MFY Press Conference

[Guest Mr. Zero]

Willie?

[Valadius]

I'm betting Girardi gets it, and gets fired after one year or less.

[Frayed Knot]

They won't have to give the next guy a performance-based deal because they'll be able to pay him approx half what they were paying Torre.
What they apparently objected to was that they got it in their heads that they were paying him approx double what any other mgr was making BECAUSE he reached the WS every year then got pissed when that run ended.

[Frayed Knot]

Yancy Street Gang wrote: Mattingly's recent whimpering about how he's "not ready" should rule him out, for this year and probably forever. They should hire a guy who wants the job.

Mattingly denied ever saying that.

]Willie?

How, he's under contract?

[Guest sharpie]

Frayed Knot wrote:

]They won't have to give the next guy a performance-based deal because they'll be able to pay him approx half what they were paying Torre. What they apparently objected to was that they got it in their heads that they were paying him approx double what any other mgr was making BECAUSE he reached the WS every year then got pissed when that run ended.

This would make it unlikely that they would hire a guy like Tony LaRussa, however. He would insist on big money and no performance-based deal. He's actually won more games than Torre.

[Guest Mr. Zero]

]Willie? How, he's under contract?

wishful thinking.

[Centerfield]

There's alway Lee Mazzili. You'd have to assume Lee would forgive them for firing him and all that.

[Frayed Knot]

]This would make it unlikely that they would hire a guy like Tony LaRussa, however. He would insist on big money and no performance-based deal. He's actually won more games than Torre.

Even LaRussa is/would be making about half Torre's ~$7.5 In short, no matter who they hire they'll be saving money on the manager.
I just find it funny - and Joe likely found it insulting - that they decided that a form a "incentive-based motivation" (their words) was needed for a guy who led them to the playoffs 12 straight years.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Girardi has got to be the 2-3 favorite.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I really hope the next Yankee manager's name isn't Bobby Valentine.

Knowing the Yankees' penchant for subverting Mets history, it's something that could happen.

[metirish]

I really hope the game tonight is not ruined with Torre talk, yes talk about it but please don't ram it down our throats all night.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Mr. Zero wrote: Willie?

That would be great. As it is they prolly wind up with Valentine whose team conveniently fell out of the playoffs yesterday.

[metirish]

I don't think Valentine would want to work under the management system the Yankees have , in Japan he runs everything at his club , that's not going to happen at the Yankees. Bobby V might be too much personality for them to control.

[Guest Edgy DC]

In the Bronx, he'd have the most prestigious job in his field and be forty minutes from his home base. I doubt he wouldn't invite Brian Cashman in for tea and hear him out.

It'd be one job his Japanese fan base wouldn't resent him for going home for. And the Yankees would have his Nipponocelebrity working for their marketing department.

[DocTee]

Larry Bowa, anyone?

He can play Billy Martin to Steinbrenner, Jr.

[metirish]

From Newsday regarding candidates.

] 4. Bobby Valentine. Have you heard of him? Valentine, who just completed his fourth season in his second term as manager of the Chiba Lotte Marines, may have his share of detractors, but Cashman and Steinbrenner admire his work. Valentine has two years left, at $4 million per season, in his deal with the Marines. However, he does have the ability to opt out of it. Reached last night in Japan, where his team just lost a postseason series to the Nippon Ham Fighters, Valentine said, "I haven't had any time to think about [the Yankees' opening]. But I will sometime."

[Frayed Knot]

Gammons suggested this morning that the Yanx would be nuts not to talk to Valentine, but ultimately thought that he'd be viewed as too volatile for their tastes.



Meanwhile, BP's Nate Silver pretty much nails things on the head:

This was not a serious offer to Joe Torre. Nobody with any modicum of self-pride would be willing to accept a 33% pay cut at a late stage of his career, which is what this ultimately amounts to, from a base of $7.5 million in 2007 to $5.0 million in 2008. And nobody with any tangible sense of the randomness inherent to postseason baseball would be willing to give much benefit of the doubt to incentive clauses that are difficult to achieve under the best of circumstances, and which have little to do with one’s own performance.

No. This offer was a public relations stunt, designed to make it look as though the Yankees had not put Joe Torre out to pasture. It was not an offer that had any chance of being accepted, nor was it an offer that that had any chance of facilitating future discussions. It was an insulting offer, quite frankly, and a conversation-ender.

That is not to a render a judgment about what Joe Torre is ultimately worth to the Yankees. Very probably, the marginal revenue that Torre produces is not worth $7.5 million more than what Don Mattingly would give you, nor is it worth $5.0 million more. But it’s not like Torre went from being worth $7.5 million yesterday to $5.0 million today, just because the Yankees lost three out of four games to another very talented baseball club.

If it were my business, I would not have made this offer. I would have offered Joe Torre more, or I wouldn’t have made him an offer at all. I can’t entirely blame the Yankees for trying to triangulate the situation. But I hope that people see this offer for what it was.

[seawolf17]

="metsmarathon"]such a classy organization, those yankees. ="espn"]The Yankees offered Torre a one-year deal with a base salary of $5 million and incentives that would have increased his salary to $8 million based on postseason performance. Under that offer, if Torre reached the World Series in 2008, an option for 2009 would have vested. "We felt we needed to go to a performance-based mode," team president Randy Levine said. "We thought it was very fair. It clearly was at the top of the market, but we respect Joe's decision."

Yeah, no kidding. Because six league championships in twelve years sucks ass.

Fuckin' great move by Torre. Love it.

Anyone but Bobby V is good by me.

[metirish]

I liked the line Lupica used today, Torre fired Stienbrenner and the Yankees.

[Benjamin Grimm]

seawolf17 wrote: Anyone but Bobby V is good by me.

If I could choose the next Yankees manager, I'd pick Richard Simmons.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I hope they move heaven and Earth and Robinson Cano to get Lou Pinella.

[Guest Edgy DC]

That would be fun.

Any chance that the Yankees get crazy and turn around with a new offer?

[metirish]

I would say no chance, they are probably not all that bothered that Torre turned them down, Cashman might have really wanted him back but Levine and the rest probably don't care.

They'll deal with the fallout the next few days and move on, it will be interesting to hear what Torre has to say at his press conference later today.

[Frayed Knot]

Considering that most believe that Torre leaving was the ultimate aim of Yanqui brass, I don't think there's much chance of that.

Torre to hold some sort of press meeting this afternoon.

[seawolf17]

Wouldn't it just be great if Torre went out this afternoon in flames, just ripping the hell out of the organization, outing Derek and Alex, and exposing the fact that the Boss died six years ago and that he's been replaced by an animatronic version? That'd be the best sports story ever.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

seawolf17 wrote: Wouldn't it just be great if Torre went out this afternoon in flames, just ripping the hell out of the organization, outing Derek and Alex, and exposing the fact that the Boss died six years ago and that he's been replaced by an animatronic version? That'd be the best sports story ever.

Yes. Yes it would.

[Guest Edgy DC]

ESPN The Magazine is working on a great story about the great story that's coming along those lines.

[Valadius]

I'd buy a tell-all book from Torre about all the shit he had to put up with the last 12 years.

[metirish]

Cashman might have the better book in the end.

[TransMonk]

="seawolf17"]...outing Derek and Alex...

="Edgy DC"]ESPN The Magazine is working on a great story about the great story that's coming along those lines.

Now that would be salacious.