Yankees need to clean house.

Not only did the Yankees barely escape a three game sweep in Toronto, which all but eliminates them from even the pathetic second wild card spot in this year's tournament, but they performed in a nearly empty ball park.  The New York Yankees are not even interesting enough to root against anymore.

Yankee home attendance is down and worse television ratings are down 40%.  That undermines the entire economic house of cards.  See:

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Collapse is coming.

A fish rots from the head so the cleaning needs to start with the Steinbrenner Kids, actually four people who are advanced adults: Hank, Hal, Jenifer, Jessica.  The late George Steinbrenner left his Yankees to those four people, none of whom has the interest nor the ability to run the team.  George's overbearing personality may have stifled them but we Yankee fans don't need to get into that.

I never thought that George was a bright guy, just one who was nuts enough to behave irrationally enough to distinguish him from his fellow team owners.  George's two daughters either did not have the right stuff or were passed over because of their gender.  That left George with his two sons, Hank and Hal, neither of whom gave the slightest indication that they would or could run the team while George still had his faculties.  It was only during the long twilight of George's diminishing mental capacity that they finally started to show themselves as available if not worthy.  George had already tried two sons-in-law (one ironically named Swindal), only to jettison each after he had been divorced by a daughter.

I had hoped that the team would be bought by Mark Cuban or equivalent, a sort of George with brains.  It's ironic that the commissioner of the Major Baseball League (MBL), Allan Huber "Bud" Selig, placed his Milwaukee Brewers in the control of his daughter Wendy and that they made lots of money before dumping the team.

Hank was the one most involved in the most recent contract for Alex Rodriguez, negotiated against no other teams.  Hank blustered for a while, then gave way to the younger Hal, probably the Kid with the most intelligence.  The Yanks won the 2009 tournament but Hal gave that new contract to CC Sabathia.

So, the Yankees need new owners.  Easier said than done since there is no one to fire the current owners.  The best that we can hope for is that the Kids will clean their rooms and act like grown ups.  Here are some specific people who need to go.

1. Randy Levine, president.  This guy reminds me of Steve Ballmer, outgoing chief of Microsoft, a big obnoxious person in a position of power for no apparent reason.  Levine may have had some political use 15 years ago when the Yankees were trying to decide on a new ball park but not since then.  And how did the park work out?  One billion dollars for the same location and without the retractable roof that Selig should have required of all those new parks built during his administration.  Ticket prices so high that there are usually lots of empty seats behind home plate, which makes the park look barren on TV.  Plus, Levine needlessly humiliated and forced out Hall of Fame manager Joe Torre.

2. Brian Cashman, general manager.  Cashman worked his way up from an intern, hired as a friend of the family.  Cashman put up with the worst of George's behavior towards his employees, one humiliation after another.  But Cashman learned and became a good GM.  Unfortunately, Cashman is now too full of himself and too much at odds with Levine to evolve into a new type of executive.  His thinking is stale and the Yankee farm system was unable to supply good players during this season of need.

3. Joe Girardi, field manager.  Joe won one tournament but now seems headed to his second season of not even making the tournament since taking over from Joe Torre in 2008.  Girardi recently cannot seem to select a relief pitcher who does not give up a home run to one of the first batters faced.  Girardi is about as good as any of the current MBL managers and that is the problem.  Baseball has not done what was done in basketball and especially in football: put smart people in charge on the field who never played the game at a high level but are capable of implementing the constantly evolving new concepts.  Baseball must stop using former players as field managers.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Dumb and Dumber: BOTH managers make the same mistake in the same inning.

4. Derek Jeter, shortstop.  Cashman's recent statement that Jeter is the Yankee shortstop for next season must have been his way of insulating himself from the inevitable: Jeter must go.  No reasonable baseball person would rely on him to play shortstop next season and Jeter does not hit with enough power to be a designated hitter (DH).  Hopefully, Jeter recognizes this and exits gracefully.

5. Ichiro Suzuki, outfield.  I won't beat a dead horse but this guy was overrated even at his peak, which is long gone.  No amount of marketing benefit should keep him on the Yankees.

Rather than go through the entire roster let's just say that none of these players is indispensable, including Robinson Cano.

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Cano isn't worth a huge contract.