always Wondered What Joe Torre Managing The Red Sox Would Look Like, Here It Is

• Dodgers 7-Rockies 2:

If, during all those long years of Yankees-Red Sox vitriol, any loyalist for the Red Sox

wondered what their team would look like with Joe Torre sitting in the corner of the dugout, hands resting on the knob of a bat, same demeanor whether things were going well or poorly and coaxing, cajoling, dragging and leading his teams to the playoffs no matter what adversity presented itself be it injury, a rampaging boss, spoiled fan base, illness or tragedy need only look at what's going on with the Dodgers because it's being played out right now.
If, during all those long years of the Red Sox-Yankees battles, any loyalist for the Yankees wondered what their team would look like with a quirky, spacey, aggravating, forgetful hitting savant named Manny Ramirez manning left field and hitting, hitting, hitting his way into

everyone's hearts and making them ignore the defensive lapses, tantrums, demands and bouts of laziness, it's being played out right now with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The calmness that the Dodgers are showing is identical to that which the Yankees showed all those years as Torre guided them through any and all firestorms whether they were baseball or life-related. An eight game losing streak and season-long inconsistency? No reason to panic. Injuries to chunks of the pitching staff? Why worry? Someone else will get the job done, somehow. The Diamondbacks are pulling out all the stops to improve their club by dealing for help in their bullpen and lineup with stunning swiftness? No problem, for all of his bizarreness, Torre will handle Manny as he goes through his "Manny being Manny" act heading toward another big contract after crowbarring his way out of Boston. The infighting with rookies and veterans at odds in the clubhouse that doomed Grady Little and ended the Dodgers playoff hopes in 2007? Torre'll take care of it. The impossible Jeff Kent? Torre will placate him as well as he can.
Anything else? Torre, Torre, Torre. Four championship rings, controls the clubhouse, leads his men. Rookies? Veterans? In-season acquisitions? Lack of hitting? Lack of pitching? Injuries? Press? Naysayers? Mocking from the other coast and staggering Yankees at his

unappreciated skills? It doesn't matter. The one thing that's being proven this year is that despite his strategic ordinariness, Joe Torre handles his team and guides them through anything with the one thing that any manager has to have to be successful----he doesn't panic. Referred to as "The Godfather", Torre is the man behind the desk using his brain, experience and reputation to keep everyone in line and as a result, the Dodgers are heading for the playoffs and didn't panic when the world crumbled around them.
If anyone has ever wondered (publicly or privately) what would have happened had Torre been running the Red Sox for the years 1998-2003 instead of Jimy Williams and Grady Little, the result is on display right now in 2008 with the Dodgers. It adds to the irony that not only is Manny on his team, but so are Nomar Garciaparra and Derek Lowe. Anyone who questions the import of a manager need only look at how the Dodgers are finishing the season with the same placid, stoic personality of their manager. That's why the Dodgers are winning and a major reason why the Yankees aren't.

• Diamondbacks 3-Reds 2:

As important as this game was; as much as Brandon Lyon has been struggling as the Diamondbacks closer lately; and with the knowledge that the Dodgers were winning and another Diamondbacks loss would probably have sealed their fate, why was Brandon Webb,

their supposed horse and Cy Young Award winner yanked after throwing only 96 pitches and eight shutout innings?
This isn't being written because Lyon almost blew the game and the Diamondbacks season; nor is it being written to second-guess how decisions are being made in the Diamondbacks dugout; but after watching how the aforementioned Torre has handled his club through their various crises and how Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin has been relying on that absurd "book" that's become so prevalent, why would he remove his ace and put such an important game in the hands of that shaky bullpen and run the risk of ending his team's season? If Webb had thrown 115 pitches, okay, but he'd thrown 96; are you telling me that he couldn't throw twenty more pitches to close the game out himself? Is he or is he not the team's best pitcher and guy who's supposed to carry them in times of distress?
Now Melvin is implying that he's considering making a change at closer and replacing Lyon with (I would assume) Chad Qualls. Melvin's quote was that he felt he'd given Lyon "enough rope"; once a manager starts thinking he has to have a certain amount of "rope" before going to his closer, then it's time to get a new closer. And Lyon shouldn't even have been in that situation to begin with because Webb should at least have started the inning and gotten yanked if and only if he got into serious trouble. Webb should've been the closer last night and the near disaster could've been averted completely.

• The promotional ads for the Colorado Rockies:

From when I got the InDemand package, I've seen a lot of promotional ads for various teams, but the most creative and entertaining belong to the Colorado Rockies. Last night was

a funny parody of The Godfather with Todd Helton playing "The Toddfather"; and there was Troy Tulowitzki having his name chanted everywhere he went as it interrupted people from doing their jobs as Tulowitzki had a satisfied and bemused look on his face. The players are actually good actors and they're great spots.

An Idea For A Yankees Reality Show During The Postseason; A Note For Chris Lincecum

• Since they're not going to be playing this October, maybe there's a way to keep the Yankees in the public eye:

In general, I can't stand reality shows; the only ones I watch are Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares or whatever my fiancee watches that I happen to catch a glimpse of out of the

corner of my eye while doing something creative and intelligent that I'm benevolent enough to share with the townspeople. That being said, I have an idea that will keep the Yankees in the spotlight this October and that is having cameras follow the principal players in former manager Joe Torre's departure as they watch him managing the Dodgers in the playoffs. It could work and it could work BIG!!!
Think about it. What kind of reactions would Randy Levine, Hank Steinbrenner, Hal Steinbrenner, Felix Lopez (they could film him taking care of the lawns on the fields in Tampa) and even Brian Cashman elicit as the Yankees are cleaning out their stadium without any post-season revenue and Torre simultaneously has his new team receiving the national exposure and is cementing his

reputation as a "wizened baseball genius" with his thirteenth straight post-season appearance? It was Levine and the Steinbrenners who wanted Torre out and Cashman didn't go out of his way to save his longtime partner, so why not give them a forum to vent as their decision, in the short-term at least, looks horrendous?
They could even extend the coverage to broadcaster Michael Kay, who did the equivalent of dumping on Torre's Yankee managerial grave only after the manager was gone indicating some vague sense of protectiveness over the Yankees organization by not saying what he really felt about Torre over those long years as if that was part his responsibility as a supposedly "unbiased" broadcaster.
It would be even better for the show if the Dodgers had to play the Mets at some point during the playoffs, so those that are embittered enough to wish ill-will on Torre and loathe the idea that the Mets are still playing and the Yankees aren't would have to make a choice

