Yankees baseball blog

Girardi: It's just Joba being Joba

If Joba Chamberlain's yelling and screaming on the mound gets to the point where another team might take it out on another Yankee, Joe Girardi will talk about it with his stud reliever, but the manager firmly believes it's simply a case of a pitcher showing emotion after tasting success.

"If we feel that [it puts his teammates in harm's way], we will discuss that," Girardi said. "I don't think there is a problem . . . because he has done it since he came up and I don't think he is showing anyone up. I am in the clubhouse and I know this kid's heart." Thursday, Chamberlain shrugged off Dellucci's criticism of his behavior on the mound. "That's who I am," Chamberlain said. "Everybody knows that." Continue

Why pitch to Manny?

It was the "most impactful" decision he has made so far as Yankees manager in terms of in-game strategy, Joe Girardi conceded last night. Call it the most confusing as well.Up one run in the sixth inning, with Red Sox on second and third base and two outs, what would compel Girardi to go after Manny Ramirez? Before anyone could even voice such a thought, the decision backfired, with Ramirez's two-run double on Mike Mussina's first pitch putting the Red Sox ahead.

The Yankees eventually lost a 4-3 decision after a 2-hour, 11-minute rain delay that gave Alex Rodriguez far too much time to contemplate his mano-a-mano with dominant Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon. The question that Yankees fans probably will ponder the most, however, is, "Why did we let Manny beat us?"  Continue

Joe’s reunion

Dumped by the ugly duckling less than two years ago, Joe Girardi returns to Dolphin Stadium tonight with the prom queen on his arm. Despite keeping the young Marlins in the wild-card chase into the final month in 2006 and eventually being named NL Manager of the Year, Girardi was fired by Jeffrey Loria, the team owner who couldn't wait to hire Girardi a year earlier. Continue

Unlike Torre, Girardi feeling the beat in clubhouse

Now here is a real difference between Joe Torre Pay-cut and Joe Girardi. The perception is that Girardi's camp is different than Torre's. However, bench coach Rob Thomson ran Torre's camp and does the same thing for Girardi, so there is very little difference.

However, under Torre, clubhouse music was limited to personal earphones. Now, if players don't compete for the system and refrain from arguing about what's being played, Girardi will allow music before and after games. Continue

These are now Joe Girardi's Yankees

For better or worse - and only the season will give us the answer to that one - the Yankees are Joe Girardi's now. It doesn't mean you have to like what Shelley Duncan did against the Tampa Bay Rays, coming in with spikes higher than any Yankee of recent memory. Or that you have to somehow sanctify what Duncan did as some spikes-up version of the way the game ought to be played. It isn't, even when a Yankee does it.

It doesn't mean that the Yankees have turned into a bunch of bushers because one hot-wired kid did what he thought his manager wanted him to do, because that's clearly what happened when Duncan went into second base the way he did. Continue

Girardi may be suspended for opener

For the first time in 13 years, the Yankees might be managed by someone not named Joe on Opening Day. According to a baseball source, there is a possibility that both Joe Girardi and Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon could face suspensions for their teams' part in Wednesday's bench-clearing melee between the Yankees and Rays.

"This is part of the game," said Girardi, whose Bombers take on Toronto on March 31 in the final season opener at the current Yankee Stadium. "You don't want to see these type of things happen where people get thrown out, things get ugly and benches clear. We'll see." Continue

Joe Girardi attempts to take high road as Yankees gets down and dirty

The Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays have two more face-to-face (or is it in-your-face?) opportunities in March to figure out just how spring training games are supposed to be played, and judging from Wednesday's mystifying mayhem, that probably won't be nearly enough.

Which means this could be the making of a beautiful rivalry, with the potential of injecting spice and spikes into what were once 18 ho-hum affairs on the schedule. Obviously, the Rays have heard it long enough that nice guys finish last, and, like Howard Beale, they're just not gonna take it anymore. Continue

Girardi angry after prospect is hurt in collision

Joe Girardi was seething yesterday after a Tampa Bay Rays minor-leaguer crashed into Yankees catching prospect Francisco Cervelli on a play at the plate in the ninth inning, fracturing the 22-year-old's right wrist.

"I think it's uncalled for," a visibly angry Girardi, a former catcher, said minutes after Elliot Johnson knocked Cervelli out of the Rays' 4-1 exhibition win at Legends Field. "It's spring training. You're going to get people hurt. That's what we got. We got Cervelli hurt. I'm all for playing hard, but I don't think it's the time when you run over a catcher." Continue

Joe Girardi stressing conditioning

At about this time last year it was the Yankees, not the Mets, who were wearing out the MRI machines, piling up injuries to such an extreme that they fired their new strength and conditioning coach. This year, with Joe Girardi running a more demanding spring training, the Yankees are fit and free of injury so far.

