Over at The New York Times’ Bat blog, Tyler Kepner has an interesting piece up about Joe Torre’s bullpen management. Kepner notes that on July 20, when Edwar Ramirez, after sitting for two weeks, couldn’t find the plate, Joe Torre finally may have learned how to manage the bullpen and that the Joba Rules reinforce that view.
I disagree.
Torre is under strict instructions from the Front Office to use Joba but to use him according to these guidelines, and someone up there must have told him to use Edwar more often than once every 15 days. It doesn’t take a good manager to know this about pitchers. Time and again, we’ve seen Torre misuse his bullpen and abuse pitchers he likes and pitchers who can get outs. I take this micromanagement by the Yanks’ baseball operations staff as just one more sign that Joe Torre is managing under a vote of no confidence.
If the Yanks manage to overtake the Red Sox, Torre will earn a lot of praise for turning this team around. The media will fawn all over him, but it’s still time for him to exit gracefully.
A successful postseason will allow the Yanks and Joe to present a good public image. Torre goes out on top; the Yanks give him the honorary position he deserves for leading the team successfully for 12 seasons; and a successor arrives. That’s the way it should be as more young players move up through the system and the Yanks turn away from the Experienced Veteran formula so favored by Torre.
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