between rooting for their former manager or rooting for the Mets or even at some point having to root for the Red Sox. Just imagine...
I'm half-kidding about this, but there is a point. While I'm sure that the majority of the Yankees organization wishes Torre nothing but the best, you can't tell me that it's not going to make those that pushed him out the door crazy if he coaxes the Dodgers into the playoffs after their handpicked successor, Joe Girardi, had such a struggle in his first season as the manager; you can't tell me that many of the players still in that clubhouse who fondly remember Torre's handling of everything inherent with the job of managing that team don't miss him and wish he were still there.
I'm trying to imagine the irony of the Yankees hierarchy sitting in their offices watching the

playoffs in either the NLDS game five or NLCS game seven and chanting, "Let's Go Mets!!" over and over again so they don't have to hear about Joe Torre managing in another World Series with the Dodgers while the Yankees are plotting a way to overcome the embarrassment of a $210 million payroll that finished in fourth place. After everything that happened, it would be kind of appropriate...and a ratings winner!!!

• Chris Lincecum should strike now and write a book about his son Tim's workout regimen:

With the number of blog hits I get from people looking for information about Tim Lincecum's

workout, mechanics and stretching program, Chris Lincecum should write a book about how he taught his son to pitch. I've already advised those that end up here looking for information not to follow advice they find on the internet without truly understanding what they're doing----Blog 8/31, but they're still searching for it and doing so at their own peril. There's a market for such a guide and he should get it out there while his son is still healthy and it's such a hot topic.

• Rays 4-Red Sox 2:

Here's something I don't quite understand, Troy Percival was removed from the game because his back tightened up from all the warming up and sitting down throughout the game; but if he wasn't feeling right, why was he well enough to start the bottom of the fourteenth inning, but suddenly not well enough after he'd loaded the bases with nobody out and needed to be replaced because of the injury?

• Giants 4-Diamondbacks 3:

I generally don't question pitch selection unless there's an egregious and obvious error; many times, the pitch is the right one, but is in the wrong location; but after the latest Diamondbacks loss, I

have to wonder what catcher Miguel Montero was thinking in calling for closer Brandon Lyon to throw a high fastball instead of another curveball to Giants utilityman Eugenio Velez with two outs, two strikes, two runners on base and a one-run lead.
Maybe the Diamondbacks scouting reports said that Velez was vulnerable to a high, hard fastball and Lyon does throw in the upper nineties, but Velez had also looked clueless on two curveballs thrown by Lyon; Montero called for the high fastball; exaggerated the call by making a rising motion with his catcher's mitt; and was only in a half-squat because he wanted the pitch so high. Lyon made the pitch and Velez ripped it into the gap to score the tying and winning runs and send the Diamondbacks spiraling out of San Francisco.
And where was Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin during all of this? During his playing

career, Melvin was a defensively minded catcher who only lasted in the majors as long as he did (ten years) because of his defense and handling of pitchers; doesn't he see what's happening on the field and let his catcher know what he should be doing not just based on scouting reports, but by observation? I guarantee if Lyon had thrown a hard curve in the dirt, Velez would've struck out; but he threw a fastball up in Velez's eyes and the results are there for all to see, especially for a Diamondbacks team in full and apparently unstoppable free-fall.

• Heads must roll in San Diego for the good of the organization:

Buster Olney linked an article yesterday in which Padres GM Kevin Towers wouldn't guarantee manager Bud Black's return next season----Article. It would be of infinite arrogance and a total lack of interest in the remaining fans of the team if no one took the fall for this

soon-to-be 100 loss disaster, but should Black be the one to take the blame and pay the price?
The Padres, a Moneyball team led by their team president Sandy Alderson, install the manager and instruct him on just about every aspect of his handling of the team and pay him a relatively meager salary in comparison to other organizations. Black's done a bad job this year, there's no question about that; but look at their roster. With the lack of power that Black has is an implied lack of responsibility. If he doesn't get credit for the wins, then he shouldn't get the blame for the losses either.
I'm convinced the Padres are arrogant enough to move forward with the same crew that created this mess, but they're not that stupid (I don't think) that they'll move forward without doing something to placate an angry fan base and let them know that they're making a move even if said move isn't going to make much of a difference one way or the other. Heads are going to roll in San Diego; the question is if they're going to be the right heads; if they're sacrificing Black and no one else, then it would be little more than a sham to deflect blame from the real culprits who spawned this woeful and hapless organization into their current state, most prominently team president Sandy Alderson.

In A Daze, In A Malaise, The Tampa Bay Rays

• Red Sox 3-Rays 0:

The Rays are staggering and stumbling toward the finish as teams who've had a smooth

season-long ride sometimes do; occasionally it costs them, occasionally it doesn't. I don't see this sudden rash of losing as affecting the team one way or the other once the playoffs start. Right now, it looks like the Red Sox are going to overtake them for the division, but all that's going to do is change the matchups in the first round. Simply because a team has an awful close to their season doesn't mean they're going to continue that in the playoffs.
The Tigers and Cardinals of 2006 looked like expansion teams over the last month of that season and both wound up in the World Series; once the playoff spot is clinched (and the lead the Rays built up will ensure they're going to make the playoffs no matter how many more games they lose), they should relax and get back to playing as well as they did earlier this season. Given the lead they built up, some adversity and guidance from the leaders in the clubhouse, how to overcome it and return to the solid baseball that got them into this position in the first place isn't a bad thing whether or not they win the division title; making the playoffs is the most important thing and the Rays have that sewn up.

