Girardi's Not a Bad Guy

Ok fellow Yankee fans, stop complaining about how bad little Hank Steinbrenner has screwed up the Yankees by getting rid of Joe Torre. Yes, the way he treated Torre was terribly disrespectful, but you have to give him credit for hiring Joe Girardi. Everyone says that if the Yanks were going to let go of Torre that they should have hired "Donnie Baseball" Don Mattingly. I'm not going to say that that would have been a bad decision, but he has never managed a team and he has always been under Torre's watchful eye. Girardi is a man who did his time under Torre, learned what he needed to, picked up the tricks of the trade, and put them to use as a full time manager. When he went to Florida, everyone criticized him for...anyone remember? That's right, he brought too many Yankee characteristics. He is a full fledged Yankee to death and understands not only the Torre system, but the entire Yankee organization. Besides that, he also saved the Marlins when it looked like they were set to challenge the season losing record. No one expected his team to do anything, but he did a heck of a managing job and finished the season with the Marlins only about 9 games under .500. He made somethin out of nothin.

It's a good thing Girardi knows how to make something out of nothing seeing as how it looks as if the Yanks won't have A-Rod next year. With Girardi at the helm I say "So what?". Girardi knows how to motivate players and manipulate them to get out of them what he wants. He is especially good with young players, which is the direction GM Brian Cashman seems to be going. The Yankees are building their team from the bottom up, growing their draft picks in the minor league teams and then plugging them into pinstripes. Now the GM and head coach will truly be on the same page. They will work well together and the Yanks won't be all about their stars for once. With A-Rod out, the attention turns to The Captain Derek Jeter. Jeter has no problems handling the NY media and has never been a distraction to the team because of something he said to the media. He will keep the team up and running and provide wisdom to the young players on how to get it done in October. A-Rod certainly won't be able to tell the players wherever he goes how to get it done in October (oooohhhh...).

I'm excited with the direction the Yanks are heading in the offseason already. Obviously, we need to get some FA to fill a few gaps, but I have lots of faith in our young players to step in and fill shoes nicely. Plus we have a great manager.