Say it ain't so Joe!  Newsflash...Joe Girardi is not thinking straight.....

Remember the Owner of this Team finds Nothing Wrong with Announcing to The Press That You are Gone If You lose a Series You Are Currently Playing After You've Won The Ingrate Four Rings.....

Is Joe Girardi an #### or a glutton for punishment?  That is the question of the day.  Let's look at the job he has just assumed in terms of his likelihood to succeed. 

Joe Torre made it to the playoffs in each of the last 12 years, managed to make it to 6 Fall Classics and actually won four of them and yet all we have heard from the nitwit owner for the last 7 years is that the guy is a bum.  What does Mr. Girardi see beyond a pay check for maybe two years?  The Yankees have saddled Joe Torre with controversy (Still liking the Giambi deal Mr. Steinbrenner?), washed up pitchers (maybe next year The Rocket can start in September and take 28 days rest between starts at another cool 20 mil) and a host of apparent bust outs for pitchers...can anyone pick Carl Pavano out of a facebook, how about Kevin Brown, Jared Wright, Tanyon Sturtze, El Duque?  They have an aging team with a rag arm in Center and no third baseman to go along with a catcher who may be leaving town for LA soon.....The Yankees are a rolling disaster  and are about  to lose the guy with the crazy spending habits in favor of his son who was not even heir apparent until the #### son-in-law decided to dump the daughter (can you imagine that level of stupidity?)....so what is it Joe?  Why would you take on this job? 

Maybe he figures he can be the disciplinarian he was in Florida.

The New York Yankees have several players who individually make what your entire Marlins team made in '04, they are coming off of an era where they had the ultimate players' manager and they are all professionally established.  You will not dictate anything to these players, not ever, not one time and if you start to yell and cause a fuss you'll be out of there faster than you were in Florida when it occurred to you that you should pop off to the owner.  This is still Derek Jeter's team, and deservedly so.  He was and is the best overall player they have and a class guy in every respect...but let's be very clear...you are not even in the top five people with opinions that count in that locker room. 

Maybe Joe sees a chance to lead the Yankees through a successful transition.

When they said "transition" in Florida that meant "let's dump payrooll and gut the team"...when they say "transition" in New York they mean "let's say we are in a transition year so when we get worse next year we can blame the manager because our payroll is so #### up we cannot even have a transition year".  If the past 12 years have taught us anything it's this:  your success will only be defined by the number of rings you get and even then four isn't enough to insulate you from the wrath of the mental midgets who run that team, and you have a team in "transition" which means ruins.  The problem is compounded by the Red Sox success, they have managed to beat you in everything since the start of the '04 season and they have a substantially lower payroll and a stable of outstanding young arms in Becket, Matsuzaka, Okajima, Papelbon, Lester, Buckholz and DelCarmen the oldest of these pitchers is Beckett who has dominated.  They also have a sprinkling of decent older guys in Timlin, Wakefield, Tavarez and possibly one more year out of that #### Schilling.  #### or not the guy was undefeated in this year's playoffs.  Plus they have managed to win two World Series, have a rabid fan base and an ownership group that is willing to spend but is much smarter than the Yankees braintrust in that they tend to admit their mistakes and then move the nonperforming players.  I cannot imagine that the Boston owners would have brought Giambi back after '03 or that they would have signed Pavano without a physical....I mean this is pretty basic stuff.....

What to do...what to do?????

Here's what he's got to hope for to have a decent year....they MUST sign Andy Petite because Wang, despite two 19 win seasons, just does not dominate the way that a Santana does...he is a lucky guy because of the run suppporrt he has gotten.  Hughes is a solid pitcher but let''s face it ,as good as he is when he's on he has a very limited track record..Mike Mussina is a gamer and was once a special kind of pitcher but those days are gone....between Chamberlain and Mo they should have the closer situation sewn up better than anyone except maybe Boston, but in order to get through the first round of the playoffs you need a front line guy and a middle reliever capable of striking guys out.  Kyle Farnsworth may be more effective if he isn't used to death but let's be clear, he is just so-so.  So what to do?  Listen carefully Mr. Cashman, TRADE Melky Cabrera and at least one of your supposed top pitching prospects to Minnie for Johan Santana.  If that doesn't work offer the same deal and the Chrysler Building to Florida for Dontrelle if that doesn't work Joe Girardi is all done before he starts. 

Assume a moderately worst case scenario, the Yanks lost A-Rod, standing alone not the end of the world but still a major loss of offense, that means they need a third baseman who can hit and that leaves two guys, Fatty Cabrera in Florida or Mike Lowell in Boston.  Cabrera is only 23 and while he hits well he has a serious weight problem so do the Yanks take a chance on him?  I'm guessing that they are a bit too gun-shy for that  move especially in light of the Pavano disaster.  Option two would be to pursue  Mike Lowell  who looks like he'll test the market in light of A-Rod's inexplicable departure? This assumes that Boston won't overpay to keep the guy although they are "system" or "process" oriented and haven't deviated to this point from the plan that they seem to have allowing Damon to walk away at the top of his game (hey Brian are you watching what they have done up in the old Hub????? Maybe a "process" instead of panicked moves is an option worth considering.)...Anyway, Lowell would solve the problem at third and he can bat fifth with solid offensive production and, Gold Glove defense and unlike A-Rod, he seems to play pretty well in October and has two rings (Fla in '03 and Boston in '07)  to back that up.  But what else do you need Joey Jo-Jo, you need a catcher unless Posada can be convinced to stay, a firstbaseman and at least two solid pitchers and if truth be told Damon may be the single worst outfielder in the game (his grand total of 6 assists since joing the team isn't because other teams don't run on him). The guy gets major money ($13 million per), he is about to turn 34 and had a whopping total of 63 RBI in '07.  His batting average this year dropped to .270 and it has come down dramatcially for three years frfom a career hig of .317.  He did hit a career high 24 dingers in '05 but he halved that to 12 this past season.  To Damon's right you have a Matsui who has been a very productive player but who will turn 34 in June as seems less of a player as each year passes, clearly Godzilla is still a player.  In right you have the tempermental and fickle Abreau who reminds me more and more of JD Drew, in other words a stiff with unbelievable skills.  As I think about the move to acquire Damon it really was a disaster, you have a guy with decent speed but really very little else....Boston on the other hand has a youngster in Jacoby Ellsbery who looks all-world with the stick and the leather...How did this happen?  Why isn't Brian Cashman's head on a spit somewhere?  Oh I know, he is just a figurehead and cannot be held accountable since he really has had no authority, at least until George started to show his age in the last year or so.....

  I say Joe Girardi needs the money because there is no way a man with money  would take the job....it is a horrible job in that you are following a Hall of Fame manager who was loved by all of his players and the fans.  You are assuming an aging team with a top heavy salary that can't seem to come close to winning a playoff series and you are walking straight into the unknown that is the Hank Steinbrenner era....good luck Dawg, you are going to need it.