• Angels 12-Yankees 1:

The statements uttered above about the Rays may not have been so clear cut had the

Yankees and manager Joe Girardi acted more quickly to prevent Darrell Rasner from blowing the game up last Thursday----Blog 9/5. It would be interesting to see what position the Rays would be in and how much panic would be going on if they were in the midst of a seven game losing streak.
The scuffle between the Yankees and Angels last night looked like it stemmed more from frustration on the part of the Yankees than any real animosity between the teams; it's a bad sign that the benches cleared and the Yankees, instead of getting fired up and playing better, looked like they packed everything in and let the Angels blow them out afterwards.
Hank Steinbrenner was quoted yesterday as saying that Girardi will be back next season----ESPN Story----but I don't think that's as guaranteed as the Baby Boss implies in his statement. What happens if the Yankees collapse completely over the final eighteen games and go 6-12 or somewhere in that area and end the season at 82-80? It's seen as almost a sure thing that Brian Cashman returns, but what happens if the Washington Nationals job opens up and the Philadelphia Phillies job is offered to him and he decides on his own to abandon ship? It's likely that the Yankees would promote from within with Damon Oppenheimer to replace Cashman, but if they go elsewhere for a replacement, what if the new GM doesn't want Girardi?
If George Steinbrenner were still running things, there's no question what the end result of

this season would be; neither Cashman nor Girardi would return and the money coming off the books with the departing free agents Jason Giambi, Carl Pavano, et al would be going into the pockets of C.C. Sabathia and Mark Teixeira. People mistake Joe Torre's unprecedentedly long reign as Yankees manager as evidence that the Boss mellowed in his old age; maybe he was slightly more patient than he would have been fifteen-to-twenty years earlier, but Torre survived for one reason----he kept winning the World Series; other than that, he would have joined the long list of Yankee managers who were fired with or without their success and loyalty to the organization.
It's conveniently forgotten that Torre was days (perhaps hours) away from being fired in 1998 when the team started out at 1-4; he was able to right the ship in time to save himself and make history with a team that is widely regarded as one of the best in baseball history. Will Girardi be back next season? I'd say probably, but it's not a definite thing because if Hank gets angry enough and realizes that his bluster and threats are met with widespread skepticism and outright ridicule, he might just turn around and fire Girardi. It's at least in the realm of possibility.

• Billy Wagner out for the rest of 2008, 2009 and perhaps for his career:

Here's one thing I don't understand about this diagnosis, did he tear the ligament while he was pitching that simulated game on Sunday, or was it already an undiagnosed tear? And if

it was already torn, why did it take until Monday to diagnose it after he'd seen all of those doctors to try and find out what was wrong initially? That's neither here nor there I suppose, because it doesn't sound like rest and rehab were going to do much good; if the ligament was going to go, it was going to go. Wagner throws very, very hard and has been durable for much of his career, so it's no surprise that he's got a serious arm injury as his career winds down. The thing the Mets now have to decide is what to do about a closer for 2009.
For 2008, they're in the same position they were before Wagner was officially out for the season. I don't think they were expecting him back when he first went on the disabled list and were looking at it as a bonus is he was going to be able to return. Luis Ayala is going to close for the rest of this season as long as he's getting the job done and I have no problem with that. Ayala has handled the pressure, he throws strikes and has very good stuff. There are voices in the media, notably Mike Francesa on WFAN, who are implying that the Mets are walking the tightrope this season with Ayala, but in order to prove his point, he's twisting reality to suit himself. On Sunday for example, Ayala gave up a run and it was seen to be a struggle for him to record the final three outs against the Phillies in the Mets 6-3 win. Looking at the box score and taking the situation out of context makes it appear that way, but it's not the case.
Ayala did give up a deep drive to Andy Tracy that Endy Chavez caught by the left field wall; and he gave up a run, but the two hits he allowed traveled about a combined total of 75 feet with swinging bunts by Shane Victorino and Matt Stairs; they were lucky hits and no reflection on how well or poorly Ayala might have been pitching. From what I can see, Ayala is pitching very well and is handling the job better than anyone else the Mets have right now.
As for next year, the immediate speculation will center on the possibility of signing the impending free agent Francisco Rodriguez from the Angels or trading for Huston Street of the

Athletics. I would not pony up the $60-70 million it's going to require to get Rodriguez. As gaudy as K-Rod's stats are, he walks a lot of hitters; has a stressful, over-the-top motion and history has proven that importing big money closers is a wasted effort much of the time. While I don't believe the closer-by-committee strategy can work in today's game, I do believe that teams can develop a closer of their own inexpensively. I wouldn't touch Street either given how shaky he's been and the concern about his health; plus Athletics boss Billy Beane is like a predator waiting for a team like the Mets to panic if they look like they're desperate to make a splash and bring in a recognizable name.
What I would do is sign a veteran stopgap like Todd Jones or keep Al Reyes just in case the designated closer falters. If they try to move forward with Ayala or use one of their youngsters like Eddie Kunz or Robert Parnell, then this is the correct strategy; I would also seriously consider shifting John Maine into the role next year. Spending more money or prospects on a different closer would be a big mistake because there are other viable options that would work just as well, if not better.

• How does this affect Wagner's Hall of Fame candidacy?

This doesn't affect Wagner's candidacy at all because he wasn't getting in one way or the other. Rob Neyer wrote this in his blog yesterday:

And what of Wagner? This year he's been just about as good as ever, when he's been able to pitch. But how good will he be in 2010? I think he'll be pretty good. John Smoltz certainly was, when he came back. But Smoltz was only 34, and Wagner will turn 39 in 2010. Even if he's pretty good, we can't assume he'll be great. Which I'm afraid puts a real damper on his Hall of Fame candidacy.

Billy Wagner is not a Hall of Famer. Hall of Fame voters elect closers under

protest to begin with. If the truly great closers of yesteryear like Bruce Sutter, Goose Gossage and Rollie Fingers had to wait for election, what would it say about a pretty good, but not great closer like Billy Wagner if he were even to receive serious consideration? In today's era, Dennis Eckersley was the first of the "one-inning save" closers who got in, but that's in part because he won a load of hardware as a closer (Cy Young Award, MVP, ALCS MVP); was a top six finisher in the Cy Young/MVP voting three other times; and was also a great starting pitcher early in his career. Mariano Rivera will get in on the first ballot because of the championship teams for whom he was an indispensable linchpin, but as for the others, it's a big question mark.
Trevor Hoffman is often referred to as a "future Hall of Famer", but I'm not so sure. I would have to think long and hard about voting for Hoffman because he has no hardware, has struggled in big games; he has finished in the top six of Cy Young voting four times (twice coming

in second). Hoffman has a better shot than Wagner does, but if these closers get in, it opens up a bunch of other names that would have a legitimate argument for their own induction. Those guys, including names like John Franco and Lee Smith, are not Hall of Famers. And Franco has something that Wagner doesn't since he recorded a huge save in the playoffs by striking out Barry Bonds as the winning run at the plate in game two of the 2000 NLDS. Wagner has failed miserably in big situations time after time. This injury and the possible end to Wagner's career doesn't hurt or help his candidacy because he ain't gettin' in either way.

