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I think your post should be edited. Move the (Mmmm....doughnuts) from your last post into this one as (Mmmm....6.5 million dollars)

Also, I know that Mel gets a lot of bashing and in most cases deservedly so but he was still around while the Yanks were winning championships and so he deserves some praise as well. (Patrick has a good post up on yanksblog.com about the same.) Still, I am excited about the prospect of bringing someone else in (and I cert. don't have any of these pipe dreams that the yanks are going to somehow get Leo Mazzone!). Now's as good a time as any to make the transition into the next Yankee dynasty and a new pitching coach could start the process ;)

I'm just a little curious: Why doesn't George publicly undermine the people in his front office who brought us Tony Womack, Jarett Wright, and Carl Pavano all at inflated prices? They were sure helpful during the season and especially during that series against the Halos. Unlike, say, Shawn Chacon or Aaron Small, both who played markedly better than their pre-Mel, pre-Torre playing days. I guess since the Boss is a billionaire he can choose who's to blame.

As much as he's known to be a jerk and a back-stabber, Kerrigan might be a good choice since he did good work with Pedro in Montreal and Boston. Then again, letting Steinbrenner have another little spy in the clubhouse may not be such a good idea.

There were always "clubhouse spies," I think they make little to no difference in the day to day operations of the club

Kerrigan deserves it after fixing Unit this year in 30 minutes.

I think everyone's looking a little too hard for something between the lines of a typical Steinbrenner congratulatory press release. As Kevin Kennedy said last night, George congratulated him individually as well after the Red Sox won the division in 1995. There was no ulterior motive then and, frankly, there's none today. As for Mel, he made a point of not "explicitly" knocking George and focused his attention on Tampa and Connors specifically. You don't knock a guy who's given you approximately $4 million over 10 years as the highest paid pitching coach in the major leagues, not to mention the post-season shares (another $2 million easy). Name 2 other pitching coaches who've been with their current team for more than 10 years. Are those teams also owned by Steinbrenner? Get real. Mel's had a nice and very profitable run. It's like the Rodney Dangerfield bit..."just give me one of these (thumbs up). I get no respect!"

I don't know, JohnnyC, in the context of this season it seems that there was something rather pointed about George's statement. Throughout the year when the team struggled, George repeatedly put the onus on Torre, saying that the team assembled was good enough to win and it was Torre who had to right the ship. The team definitely could have won, as it was one of the 4 or 5 best in the league. But it was probably the most flawed (i.e. poorly constructed) Yankees roster of the last 10 years. The defense was dreadful and the pitching was inconsistent. It says a lot that without Aaron Small or Shawn Chacon the Yanks probably would have had the same record as the Mets.

I don't feel bad for Torre. He's a big boy and he signed up for the job knowing full well that the boss is rough on his manager and expects excellence. At the same time, the Boss seems to selectively choose his targets, and has established an organizational hierarchy which protects him from any blame. Every Yankee fan agrees that this was the worst off-season in the team's recent history. This is not 2nd guessing. The team spent poorly. In fact, it could be argued that none of the off-season acquisitions were good. So, someone in the front office (NY and Tampa) deserves blame. Will George say "It's up to the front office (naming specfic people) to do a better job than last year,"? Of course not. In all likelihood, that's because he was very involved in that crappy off-season. But that's human nature I guess. People don't often own up to their mistakes. The fact that he doles out $200 million doesn't excuse this.

"Name 2 other pitching coaches who've been with their current team for more than 10 years."

Name two other teams that have won 8 division titles and 4 world series championships in a ten year span. It's hard to fire a coaching staff of a team with that kind of record. No?

Interesting all the grief Mel took from many 'fans' over the years, being blamed for much if not all pitching problems.

Of course Mel got no credit for Wang, Small or Chacon this year. Yet Kerrigan supposedly 'fixed' RJ in 30 minutes. Too bad the 'fix' didn't work in game three of the ALDS. Must've been Mel's fault.

As for the team defense, how will it be better in 2006? Sheffield is a statue in RF, Matsui was very average in LF and CF is a smoking crater right now. Giambi at 1st..... 'nuff said....., Cano is okay at 2nd, Jeter's range is diminishing.