Cause and effect, or good fortune? And will it translate to a faster start than they had in recent seasons under Joe Torre? "All I know is we attacked a weakness," GM Brian Cashman was saying yesterday. "This was an area of weakness in 2007 and I needed to make sure it wasn't a weakness in 2008." Continue

New Yankee skipper Joe Girardi tells News how he developed his style

It's the bottom of the ninth, your team is down by a run and the opposing closer is jogging in from the bullpen. You reach for your stat sheet. It's the manager's best friend in this situation - and just about every other one in this numbers-crunching game. It's your book that breaks down batter vs. pitcher matchups, the ones that will tell you what kind of success your hitters have had against that closer.

You flip through those charts but they're all blank. Just a bunch of names with no relevant numbers, nothing to lead you in one direction or the other. That was Joe Girardi's life managing the Florida Marlins. Continue

So far, Joe good

There is almost no way to praise the new manager without it coming across as a slam on his predecessor.

So let's deal with that up front. Joe Torre was great as Yankees New York Yankees manager. I am on record in this paper stating that the Yankees should have done what was necessary to keep him. And I am not going to fully change that opinion until examining how Joe Girardi copes with crisis, until we see the new Yankees manager operate in the heated forum in which the previous Yankees manager proved masterly. Torre was a high priest of extinguishing controversy and tension, a quality that soothed his team and routed him to Cooperstown. Continue

Yankees' Boss pays first visit to Girardi

George Steinbrenner visited with manager Joe Girardi yesterday for the first time since Girardi was hired last fall. Steinbrenner, 77, is not in the best of health and no longer is a daily fixture around the team. But the Yankees' owner was at Legends Field - soon to be renamed George M. Steinbrenner Field - and met with Girardi, general manager Brian Cashman, bench coach Rob Thomson and special instructors Ron Guidry and Goose Gossage. Continue

Joe Girardi: Yanks have enough to win

Johan Santana may not be headed to the Bronx, but the Yankees believe they have what it takes to get back to the World Series. The Yankees officially backed out of the Santana sweepstakes yesterday - as the Daily News reported they would Tuesday - choosing to stick by their self-imposed Monday night deadline. The news of Andy Pettitte's return softened the blow, but the tide could turn again quickly, as Santana appeared to be on his way to Boston.

"It's over," Hank Steinbrenner said. "I'm disappointed we weren't able to acquire a pitcher of Santana's caliber, but I'm very pleased overall because we accomplished everything we wanted to accomplish from the very beginning this winter." Continue

Girardi hopes to bring back Pettitte

Joe Girardi had plenty of reasons to be excited when he was named Yankees manager last month. But now, with his coaching staff complete and the knowledge that Alex Rodriguez, Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera will be playing for him, Girardi feels much more comfortable.

"I think everyone feels better," Girardi said in a conference call yesterday. "When you talk about losing your starting catcher, your starting third baseman and your closer, that's a big concern. It's not like we were losing average players - we were losing players that are at the top of their profession. Whenever you have a chance to bring them back, it's very exciting." There's one more key figure Girardi hopes the Yankees can bring back: Andy Pettitte. The lefthander has yet to decide whether he will pitch for the Yankees in 2008 or retire. Continue

Earnin’ his pinstripes

The best player in baseball is 32, plays third base, led the majors in homers and RBIs and is a free agent. And despite whispers throughout baseball that he wants to be a Yankee, the club hasn't lifted a finger to make it happen even though there is a Help Wanted sign attached to the third base bag. Welcome to the dawn of a new era.

Joe Girardi was announced as the 32nd manager of the Yankees yesterday, but Alex Rodriguez was in the air at Yankee Stadium. Following Girardi getting blinded by an ocean of strobes and Joe Torre's replacement saying he will do whatever it takes to ensure free agents Mariano Rivera and Jorge Posada return to The Bronx with Andy Pettitte, GM Brian Cashman was smothered with questions concerning Rodriguez. Continue

The new era ready to Joe

When Joe Girardi interviewed for the Yankees' manager job last week, the best player in baseball was the cleanup hitter, third baseman and perched to win his second AL MVP in three years thanks to a monster year.When Girardi was officially announced as Joe Torre's successor yesterday, Alex Rodriguez was a fast-fading pinstriped memory and the Yankees' lineup had a colossal crater in the middle of it that could swell if Jorge Posada decides to follow Rodriguez out of The Bronx.

Rodriguez's departure didn't catch anybody by surprise in the Yankees organization - most expected him to opt out of the final three years of a contract - but interviewing for a job with him in the lineup and taking the gig with him gone is akin to believing the date is with Kate Moss and having Hillary Clinton open the door. Continue

Joe Girardi agrees to 3-year deal to manage Yankees

Joe Girardi has agreed to a three-year contract to manage the Yankees. The agreement to take over as Joe Torre's replacement is worth an average salary of at least $2 million annually, a baseball official said Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity because the team had not yet announced the deal.

Only six managers earned at least that much this season, led by Torre's $7.5 million. A catcher by trade, Girardi played 15 seasons in the majors with the Cubs, Rockies, Yankees and Cardinals, though his greatest success came in New York, where he helped the Bombers to three World Series titles from 1996-99. Continue