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Joe Girardi is now a World Series Champion manager.

Joe Girardi, goat, bad managing skills, poor substitutions, over managing. That’s what some people have said about him a lot this past year.

Now what do you have to say about him?

He had the guts to use and trust Damaso Marte who’s been terrible when he pitched during the regular season and was injured this year. He used only three starting pitchers in the World Series. He dared to start Jose Molina over Jorge Posada. He benched Nick Swisher after playing poorly and then started him again. He trusted Joba Chamberlain to pitch the eighth inning last night even if it was a blown save.

The outcome? A 27th world championship for the New York Yankees.

Joe Girardi has taken criticism in the playoffs but he handled game three masterfully.

He sat Nick Swisher down in game two but started him last night. Joe didn’t lose confidence in Swisher and Swisher responded in a big way. He had two hits, a home run and six total bases.

Then he showed trust in Joba Chamberlain, Damaso Marte and Phil Hughes. After I saw Andy Pettitte coming out of the game, I was like, “Oh no, who’s Joe going to bring in now? He only trusts Mariano Rivera. It’s too early to bring him in now.”

He then took out Phil Hughes after he gave up one run and went right to Mariano for the final two outs.

Another great move he made was substituting Joba Chamberlain with Hideki Matsui in the top of the eighth and Matsui responded with a home run. That home run took the wind out of the Phillies’ sails.

Joe had Damaso Marte pitch the seventh inning and I didn’t think Marte would be good in the post season. Marte struck out Howard and Werth.

All the moves worked out for Joe Girardi last night. He’s looking more and more like a championship manager.

Why did Joe replace one righty reliever with another one with the one he replaced was having a great post season? Robertson was doing great. Aceves wasn’t. Girardi lost the DH when he replaced Damon with Hairston. Damon was hot. He already hit a home run tonight. Then he pinch-hits with Rivera for Cervelli. Cervelli is not a good hitter. He traded three sure outs with Rivera pitching, for one out with Cervelli hitting.

He also burned the New York Yankees’ bull pen using seven different pitchers. The offense saved Joe on Saturday night. They couldn’t save him tonight. Some Angel fans laughed at me when I said that Joe Girardi and Mike Scioscia where evenly matched up. I was wrong.

Every one seems to be focusing in on Derek Jeter for the most valuable player award but what about Joe Girardi? At the start of the year, a lot of people, including myself have not been happy with some of his decision making. Whether it was leaving a pitcher in too long or making an unneeded switch. Now? The Yankees stand 82-48 atop of the AL East and have the best record in baseball. The manager has to be doing something right, right?

A lot of sportswriters have been singing the praise of Ron Washington or Mike Scioscia. They’re both doing a very good job and the payroll these managers have to work with are no where near the Yankees. Still, if you think of it, the Yankees weren’t a team last year and they didn’t make the playoffs. This year, Joe has blended together all the talent and all the egos into a team that plays hard every night.

Some of Joe’s decisions have lead to successful years for two of his players, Derek Jeter and Johnny Damon. He switched them in the batting order and now Johnny Damon, a career lead off hitter, is having a career year in home runs. Derek Jeter is in consideration for MVP.

Another decision Joe has made was keeping Joba as a starter and keeping Phil Hughes in the bull pen. The decision to keep Joba in the rotation has come with mixed reviews but keeping Phil Hughes in the bull pen and not sending him down to triple A was a brilliant move. Phil is learning in the bull pen with the best pitchers and the move has done wonders to his confidence.

You can question Joe Girardi and his decisions all you want but the bottom line is that the Yankees have the best record in baseball and Joe Girardi is the manager. The Yankees are not in danger of losing first place the way Joe has them playing and they will most likely have home field through out the playoffs.

Joe Girardi for AL manager of the year?

I was going around different Yankee newspaper sites that are written by professional sports writers and I came across an article by the NY Post that said this as the title… MY BEST SKIPPER EVER, BY FAR, GUSHES TEX by GEORGE A. KING III.

