YOUR AVERAGE JOE

David Pinto, over at Baseball Musings has some interesting comments about Yankee manager Joe Torre:

I remember a few years ago asking a fan who they thought was the best manager in the game. They said Joe Torre. (At the time, Davey Johnson was still in the game.) I asked why, and this fan said because he had won big with the Yankees. I then asked if he thought this before Torre was with the Yankees, and the answer was no. And I think that's the right answer.

Joe Torre has managerial skills that work great when he has talented, intelligent, self motivated players. In that case, all he has to manage is their personalities. But when he has players who actually need to be coached, who need strategy laid out for them, who need a field general, he's not very good. So Steinbrenner is calling him on it. Good for Steinbrenner for not being fooled by the reasons for success. As usual, George isn't going about it very nicely and he's going to alienate all the Torre fans, but in the end, Torre has to keep the Yankees winning to keep his job. He's lasted longer than anyone else, but it very well might be time for a change.

Torre sure looked like a better manager when he had guys Paul O'Neill, Rock Raines, Chili Davis and Mike Stanton running his clubhouse, that's for sure. Who is running the Kangaroo court for the Yanks these days anyhow? Captain Jeter? Robin Ventura? Giambi? How much money in fines have Lil' Sori and Mondesi forked over lately?