• Reds 5-Brewers 4:

Strategically, there's no way to blame Brewers manager Ned Yost for this loss. He could

have left starter Dave Bush in to pitch the ninth given how shaky the Brewers bullpen has been; how well Bush pitched; and that Bush had only thrown 99 pitches, but Salomon Torres has been mostly reliable as the Brewers closer; there was no reason to think he wouldn't be able to hold a two run lead.
That being said, the Brewers are gagging again as the season winds down and it is very possible that neither the Mets nor Phillies are going to be left out in the cold in this year's playoff race because the Brewers are a likely candidate to collapse down the stretch. It's indicative of Yost's tightness that after Torres was hit with Corey Patterson's line drive and Yost ventured onto the field to watch Torres make a couple of warm up tosses to make sure he was okay, Yost's jaw muscles were contracting with such ferocity that he looked like he might spontaneously combust right there on the field.
Yost is eerily similar to another tightly wound manager whom the players tolerated and eventually mutinied against, former Astros and Angels manager Terry Collins. Off the field, Collins is said to be a very nice guy, but his tempestuous nature wore on the veterans in both of his

managerial stops and frightened the young players to the point that they were petrified to make a mistake. He was moderately successful because he had some talent to work with, but his teams were winning in spite of him and not because of him. In both of Collins's managerial stops, the players let management know that enough was enough with him and his temper. In his case, as with Yost's, a change was needed for the talented teams to make it to the next level from potential contender to true contender. If the supremely talented Brewers falter again, it will be partially because of their bullpen, but predominately because of their manager and a change is going to have to be made to someone more temperate if they want to win when it counts.

The Final Indignity Of 2008 May Be Yet To Come For The Yankees

• Would any one of the following be worse than the others, or would it all simply
  
  morph into different scenes in a full-on nightmare?

A 10 1/2 game deficit in the division and an eight game deficit in the Wild Card standings with twenty-one games to play pretty much seals the Yankees fate as a non-playoff team this year. Even with that, there are still ways for the nightmare to get even worse. With today's comeback win over the Rays, the Blue Jays have an identical record with the Yankees at 75-66; by season's end, there's a very real possibility that the Yankees aren't just going to miss the playoffs, but they may end up in fourth place in the AL East behind the Rays, Red Sox and the Blue Jays; but it gets worse.
By season's end, there's every chance that the Yankees are going to not only be watching the playoffs on TV for the first time since 1993, but that they'll have to watch their most hated

enemies in the Red Sox and Mets still playing, and also the manager that they kicked out the door to Los Angeles, Joe Torre, as he manages the Dodgers. If Torre coaxes this dysfunctional Dodgers team into the playoffs while the Yankees and their hand-picked replacement, Joe Girardi (who had been waiting in the wings for this opportunity since he was fired by the Marlins and turned down every other chance he got to manage) finishes the season with a record of, say, 87-75, what is that going to say about the decision to insult Torre with that one-year contract offer?
The arguments to let Torre go are well-known and some of them have reasonable validity. It may very well have been time to go in a new direction with someone younger who has a different voice especially since the team was going forward with their young pitching; it could be that Girardi will eventually be a better strategic manager than Torre was and that he was the perfect choice as they transition from a team that spent tons and tons of money on free agents and turned their focus on developing players of their own. They may even begin a new dynasty in the next year or two, but the fact still remains that the jury on Girardi----on and off the field----is still out.
His strategic gaffes have cost the Yankees several games this year and could have cost them several more; he's far too sensitive to criticism and his relentless positivity no matter the circumstances may wear thin to veterans who see reality and don't want to hear the manager talk about how the team "battled" or "never gave up"; they're eventually going to want to hear

him say something to turn things around or unload on them when they deserve it. And the fact still remains that if the Yankees do end with a record of around 87-75, Girardi will only have won nine more games than he did in his sole year managing the Marlins in 2006 in which he won Manager of the Year and was fired; the difference being that the Marlins payroll for 2006 was $15 million and the 2008 Yankees began the season with a payroll of $209 million. Suffice it to say he's not going to be winning Manager of the Year in 2008 for the same fourth place finish that he achieved with the Marlins because it's not going to be seen as an achievement; in fact, it'll be pretty embarrassing considering what he had to work with.

• Dodgers 7-Diamondbacks 2; speaking of Torre:

For the three and a half years that Willie Randolph managed the Mets, it was always an open question why he made so many pitching changes when they didn't appear necessary; in

today's Dodgers-Diamondbacks game, it became clear that it wasn't something that Randolph came up with on his own; it was a learned behavior from the manager he worked for with the Yankees from 1996 through 2004.
Torre has always been very free with his bullpen and his track record of success served as a shield to any criticism that may have popped up for some of his maneuverings, but in today's game I had to stop and wonder what it was he was trying to prove as he pulled two relievers in the ninth inning with leads of seven and five runs, and had to bring his closer in to finish a game that shouldn't have been so complicated.
With that 7-0 lead going into the top of the ninth inning, Torre brought in a September call-up, rookie lefty Scott Elbert; Elbert promptly loaded the bases with one out when Torre made his slow amble to the mound to relieve Elbert with 34-year-old journeyman righty Jason Johnson.

Johnson got the second out before he walked Chris Young and gave up a two-run single to Justin Upton; out went Torre again, this time to call for his closer Jonathan Broxton. Broxton struck out Miguel Montero to end the game.
To get three outs in a ninth inning which began with the Dodgers leading 7-0, Torre needed to use three different pitchers; it reminded me of Randolph's overmanaging the Mets as he always seemed to want to install at least two extra bullpen mounds in every ballpark so he could have four relievers warming up at the same time. If Torre didn't trust the rookie Elbert, he should have had Johnson start the inning; and if he wanted to make absolute sure that the game never had any chance to get out of hand, he should have started the inning with Broxton and all of this "strategy" would've been unnecessary.

