Hello Joe: Part II, And More

Joe Torre will manage the LA Dodgers this coming season, setting up the all-important question: does this mean Alex Rodriguez will follow? It sure would make sense because he would give LA a big bat in a lineup that desperately needed one last year. After all, the Dodgers' leading homerun hitter (Jeff Kent) had 20 and their leading RBI man (Russ Martin) had 87. If they did get A-Rod, the new LA lineup look something like this...

CF Juan Pierre
SS Rafael Furcal
C Russ Martin
3B Alex Rodriguez
1b James Loney
2b Jeff Kent
RF Andre Ethier
LF Matt Kemp
P Derek Lowe

Funny how adding one of the best players in baseball history makes a team look pretty damn good.

It's hard to say how LA will do before we know where A-Rod will land. But there's no question Torre is an improvement over Grady Little. I would imagine the Dodgers' win total should follow suit.

Hello Joe

Joe Torre is out and Joe Girardi is in as the manager of the Yankees. The deal is reportedly worth $7.5 million a year- 50% more than what they offered the guy who took them to the playoffs 12 years in a row and won 4 World Series titles.

Somebody asked me today if I thought the Yankees would make the playoffs and at this point it's really hard to know because we don't know where free agents like Alex Rodriguez, Torii Hunter, Jorge Posada, Andy Pettitte, Barry Bonds, Mariano Rivera, Curt Schilling (or so it seems), and others will end up.

Pitching help, which the playoffs clearly showed us they desperately need, is just not there this offseason. So if they lose Pettitte and if Clemens retires for good, Wang will be about the only sure thing in their starting rotation. Phil Hughes certainly shows signs that he is ready to be a productive big leaguer, but it will still be his first full season, so counting on him for much more than 14 wins is a stretch. And let's not forget about how difficult it will be to replace A-Rod and (potentially) Jorge Posada.

So basically they're looking at question marks at catcher, first, third, starting pitchers 3, 4, and 5, plus they need to find a closer (is Joba Chamberlain ready now?), all with a brand new manager. And it's not like Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, LA, or Seattle will be getting significantly worse.

That's why my answer was no.

Does The House Of Cards Crumble Now?

Joe Torre turned down the New York Yankees' 1-year, $5 million dollar offer yesterday, meaning for the first time since 1995, somebody else will be their skipper on Opening Day. Torre still would have been the highest-paid manager in baseball, but it also would have been a $2.5 million dollar pay cut.

We don't yet know what impact, if any, this will have on the Yanks keeping guys like Alex Rodriguez, Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada, and Andy Pettitte. But it's not going to help, that's for sure.

As for Torre's future managerial aspirations, his wife, Ali, left the press with this.

"It's always difficult to say goodbye, but there's always hello."

Hmmm.

It's Hardware Time, Part 4: Manager Of The Year

American League

I don't think there 's be any question the AL Manager of the Year, regardless of how the Yankees fare in the playoffs, should be Joe Torre. A little over four months ago, New York was 21-29, 14.5 games back of Boston in the East, 9 games back of Detroit for the Wild Card, and people were calling for Torre's job. All they did was go 73-39 in their last 112 games, finishing just 2 back of Red Sox in the East, and finishing with a comfortable 6 game cushion for the Wild Card.

Torre didn't panic. He didn't convert Mariano Rivera into a starter, didn't bench Bobby Abreu, and didn't have any on-field, or locker-room explosions. A consummate class act, Torre has weathered the criticism, the expectations, and the pressure with grace seldom seen.

Eric Wedge also had a wonderful year at the helm for Cleveland, improving the team by 18 games from last season. But comparing the pressure of managing in Cleveland to the pressure of managing in New York is like saying it's just as hard to sink an 8-foot putt on the 18th hole at your local country club as it is to do it in the final round of the British Open.

Congrats Joe.

National League

This is tough, considering there are so many qualified managers for this honor. But with all due respect to Clint Hurdle in Colorado and Charlie Manuel in Philadelphia, I'm going to go with Lou Piniella for much the same reason as I went with Joe Torre. Piniella overcame a dreadful start and tremendous adversity, all in the face of enormous expectations.

From the moment he was introduced as the new manager of the Cubs, the team and its loyal-to-a-fault fans were hoping, praying, and dare I say, expecting to win. Let's not forget the $300 million the club spent in the offseason acquiring Alfonso Soriano, Ted Lilly, Jason Marquis, Mark DeRosa, Cliff Floyd, and re-signing Carlos Zambrano and Aramis Ramirez.

Early on, things were not all champagne and caviar on the south side of the windy city. Far from it. In fact, on June 2, the Cubbies were a dismal 22-31, ahead of only Cincinnati in the Central. Much like Torre and the Yankees, Sweet Lou finished the season strong, going 63-46 in the team's final 109 games, proving that during the time he spent in Tampa Bay he really was a victim of his circumstances. They put the whole Carlos Zambrano/Michael Barrett thing behind them. They dealt with not having Mark Prior and Kerry Wood for most of the season (again), they lost Soriano for a month down the stretch, Ramirez for parts of June and August, and only had Floyd for 100 games.

I know Phillies and Rockies fans will cry foul at this, especially considering what remarkable comeback stories both teams staged so late in the season. The Phillies went 23-11 from August 26 on, and as everyone on the planet knows, overcame a 7-game deficit with 17 games to go. All Colorado did was win 14 of their last 15 including a 1-game playoff where they beat baseball's all-time saves leader in the 13th inning.

But the fact is, Manuel and Hurdle weren't under the gun the way Piniella was going into the season, and they weren't under the gun the way he was all season long. All three managers delivered this season, but none of them more than Piniella.