No matter whom the Yankees put on the field, current procedures will prevent post season success

(Commenter to Yankees mlb forum after Tuesday night's game): If an upcoming must-win game like Tuesday night's v Blue Jays

• "is 1-0 Yankees with 1 out in the 7th and the same 3 lefties are due up that Rasner was set to face, does anyone think that Girardi will realize the error of his ways from last night's debacle and manage any differently? ... because I sure don't.

• Why was Marte warming up in the bullpen in that spot if Girardi was not going to use him?

Why have him on the team if you are not going to use him in a situation that begged for a lefty specialist to come in and bury those hitters.

• Rasner gave us everything we could have asked for and more, but once Vernon Wells flew out to start the 7th inning, that was the point in the game where the bullpen was needed to secure the win.

• That was a "must win" and Girardi treated it like it was the
• middle of May and was rewarding Rasner for pitching so well ... and lo and behold, it cost us the game.

Not to mention not taking Damon out of the game after he batted in the top of the 8th ...

• how was Brett Gardner not in the game for defense when it is 1-1, bottom of the 8th, after
• Damon had already dropped a fly ball in the 1st inning?

Joe Girardi may yet prove to be a great manager and he may one day lead the Yankees to a championship, but with nearly a year's worth of observation to go by, I am extremely concerned about the Yankees chances for the future with him making the in-game decisions as manager.

• Between giving players who are hitting well a day off when the team is struggling to score runs,

• to never settling on any kind of consistent lineup, pinch hitting for Jose Molina with Melky Cabrera (and in the same at bat, putting Pudge Rodriguez in to pinch run),

• leaving pitchers in way too long when the other team is rallying (i.e. Edwar Ramirez and the grand slam to Teixeira), I really have lingering concerns that whatever talent is brought in during the off-season (whether Sabathia, Teixeira, etc.)

will be compromised by Girardi's questionable in-game managing skills."

• by poster DSESEE on mlb Yankee forum, 8/20/08

I thought the poster's analysis stated the issues very well. With a team unable to hit or catch the ball the game could still have been won. I don't know if Girardi's decisions are in fact his or someone else's and that may never be known. It is known that managers on various teams are forced to do things they don't want to do, so it's possible.

• P.S. If this had been August 2007, score 1-0, Chamberlain would have entered in the 7th inning, and the Yankees probably would have won.
• Now the best late inning man in the business isn't on the roster at all.

The timing of that move was an emotional one by owners that alone cost the team the post season as the pitcher was rushed into a job for which he was not prepared. I understand a starter was needed, but they didn't and probably will never replace Chamberlain's late inning performance. And on a team with no hitting and dropped balls, you need that.

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