• Tony La Russa's "power play" and the possibility of becoming a GM(?):

Buster Olney linked an article by Joe Strauss in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that suggests that Cardinals manager Tony La Russa expects the Cardinals to spend some money this off-season, but it also suggests that La Russa is also entertaining the idea of becoming a general manager----Article.
There's no question that La Russa is going to try and get the Cardinals front office to spend

as freely as they did in his earlier years as their manager, but their reluctance to spend on big name free agents or to acquire anyone of substance to help them contend this year indicates that they're going to let La Russa bloviate about how he wants some expensive veteran help and then go along their merry way signing reclamation projects like Kyle Lohse and hope that La Russa and pitching coach Dave Duncan can turn someone else into a 13-game winner.
The Cardinals were widely expected by many (including me) to fall to the bottom of the NL Central division. It's been La Russa's strategic wizardry that has kept the Cardinals in contention, but the fact that the team desperately needed some help in the bullpen as they shuttled one pitcher after another into the closer's role and GM John Mozeliak did nothing indicates that they're not going to spend any more money this off-season on any players of note. They have a lot of money coming off the books, but that doesn't mean they're going to take it and put it right back into the team for 2009.
La Russa's going to want them to sign Francisco Rodriguez, which they won't do because K-Rod is going to be coming off of a 60-save season and will want at least $15 million a year

for five or six years. La Russa's going to want them to sign Orlando Cabrera, which they won't do because Cabrera's going to want somewhere in the $50-60 million range on a five year deal. La Russa's going to want them to go after A.J. Burnett, which won't happen because Burnett is going to be coming off his career year with close to 20 wins and will be in heavy demand as he asks for $100 million, and probably gets it. La Russa's kidding himself if he thinks these things are going to happen because he's demanding them. The Cardinals are going to wait to see where the big name free agents go, then they're going to sift through the remnants and pick at the bones for the most inexpensive pieces they can find because that's the way they do business now.
As for the La Russa as GM idea, it won't work. Much like Lou Piniella was kicked upstairs to be the Yankees GM during one of George Steinbrenner's attempts to fire a popular manager without really firing him to avoid the vitriol he received when he fired Yogi Berra (both times he replaced the former manager with Billy Martin), Piniella tried to be a GM for a few months, decided he didn't like it and resigned. (He replaced Martin as manager a short time later.)
La Russa is not a front office guy; he's not a guy who's going to be happy wearing a suit

and watching someone else manage his team in a far inferior fashion than he could. He's a baseball managing lifer. Like his friend Bill Parcells, the rush of the field will never be replaced by anything no matter how hard he tries. (I know Parcells is running the Miami Dolphins as team president, but I think a major part of him still wishes he had the energy to go back on the field and run the whole show from top to bottom.) So this is, to me, an empty threat designed to give the Cardinals front office the idea that their Hall of Fame manager might leave if the opportunity presents itself; but with the way they're now running that storied franchise, I get the idea that the ownership wouldn't be all that bothered one way or the other if La Russa was their manager or not; in fact, they might be relieved to get out from under his salary and hire someone for a bargain-basement contract who'd just be happy to have the job and do as he's told without complaint.
La Russa will manage the Cardinals next year; it'll be the same sort of team with the same sort of payroll as this year, and then after 2009, the two parties will go their separate ways and La Russa will go to a big spending team to take one more shot at winning another title without having to beg for in-season help; and it'll probably be best for all involved.

The Dynamics Of A Bench Clearing "Brawl"

• Marlins 4-Mets 3:

After Aaron Heilman's atrocious ninth inning tonight, it's clear the duel between the Mets and the Phillies down the stretch is going to come down to which team's bullpen coughs up

the fewest games; right now it's a coin flip and that's with the Phillies getting such a stunning comeback year from Brad Lidge. Lidge has had his own issues with blowing big games and having it affect him for an extended period (see Pujols, Albert; 2005 NLCS). That's neither here nor there in the story of tonight's game because of the bench clearing dance the teams exchanged after Mets starter Mike Pelfrey drilled Marlins outfielder Cody Ross.
I have great respect for Cody Ross. He's rung every single ounce of ability out of his small frame; has bounced from the Tigers to the Dodgers to the Reds to the Marlins trying to find a place where he was going to get a chance to play; he got his chance with the Marlins and has proven himself to have surprising (though streaky) power, a penchant for getting big hits and a toughness that's hard to find. This is a player who was hit in the mouth by an Oscar Villareal fastball two years ago

and insisted on getting right back into the lineup. With that, it's hard to believe that even Ross thinks that Pelfrey was throwing at him in the second inning of tonight's game. Pelfrey also hit Ross on August 10th and does hit a greater than usual number of hitters, but that's only because he tries to pitch inside and gets a lot of natural movement on his pitches.
After Ross was hit, he cussed loudly and slammed his bat and elbow protector to the ground; Mets catcher Brian Schneider was watching Ross closely to see if anything was going to happen and sure enough, as he was walking to first, Ross let Pelfrey know what he thought of him and from reading his lips and due to the circumstances, he certainly wasn't wishing Pelfrey "luck". Pelfrey responded in kind and the next thing everyone knew, both benches cleared and there was the general milling around that goes on during a bench clearing "incident". There were no punches thrown, but even when there are actual fights on a baseball diamond, they always end up pretty much the same way.
There's the one guy who got angry at the other guy and the two wind up screaming at each other; then the benches empty and the players start holding their teammates back; then there are the guys who started charging in and try to appear as if they want to fight whether they really do or not. Tonight, that character was played by Marlins first baseman Mike Jacobs. Jacobs ran onto the field, got spun around and held back in what looked like an audition to make sure he got as much face time on SportsCenter as humanly possible to show how tough and great a teammate he is because he wants to "fight" for his comrade. Then the bullpens come charging in and things cool down...until someone says something and the teams start moving toward one another again. Then order is restored and everyone returns to playing the game. It's the same script just about every time and it's tiresome; if these guys want to fight, then

get on with it. None of this running around and charging in and yelling and screaming, and it's always the loudest ones who go crawling out of the pile of bodies during the fight

