The Manager Without The Mystique

One guy who doesn't get nearly the credit he deserves? Terry Francona. He's arguably a better manager than Torre, certainly when it comes to managing a bullpen. And Dan Shaughnessy has an excellent piece on Francona in today's Globe. Read it; it really makes you appreciate the guy and the job he's done.

Meanwhile, Wally Matthews says the next month will determine whether Joe Torre will be brought back next year.

Sherman's Despiser Echo, and The Torre Mystique's Downfall

Joel Sherman has an unusually good column today, ripping Cashman for putting a bunch of scrubs on the bench.

Key paragraphs from that piece:

Now these Yanks are seriously looking at their first empty October since 1993, in part, because veterans such as Bobby Abreu, Johnny Damon and Jason Giambi appear diminished while the young Cano seems to have regressed. Will that change? Even Joe Torre said he was worried if Damon and Giambi could shake off myriad injuries to construct familiar excellence.

But there are not a lot of other choices. The Yanks do not have depth like the Mets. Fourth outfielder Endy Chavez was a Subway star for the second straight game. Damion Easley, the Mets' backup second baseman, has one fewer homer (6) than the starting Yankees outfield of Abreu, Damon and Hideki Matsui. Jorge Sosa, recently summoned from Triple-A, has more wins (3) than any Yankees pitcher.

Where does Torre turn? Yesterday, Miguel Cairo took some time to lay down white tape as a barrier that the media could not cross in Shea Stadium's visitors clubhouse. That is the most useful thing he has done for his team this year. He is a righty, but Torre has used three lefty pinch-hitters against Mets southpaws in this series rather than use Cairo. And even with Cano struggling, Cairo is no answer.

The Daily News "Subway Squawker" blog is good stuff; Lisa Swan has a series of solid posts on Joe Torre; here's a great one. If you need proof of how the Torre mystique has fallen, here's some.

Back At .500, And More On Clemens

Another night, another win against Texas. Yankees go for the sweep tomorrow, and their starting pitching is looking great.

I'm not too frustrated with the Yankees success. Again, they'll kill teams with lousy pitching. And Texas is bad.

The good news is, there are two hot teams in the Central. The Indians have put it together following that awful series against the Yankees, and the bats of Peralta, Pronk, and Barfield have been heating up. The Tigers have been red-hot, although I wonder how the Zumaya injury will affect them. Rodney is pretty solid, too, so I wouldn't worry about them.

Why do I bring this up? Because if Boston stays hot and the wild card comes out of the Central - we've got ourselves a Yankee-free October!

- I'm tired of people talking about how the preferential treatment of Clemens goes against the Yankee way. Shut up with the aura and mystique (and I love Schilling's line back in '01 World Series). The Yankee way was gone when they replaced a warrior like O'Neill with one of the biggest jerks to ever play the game, Raul Mondesi. The Yankee way was gone when Steinbrenner wanted to ruin the game and put Montreal and Minnesota out of business. The Yankee way was gone when Kevin Brown punched the wall. So give it up already.

- And by the way, you will not see me complain about the Clemens signing ruining the parity of the game. Not when the mid-market Brewers have the best record in the game. Not after the Red Sox shelled out $100 million for Matsuzaka. Not when only 5 teams came into spring training with no shot at the playoffs. Baseball's system still needs some work, but we've come a long way since the late 90's.

I will say this: one Yankee fan told me he'd love for the Yankees to sign Johan Santana when he becomes a free agent. If that happens, I think I'll be watching the NHL playoffs this time of year.