I’m really not sure how great Joe Girardi is or if he’ll ever be great because in my view, we have to see him in the post season first. The players in the article say he is consistent this year and that is why they like him especially Mark Teixeira.

Mark said The good thing about Joe is that he is consistent. He expects a lot out of us but you look at him and you can’t tell if we won or lost,” Teixeira said. “Your leader needs to show confidence. The manager can’t be upset after every loss. He can’t be angry all the time.

The Yankees are on a winning streak and I believe that is the reason why the love for Girardi. Mark is probably feeling the high of hitting well so he wants to compliment some one or anything. Maybe the person he should be complimenting should be A-Rod. Since A-Rod got back, Mark has been on a tear because he’s been seeing better pitches and gets great protection.

Other Yankees have complimented Girardi as well.

“I enjoyed playing for him last year, and this year it’s even more enjoyable,” Johnny Damon said. “He has been the same guy [this year]. We weren’t winning close games and then we went 0-5 against Boston, and now we are playing better. He is the same guy.”

and..

“The thing I like about Joe is that he doesn’t try to change things just to change them,” Rivera said.

When you win, every one is happy. That is the cure all for all sports teams. Winning.

Maybe what’s making Joe Girardi a great manager during this winning streak is Sabathia turning it around, A-Rod back in the line up and a payroll above 200 million.

There was a lot of injuries to the Yankees to start the year and that was the reason for the poor start.

There are times when Girardi over manages like bringing in a lefty out of the bull pen to face a left-handed batter and then bringing in a righty and then a lefty again and playing the percentages. He’s always mixing and matching.

There was a game in particular this year where Joe brought in Mariano to pitch in a tie game and Mariano never pitches well in tie games. The Yankees lost. That was a game I blamed Joe for. He should of known that Mariano doesn’t pitch well in tie games.

He does use his bull pen a lot but I like the idea of Joe being more of an aggressive manager. He’s letting his players express themselves. He has no problem with Joba’s fist pump and he likes the idea of you hit our player with a pitch, we hit your player with a pitch. I was always frustrated that we never retaliated before.

It’s not easy being a Yankee manager in the biggest sports market in the world and with the Steinbrenner brothers breathing down your neck.

Joe is supposed to win with this team and the Yankees are doing just that. I say we wait to see what happens in October to see where we stand with Joe Girardi.

Good weekend

Just a little too late for the Yankees to take 2 from Tampa this weekend. What I liked about the weekend was Jeter getting 9 hits in 3 games. That was great. I liked the fact that the Yankees took 2 of 3 from one of the best teams in the league. I thought it was smart of Joe Girardi to bench Cano for lack of effort. I thought he should of done it sooner but he did do it. Others will say he should of done it sooner as well. You have to realize that Cano is a professional ball player who signed a big contract so you have to give him the benefit of the doubt. You have to realize that Cano is human and has feelings so I’m sure it was tough for Girardi to bench him sooner. Joe finally did and I give him kudos for that.

Mike Lupica

Mike Lupica of the New York Daily News believes the Boston Red Sox are in for a “pitched” battle. The Red Sox have lost too many late inning leads this season and have been a bad road team. The Red Sox lineup has looked as helpless as the Yankees’ lineup has this season and Lupica believes that Joe Girardi has done a better job with the Yankees’ bull pen this year than Joe Torre. Says Lupica.. Joe Girardi, at least so far, has done something Joe Torre hadn’t done for a long time, which means assemble a bullpen that is more than Mo Rivera.