and head for the nearest exit; it happens every time.
I was involved in a bench clearing fight when I was nineteen, playing on the sandlots and still harboring delusions of being able to play professionally. This was a legitimate fight with guys actually throwing punches, but for the most part, everything else played out predictably with guys holding each other back, trying to protect teammates from getting hurt and showing some solidarity so they look like they're willing to fight even if they're not. In this particular incident, I was holding back one of the main participants along with a couple of players on the other team. (Much like "The Most Interesting Man In the World" with his ice cold Dos Equis, I'm a lover, not a fighter; but I'm a fighter too, so don't get any ideas.) One guy on my team----the biggest guy as it turned out----got knocked to the

ground and had a cut lip after he yapped long and hard to one of the opposing players during the festivities. This was a prime example of what goes on during these things. (I joined the team we were fighting with the next season.)
In general, a baseball team and it's rosters work out this way when it comes to fighting: there are four or five guys who can actually fight, but don't do it unless they have to; six to eight guys who think they can fight, act like they can fight and charge around like they can fight, but get a brutal beating when they do fight. (I'm not suggesting that Mike Jacobs is one of those guys----he could be the best baseball player/fighter since Billy Martin, but he sure was acting like one of those guys.) Then there are the rest of the players who try to keep the posers and the fighters from hurting themselves or anyone else and keep guys from getting suspended. The number of times in which actual punches are thrown in comparison to the number of times benches clear can't be very good considering that a potential fight is the reason that the players ran out onto the field in the first place.
This also doesn't suggest that there haven't been some genuinely tough baseball players; guys you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley. Ray Knight was the former Golden Gloves boxing muscle behind the 1986 Mets; Dave Parker was called "Cobra" for a reason; and of course, there was Billy Martin; but then there are the guys who think they're tough, yell like they're tough, but never do much of anything like Josh Beckett and Roger Clemens. The main thing is that these incidents never amount to much because the dynamic is almost always the same, as are baseball players. Sometimes pretense is the better part of valor and it's better to look and act like a guy who's ready to drop the gloves than to actually be a guy who's ready to drop the gloves. Stay thirsty my friends.

• The 2008 Yankees are ready for the coroner (figuratively):

In a reference from The Sopranos to quote Carmine Lupertazzi from when he decided to shut down the construction of the Esplanade in retaliation during an ongoing back-and-forth

between the Lupertazzis and the Sopranos: "I haven't wanted to do this..." but he did do it because it was necessary; now, I must do the same thing and declare the Yankees dead.
After today's latest bullpen meltdown and series of mental and physical errors, the Yankees had to sit and watch both the Rays and the Red Sox win to increase their respective leads over the Yankees to 11 1/2 for the Rays and seven for the Red Sox. It's going to be all but impossible for the Yankees to catch up to either team especially with the wounded and journeyman-laden starting rotation and woeful bullpen. Add in that Robinson

Cano is playing like a guy whose head is everywhere but on his job; that Johnny Damon can't play center field; that Alex Rodriguez is hitting poorly in the clutch and in bad luck; that Joe Girardi is learning on the job; etc, etc, etc.
It was bound to happen eventually and it might have happened had Joe Torre been managing the team instead of Joe Girardi, but their luck has run out and the Yankees of 2008 are officially being taken off of life support, at least in my hospital. Speaking of Torre...

• Dodgers 6-Diamondbacks 2:
  

As terribly as the Dodgers have played during the last week in which they lost eight in a

row including three straight to the Washington Nationals, their win tonight over the Diamondbacks puts them 3 1/2 games out of first place with a record of 66-70. By season's end, no one's going to care if either team makes the playoffs with a record of 81-81 or 80-82 or whatever.
As difficult as I was finding it to diagnose what was wrong with the Dodgers after their flashy acquisitions of Manny Ramirez, Greg Maddux and Casey Blake, it's just as hard to diagnose what's wrong with the Diamondbacks who acquired a power bat/on-base machine in Adam Dunn; a set-up reliever who can close in Jon Rauch and a respected veteran in Tony Clark; they also have the best 1-2 punch of starting pitchers in baseball in Brandon Webb and Dan Haren and they still can't put the Dodgers away.
Some say that it's better to be lucky than good, but Joe Torre's luck from the Yankees seems to be following him to Los Angeles because no matter how awful the Dodgers look, the Diamondbacks are bent on matching them and with that, they're well on their way to blowing this division that they should have wrapped up already given the talent on their roster, how they've augmented it and how far the Dodgers have gone in an attempt to eliminate themselves; but they're still there and the Torre-luck is something that the Diamondbacks aren't going to want to tempt because if they do, they're going to lose.

Yankees Show Some Fight, But Is It Too Late?

• Yankees 3-Red Sox 2; "A little fight in you. I like that."

The Yankees and their defiant veterans in Mike Mussina and Jason Giambi showed some

fight (see the above quote from the Joker in The Dark Knight), but they may have just given themselves a stay of execution and, trust me when I say this because I speak from experience, it's going to be more painful for Yankee fans if this thing is prolonged any further than it has to be.
As I said the other day, I don't believe the Yankees are dead as other hypocritical voices have suggested, but it's got to be put into context what they're going to have to do to get back to even having a chance at making the playoffs as the games dwindle. They have three games with the Blue Jays, a team which (if taking on the personality of their GM, J.P. Ricciardi) would like nothing better than to drag the Yankees down into the muck of mediocrity in which they wallow; in two of those three games, they're facing A.J. Burnett, singing for his soon-to-be-free agent supper; and Roy Halladay, a relentless competitor going for a second Cy Young Award.
After that they play the Rays for the start of six games against the upstart youngsters over the final month. They'll play the White Sox, fighting for a playoff spot of their own and also in front of the Yankees in the Wild Card race; the fading Orioles; the Blue Jays again and the Red Sox for the final three games of the season which are, at this point, unlikely to mean anything to either team. Unless the Yankees take those six games with the Rays and put them in their place, they're not going to be able to even come close to the Wild Card and one way or the other, as long as their using the likes of Darrell Rasner and Carl Pavano as

starters, they can pretty much forget about the division.
Being three games behind the Twins and five behind the White Sox doesn't help matters either. The Red Sox and Rays will be playing each other six times over the next month, but that advantage for the Yankees will be non-existent because it's unlikely to cause any change in the separation between the two teams and the only way it would possibly help the Yankees would be if they won at least 22 of their remaining games and if any two of the four teams ahead of them collapsed completely, which is highly unlikely.
While it's admirable that the Yankees haven't looked at their current circumstances; that because Hank Steinbrenner has given them a free pass to look toward 2009; and the weak starting pitching that they've been forced to use three out of every five days as reasons to give up, their predicament is dire and no amount of comeback wins----even satisfying ones against the Red Sox----are going to change that reality.

