Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Small Ball? No Thank You

Ok, so I think everyone is pretty aware my beloved Yankees have a new manager this year. Mr. Joe Torre has been replaced by former Yankee, and 1996 World Series Game 6 hero Joe Girardi. Girardi had one year as a manager in Florida, two years ago. He did a lot with a VERY young team. The only problem was, he completely clashed with the owner, and he was eventually fired. He eventually won the NL Manager of the Year award, but was subsequently out of a job. He spent last year as an analyst on the glorious YES Network. Then the whole playoff thing went down, and the Yankees replaced the legendary Torre with Girardi.

I was pretty excited about this. I really didn't want Torre to be fired. But, the more I thought about it, the more I realized it was time. A change was needed, and some fire needed to be planted in the Yankees. Sometimes it looked like they were on cruise control, just doing whatever the deuce they wanted to do, and not playing with the late-90s fire. That's where Girardi comes in. He's younger and supposedly, from reports from Yankees Spring Training suggest he is taking a much more hands on approach. Not only has he been doing the coaching, but he's been catching, fitting and even hitting. I don't think Mr. Torre has done that for quite a while. The question however, is how is Girardi going to manage.

Small ball sucks. Let me just get that in there. Stealing bases is risky and a lot of the times unnecessary, unless you have someone like A-Rod who can steal 25 bases while only getting caught once or twice. Bunting on the other hand, is dumb ALL the time, unless the pitcher is up with runners on first and second with no one out. Small ball never works. If it does, it only does in the NL. Definitely NOT in the AL, and certainly not in the AL East. Not with a lineup that scored 900+ runs last year basically in tact. I am really hoping that Girardi doesn't do the small ball thing, cause I think it would be detrimental to the Yankees chances. What the Yankees need are baserunners, walks, doubles and home runs, that's how you score runs, not bunting and stealing.

The problem however is that a lot of people don't understand that small ball is terrible. They are convinced the Yankees went on their late-90s dynasty BECAUSE of small ball. That is not the case. Even though they did not hit that many home runs, those Yankees had a high OBP and they did NOT do a lot of bunting. They just found a way to win that did not include giving up outs. This current team, is a bunch of mashers, high OBP and OPS guys and that needs to be exploited. The only people who would be bunting are Melky, Damon and Jeter, and only if they are trying for a base hit. Today I was reading an article about Girardi on ESPN.com and I saw that someone made a post regarding the article. And this is what they said:

"
1000 runs scored for the season shouldn't be difficult at all if the Yankees are going to be stealing bases, bunting players into scoring position, hitting and running more, and doing all the small things that they haven't done in a long time. I'm really liking what I'm hearing regarding Joe Girardi's camp."

If this person actually thinks the Yankees will score runs by bunting and stealing and hitting and running, he is COMPLETELY naive. Let's hope that the rest of the Yankee universe, including their new manager realize that is NOT the way to do it. Especially when the first 8 hitters in your lineup have the last names Damon, Jeter, Abreu, Rodriguez, Posada, Matsui, Cano and a rejuvenated (or so I hear, I'll believe it when I see it) Giambi. Who is going to bunt? Who I ask you, who?

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