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Sunday, October 29, 2006

Mike Lupica--Brian Cashman's in charge, & his guys are Torre, Mattingly, Mussina

In Lupica's column today he tries to make a little joke about lack of Yankee personnel moves in the wake of recent losses:

"But at least the Yankees are addressing their problems in a bold manner:

Since the Tigers, a team that lost to the Cardinals in five games, beat them, the Yankees have fired their P.R. man and bench coach, Lee Mazzilli." Lupica forgets the letting go of 2 longtime scouts with no replacements named. This is a very important area, one that needed attention so a noteworthy personnel change.

  • It wasn't Mazzilli's fault, of course. But with the massive coordination that must go on with all facets of the Yankee business, and in what I've documented as acute neglect in important aspects of the YES Network/Yankee link, the PR/Media guy would be 1 of several changes that might help.
And on the Piniella situation, Lupica says:

"This is Cashman's show now. Why isn't Lou Piniella the Yankee manager right now? Because Cashman didn't want him, that's why. He didn't want Piniella now because he wants his guy, Mattingly, later. Torre didn't save his job by calling Steinbrenner. Derek Jeter didn't do it. Cashman did.

Cashman never saw Willie Randolph as Torre's successor, and that was after Randolph was Torre's bench coach. But the G.M. is clearly sweet on Mattingly. He gets the (hot) seat next to Torre, after three seasons as a batting coach.

But Brian Cashman wanted the manager to stay on another year. Jeter - duh - wanted the only manager he's ever had to stay on another year. We see again how much power Cashman has in the new world order of the Yankees. Randy Levine, team president and stadium-getter, doesn't like it, but can't do anything about it, at least for the time being."

  • Lupica also notes if Cashman has his way, Mike Mussina will be back. There's only 1 good scenario for Mussina, and it would have to be cheap: AS A MIDDLE RELIEVER. ONE OF HIS 3 MOST VALUABLE OUTINGS FOR THE TEAM WAS HIS RELIEF APPEARANCE IN GAME 7 OF THE 2003 ALCS (which ended up going 11 innings, Mariano Rivera going 3 consecutive scoreless innings in a tie game for the Win). The Yankees were behind and doing nothing at all against Pedro (with the exception of Giambi), and Mussina came in with runners on 1st and 3rd & was able to keep anyone from scoring. He actually smiled and looked happy about his outing after the game. He never gives you a lot of innings as a starter anyway, and heck the system can work that way, the Mets showed it can work.
Items from Mike Lupica's NY Daily News column, 10/29/06

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