• Cubs 6-Phillies 4:

With the way the Phillies bullpen gacked up the game last night against the Cubs, it's becoming clear that manager Charlie Manuel's overuse of his relievers, most of whom are

going to have to pitch in around 80 games apiece if the Phillies are going to make the playoffs, is going to come back to haunt him. With a month to go in the season, Chad Durbin looks exhausted; J.C. Romero looks hurt; and the other pitchers are scuffling as well. This battle with the Mets is going to come down to which bullpen is able to stagger to the finish line because neither team is in the greatest shape right now.
On the bright side for the Phillies, they lost to a team that looks eerily similar to the 1986 Mets. The Cubs are never out of any game because they never stop coming; never give up; and never quit grinding. This comes

directly from their manager, Lou Piniella. Mark DeRosa has quietly thrust himself into the conversation for National League MVP and they've gotten significant contributions from veterans picked up off the scrapheap in Jim Edmonds and Reed Johnson; youngsters like Jeff Samardzija; and players in different roles than before in Kerry Wood and Ryan Dempster.
Their bullpen is still going to be a question going into the playoffs, but they've delivered so far and Piniella has a habit of dragging his teams further than any logical reasoning would expect them to go. One of the main reasons that Piniella never won a championship with some high-powered Mariners teams was because they kept running into the Yankees dynasty and getting knocked out of the playoffs; with no similar team in the National League, they're well on their way to the World Series if they keep playing like this.

• Nationals 11-Dodgers 2; what's wrong with the Dodgers?

Dodgers GM Ned Colletti deserves blame for some of his expensive decisions that haven't

worked----specifically Andruw Jones and Jason Schmidt (remember him?); but the other veteran acquisitions he's made over the past month for Casey Blake, Manny Ramirez and Greg Maddux cannot be questioned. In Joe Torre, they have a manager with a Hall of Fame resume and proven track record of getting his teams into the playoffs no matter what; they have a large corps of young players whose legs should still be as fresh as they were in May; and they have other proven veterans like Jeff Kent and Derek Lowe who come through in the clutch; so what's wrong with this team?
I don't have an answer. The team looks lost; like they can't get out of their own way and are looking toward someone to pick them up on his shoulders and carry them over the last month. Even with all their injuries, the Dodgers should be better than 65-69 and if they intend to make the playoffs, they certainly can't be getting swept by the Washington Generals...er...Nationals.
They've been lucky because the Diamondbacks made big trades and acquisitions of their

own and can't seem to get out of their own way either, so the division is there for the taking. Ordinarily, one would look at the management of both clubs and say that the Dodgers have an advantage with the calm, steady and proven successful leadership of Torre; but now that they've lost seven in a row (including those three to the Nationals), I'm not so sure and what makes it worse is that there's not one specific thing to point to as to why they've played like this other than that they're just playing badly and as if they're in a stupor. Torre's getting the big bucks and his reputation is on the line; he'd better figure it out and quick.

• A different perspective on Barack Obama's acceptance speech:

I doubt that anyone who's been paying attention to Senator Barack Obama over the past year and a half could be surprised that he hit such a tape measure home run with his speech

accepting the Democratic nomination, but to get a different perspective and to see if he was given his due, I turned to Fox News to see what they'd say about the speech and if they were going to give Obama the deserved credit, and they did----for about a minute----until Brit Hume clumsily interjected Obama's full name into his analysis.
Referring to Obama as "Barack Hussein Obama" wasn't an accident; it was done with the implication to those watching Fox News, some of whom may be teetering on voting for Obama, that they shouldn't vote for him because his name sounds somehow "un-American"; that he has the middle name of a great "enemy" of the United States; that the unsaid rhetorical question is: "Are you really considering voting for a guy whose middle name is Hussein to be president of the United States?"
Will this work on some people? Probably. But I would also think that those who see

through this poorly executed charade would be offended at the lack of dexterity with which it was done. Some people like a little sweet talk when someone else is trying to screw them even if they're willing to get screwed; with the way Fox News handled this, it's almost more offensive than the original intent that they think so little of their viewers----conservative and not----that they didn't even try to mask their implications more smoothly.
Like it or not, there has to be a grudging respect given to someone who is so immersed in their scams and lies that they begin to believe their own crud. For a snake-oil salesman like Kevin Trudeau, who's gone from convicted credit card thief and doctor impersonator; to a TV salesman of junk that doesn't work; to

portraying himself as a leading "consumer advocate" and health adviser is a window into Trudeau's sociopathic nature; but it's also somewhat admirable that he's such a predator that he realized he might get busted and prevented from one venture (selling coral calcium as a cure all; advocating Scientology to cure drug dependancy; hawking the Atkins diet; selling a videotape for a "business" of your very own) and utilized his right to free speech to start writing books about nutrition, medications and getting out of debt. You have to tip your hat to him because he knows the system; works the system; and has a large number of people believing and buying into what he's selling.
It's a similar situation with a "spiritual medium" like John Edward (not the disgraced former Vice Presidential nominee, the guy who "talks" to the dead). His argument would be (if he

ever admitted what it is he actually does) that he's using his skills at reading people's emotions and desire for closure with departed loved ones to make them feel better about their loss and get on with their lives. His scam is so well-constructed that people believe him despite the absurdity because he, like Trudeau, never leaves character. (Here's a flash: he ain't talkin' to the dead!!!) With Fox News, there's not even an attempt to make things look "fair and balanced"; the truth is right there for those that want to see it.
This is eerily similar to the ruse put on the world that the Russian prime minister is Vladimir Putin and the president in Dmitry Medvedev and that Medvedev is in charge. When the Georgia crisis started, no one even bothered to put forth the idea that anyone other than Putin was calling the shots; that there was a "president" in running Russia as the conflict escalated; that it's unsaid but understood that Putin's still in command and Medvedev takes his orders directly from his subordinate. They tried to undo the open and insulting revelation of the ruse after a few days by thrusting Medvedev into the spotlight, but the damage was already done.