• Starters to pen, Red Sox are in for pitched battle against Yankees - Mike Lupica – NY Daily News

Joe Girardi

Here’s the scene.. Betemit on first. No one out and Melky Cabrera up at bat with the Yankees down a run. Cabrera has not been hitting well so you think a sacrifice bunt would do in this situation. Girardi chose to let Cabrera swing away and the result was Cabrera hit into a double play and then Damon grounded out. Game over. Now, why would Joe not let Melky sacrifice bunt? Joe says that the Yankees haven’t been hitting well with runners in scoring position. Joe’s thinking is, let’s scrap the idea of putting on a sacrifice bunt on and save the out. The thing is Joe, your team isn’t hitting with runners not in scoring position so you have to try something. That’s how you play baseball. I was disappointed with Joe Girardi because I thought he had more baseball intelligence that what he displayed. This could also be a message to his team that he’s fed up with the way they are hitting so he decided to embarass them and maybe Joe Girardi also quit on them last night. Maybe he was tired? Maybe he’s thinking, “I want to go home, I’m sick of this team not hitting, let Melky swing away and whatever happens, happens.” That’s kind of the feeling I got.

• Duncan injured making catch for SWB - Peter Abraham – LoHud
• Alphonso’s Mid-Year Views - John Sterling

Hal Steinbrenner is the quiet brother between him and Hank. You won’t find him in the papers much and he doesn’t give many interviews. He leaves that to his boisterous brother Hank Steinbrenner and he doesn’t give his cell phone number to any one in the press. Hal believes that his brother Hank is perfect for New York because he can give the press a lot of headlines to print. When Hal walks down the street, he doesn’t want people to know who he is. Two reasons why it took Hal so long to be involved with the Yankees on a day to day basis was that he wanted to be a father to his kids and it’s rough working for his father, George. Hal says that all major decisions made for the Yankees are done equally between him and his brother Hank and if they don’t agree on something?

“I think we’ve just decided we won’t do it,” Hal said. “If it’s raising more debt, if it’s making a capital expenditure, if it’s raising ticket prices, if it’s having a $100-million contract on the baseball side, I think the family agrees that we both need to be on board. And it worked really well in the offseason.”

• Hal Steinbrenner: Quiet, but a man with a plan – KAT O’BRIEN – Newsday
• UNLIKE TORRE, GIRARDI FEELING THE BEAT IN CLUBHOUSE – GEORGE A. KING III – NY Post
• Getting to know the Steinbrenners – Bryan Hoch – Bombers Beat
• Yankees’ ‘Baby Boss’ Grows Into Role – JOE HENDERSON – Tampa Bay Online
  

Joe Girardi, a former catcher himself, is still upset at Tampa Bay minor leaguer Elliot Johnson for crashing into New York Yankee catching prospect Francisco Cervelli and breaking Cervelli’s wrist. Cervelli will be sidelined 8 to 10 weeks. Girardi believes the play was uncalled for in an exhibition game and before the Twins game Sunday Joe Girardi had this to say, ““It’s just disheartening,” “It’s spring training, I just don’t understand. I told all my players to play hard, but when you do something like that, you take your chances that you will get someone hurt.”

Don Zimmer, former Yankee bench coach and Joe Torre side kick, put his two cents in and believes that Elliot Johnson was playing the game the “right” way. Whatever. Maybe we should sick Pedro after him.

• Girardi and Zimmer Still Talking About Collision at Plate – New York Times
• Dust settled? Not a chance – MARC TOPKIN – St. Petersburg Times
• Yankees still upset about collision – Peter Abraham – Journal News
• Yankees’ Girardi still taking collision hard – ANTHONY RIEBER – Newsday
• JOE’S FIRE ENCOURAGING – Kevin Kernan – NY Post
• BAD BLOOD ZIMMER-ING – GEORGE A. KING III – NY Post
• Harper: Zimmer rips Girardi – John Harper – NY Daily News
• Duncan: Rough spring play may catch on – MARK FEINSAND – NY Daily News
• Conditional Surrender – DOM AMORE – Courant Staff Writer
• Has Girardi gone soft? – Pete Caldera – Bergen Record
• Girardi’s work ethic rubbing off on Yankees – Phil Pepe – YesNetwork