Nick, has Mel been fired? Is he about to be fired? Do you have insider info? Has Mel been fired in any of the 10 years he's held this job? For the last 3 seasons at least, it has been left up to him as to whether he wanted to return or not. Surely, if George wanted to fire him, he could have managed to do it some time in the last 36 months? Especially since Mel doesn't have a multi-year deal like Torre. BTW, any of you super sleuths who want to know why Zimmer quit might want to ask if it was merely a matter of money and length of contract...and a good question it would be :)

Don, you're killing me with your final remark on Jeter losing range at SS. While I'm not sure if you're right or wrong, are you basing this on statistics, your own eyes, or conventional wisdom? Because statistically, Derek had a better year than he had last year when he won a Gold Glove and even Rob Neyer was speechless when the sabermetric evidence backed Jeter up. Well, imagine Neyer's shock this season: DJ had the second highest Range Factor (only Lugo was higher) and his Zone Rating beat out Tejada, Berroa, Renteria, Young, and Adams among shortstops with over 1000 innings played. His counting stat of 15 errors (fewezst in the AL) in 731 chances (3rd) gave him the best fielding percentage among all qualifying shortstops. I'm not saying DJ has ever made people forget Ozzie Smith but can we evaluate his actual performance for once instead of this knee-jerk stuff? If you think that these sabermetric categories are unreliable, fine, let's develop other ones. As for right now, it seems Derek is actually an elite shortstop. Wrap your brain around that one.

My eyes tell me different when watching Jeter. As most agree, sabermetrics is mostly useless when looking at defensive numbers.

Don, most would wholeheartedly disagree with that.

This is another of those arguments that never dies. Defensive stats are somewhat useful, but they are very badly mislabelled, "Range Factor", in particular, which implies that it has something to do with how far a fielder can effectively move from his starting position. This is particularly untrue in Jeter's case. He has never moved well to his left. He's probably average to his right, above average moving forward, and one of, if not the best I've seen moving back. Unfortunately, there are no vectors in sabermetrics.

One of the other major problems with defensive statistics is that they only take one player into account at a time. Jeter now has a gold glove shortstop playing third and Cano covers decent ground at second. A-Rod's range (real word, not statistic) lets Jeter cheat to his weak side, while Cano can back him up if needed. So, I'd say yes, Jeter's range has diminished, but at least part of that is because he doesn't need to cover as much ground.

Are there specific plays you're thinking of Don where Jeter didn't get to one you expected him to or just a general feel?

General feeling from watching him.

This is a late response to JohnnyC but since I was away from a computer since yesterday afternoon...Anyway, I misunderstood your point about Mel's long tenure. I thought you were emphasizing George's satisfaction and loyalty to Mel, rather than Mel's continued willingness to put up with George. So, no, I wasn't suggesting that Mel had been forced out, I was suggesting that George would have a difficult time firing Mel, even if he wanted to.

It's a fair point you make, but it still seems to me that George, unlike most other bosses who manage organizations which are covered by the press, has a habit of publicly embarassing or undermining certain people who work for him. Moreover, he doesn't publicly hold certain people accountable in the front office (specifically the people who brought the Yanks Wright and Womack and Pavano). Why is that? Could it be because he was the one who green-lighted all these delightful signings?

Regarding Mel's departure, it's clear that he reached a point where the stress of the job (i.e. George's public questioning of his competence and the Tampa-New York divide) was too much and he needed to leave. The Yankees weren't hell for him, but his last years weren't comfortable and the main reason is that he was undermined by George and people close to George. At least that's what Mel perceived. Heck, even in George's gracious and dignified remarks about Mel's parting he admits that he's a difficult guy: "While it is no secret that I can be a very difficult boss, Mel has always conducted himself as a professional and a gentleman." George has his positives, of course, in his willingness to do what it takes to win, but he's also mercurial and sometimes downright mean to his employees. I think it's possible to criticize him for that and still appreciate that George versus Torre is not as black and white as the media wants it to seem.

It was sold as Kerrigan's "fixing" Randy Johnson in
a 30 min. chat in the clubhouse. But, Johnson failed
mightily in big spots after that well-sold chat.
Anyone who is informed knows that was another joke.

Big spots? More than Game 3? Otherwise, with the exception of that game 3 in the ALDS, IIRC, Unit was right on after that convo with Dr. K. I believe the stats back this up.

Unit monthly totals

Month: IP, K/BB, ERA

Apr: 43.1, 43/9, 3.74
May: 26.2, 15/7, 4.39
Jun: 39.2, 41/6, 3.63
Jul: 45.2, 50/9, 4.73
Aug: 34.0, 31/5, 3.71
Sept:29.0, 23/8, 2.17
Oct: 7.1, 4/1, 6.14

========================================

NYY Team ERA (League Rank)

2005: 4.52 (9)
2004: 4.69 (6)
2003: 4.02 (3)
2002: 3.87 (4)
2001: 4.02 (3)
2000: 4.76 (6)
1999: 4.13 (2)
1998: 3.82 (1)
1997: 3.84 (1)
1996: 4.65 (5)