It's one thing when the true nature of the backroom operators is known to everyone but unsaid with some plausible deniability still remaining, but the openness of the partisanship is so clumsy, so lacking in deftness and so offensive that it's not even worthy or grudging respect; it's like they're saying that you the target viewers of Fox News are so stupid that it's not worth it to even bother trying to plant the seed of doubt anywhere other than in the middle of your forehead with a sledgehammer. If such a maladroit and contemptible attempt is worth any attention at all, it's because it deserves ridicule and scorn. Barack Hussein Obama indeed.

Yankees Getting Kicked In The Head From All Sides

• Red Sox 11-Yankees 3; Marlins 4-Braves 1:

Amid the stunned feelings of resignation of their current predicament that are beginning to

permeate Yankeeland, there are other aspects of the story that are only going to serve to make things worse from the organization itself to the entire fan base. It's one thing to lose; it's another thing to have that loss receive an exclamation point from perhaps the most-despised current member of the Red Sox, Dustin Pedroia.
Since his arrival as a full time big leaguer last season, Pedroia has baited, aggravated, irritated and antagonized the Yankees because he's good; because he knows he's good; because he'll tell you he's good; and because he has a penchant for getting big hits. With the Yankees clinging desperately to any chance of climbing back into contention, it must have been tantamount to getting kicked in the stomach watching Pedroia trotting around the bases after his grand slam.
With their division deficit now at 10 1/2 games behind the Rays and the Wild Card deficit at seven behind the Red Sox and 4 1/2 behind the Twins, the Yankees hopes are fading unless

they get hot and get hot fast. Individuals in the Yankee organization must be feeling the sting of what's happening elsewhere as well. On the same night that Pedroia and the Red Sox hammered the Yankees staff of journeymen and mediocre pitchers; Johan Santana gutted his way through six innings for the Mets; and Josh Johnson was in Atlanta pitching for the Marlins and punctuating his comeback from Tommy John surgery (that the Marlins front office still blames Yankees manager Joe Girardi for playing a large part in making necessary) with a complete game effort against the Braves.
Since much of his perceived ability to manage was based on the job he did in his single season with the Marlins, it should diminish Girardi's resume even further as that same Marlins team may end up 2008 with a better record as they function with a payroll that is 10% of that of the Yankees. Girardi's strengths are there for all to see----he's hard-working, intelligent and relentlessly positive----but the negatives are there for all to see as well. He has

much to answer for regarding strategy, just as he did two years ago; and he hasn't proven to be any more successful with a $200 million payroll and championship expectations than he was with a $15 million payroll and no expectations. The credit that Girardi received for the Marlins rise in 2006 is dwindling with every competitive day the bargain basement team stays in contention for a playoff spot under Fredi Gonzalez and Johnson's dominance since his return is shining a light (fairly or not) on the fact that he got hurt while pitching for Girardi.
If the Yankees season continues to slide down this road (and they've shown no reason to believe that anything's going to change over the last month), there are going to be questions about the wisdom of everything that transpired from 2007's conclusion until the end of 2008. Even though the Dodgers have problems of their own, Joe Torre's success at getting the Yankees into the playoffs no matter what can't be dismissed if they don't make the playoffs in

the first year after he was allowed to leave. Was it the smartest thing to let Johan Santana slip through their fingers (especially to go to the Mets) to keep the likes of Ian Kennedy, Phil Hughes and whoever else the Twins asked for, especially since they took the Mets deal they didn't really want because they were out of options? It's easy to critique such decisions in hindsight, but since when do the Yankees let money stop them from making a move that would've added an ace in his prime like Santana? Since when does money take precedence over the good of the team?
GM Brian Cashman has made some mistakes, but he's still a good GM; even with that, there have to be questions about his motivation in making these moves. The rookie mistakes that Hank and Hal Steinbrenner have made stem from allowing Cashman to try and

lower the payroll at the expense of doing what's best for the organization in the short run. As I've said before, what is Cashman's motivation to slash costs? What difference does it make to him what the team payroll is unless he's trying to garner some credit for himself as to how wise he is with a dollar? To think that the Yankees, with their almost limitless resources, needed to save the money that Santana would have cost is absurd. After all the money wasted on the likes of Carl Pavano, what difference would another $20 or so million added to that $200 million have been if it meant a playoff spot?
Unless things take a drastic turn, there are going to be angry and rightfully indignant questions from the Yankees fan base as to why these decisions were made to play for three, four and five years down the line when the nucleus of the team is aging so rapidly. How many stellar seasons from Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter does Cashman think are left? What are they going to get out of Jorge Posada as he returns from injury? There's no doubt that Yankee

fans were spoiled by the four championships in five years and Torre's annual trip to the playoffs even if they got knocked out in the first round; now they're learning what life is like if they're transitioning to a younger and more frugal organization. The one thing that should make Yankee fans angriest is that there was no reason for the attempted payroll reduction and reliance on young players. They have a new ballpark on the way that is going to provide a windfall; they have an established brand that is going to make money no matter the condition of the team; why cut corners on the bench? On the bullpen? Or the starting rotation?
Even if, as expected and whether Cashman's there or not, the Yankees make big plays for the likes of C.C. Sabathia, Mark Teixeira, Ben Sheets and whoever else, it's still not going to explain why they decided to become frugal in 2008 and started spending again when the grand plan didn't work immediately; and to think the empty threats of Hank Steinbrenner are all of a sudden going to turn into decisive (and occasionally

ill-advised) action just like those of his father and are going to fix things lends credence to the question as to why they decided to go down this road in 2008 at all; it adds to the poignancy of wondering what the purpose of all of this "looking toward the future" was from the start.
Teams like the Ahtletics, Padres, Rockies, Marlins, Twins all have an argument for scrimping and saving here and there----the Yankees don't. This all began with Cashman's decision to go young and become the object of admiration of others, saving money that he wasn't under a mandate to save and finding bargains where he didn't need to find bargains. While the previously mentioned teams have found inexpensive and productive "finds" doing business their own way, the Yankees don't have to do that, which leads to the question as to why they tried to develop a startup when they can afford to purchase established goods; why they did the equivalent of buying swampland in the Everglades when they can afford to buy land on Park Avenue. Because the plan looks like it's going to fail and the Yankees are just going to go back to throwing money at their problems which, even without a championship since 2000, at least got them into the playoffs, makes it look all the worse. What was the point?