Jedi Joe Girardi over-manages Yankees into corner against Angels

Is he a Jedi Master or a Dark Sith Lord?







The way the 2009 postseason is going, Yankees skipper Joe Girardi should plan on accepting his Over-Manager of the Year Award come the off-season.

Baseball managers should be like doctors — first, taking an oath to do no harm. But, rather than letting the game play out a little, Girardi put on his wizard's cloak, consulted his talking magic 8-ball and went to his bench and bullpen over and over and over (and over) in Game 3 of the ALCS. Several of his moves did nothing more than lengthen the time of the game.

And put the Yankees in position to lose.

Girardi officially jumped the shark as a manager when he removed reliever David Robertson after the right-hander retired the first two batters he faced in the Angels' half of the 11th in a 4-4 tie.

You see, Howie Kendrick was coming up; Howie was 1 for 2 — one for TWO — in his career against Robertson. While that does compute to a menacing .500, it's not exactly a large sample size with which to work. But Girardi just had to do something, or else a .500 hitter was coming up. He couldn't sit by and watch (which is exactly what he should have done).

Alfredo Aceves, the Yankees' seventh reliever of the afternoon, had never allowed a hit to Kendrick — for a much safer-seeming .000 batting average.

Why, Joe, why?

"It's just different kind of stuff against those hitters," Girardi said. "And we have all the match-ups, and all the scouting reports, and we felt that, you know, it was a better match up for us."

As perhaps you already know, Aceves faced two batters and the game was over. Kendrick singled and he scored, one batter later, on Jeff Mathis' RBI double for the Angels victory. Just like that. Instead of a 3-0 series lead and a near-knockout by the Yankees, the Angels are back in the series.
Great job, Mr. Wizard! And it's not the only example of Girardi's meddling. We got a list!

(1) Putting the steal on, when the Angels were looking for it with the pitch-out, with pinch runner Brett Gardner in the eighth. Gardner was out easily at second, right before Jorge Posada hit a tying homer. Hit-and-run at some point in the inning, maybe, but running Gardner with no outs was reckless.

(2) He also swapped rag-armed Johnny Damon in left field for designated hitter Johnny Damon when the Angels threatened to score in the 10th. Bold, except the Yankees forfeited the DH from that point, which led to ...

• Girardi removing Rivera from the game after just one inning because the pitcher's spot had to bat in the top of the 11th.
• Inefficient bullpen management all night: Joba Chamberlain - 3 batters faced; Robertson - two; Aceves - two; Damaso Marte - one; Phil Coke - 1.
• Even if Aceves wriggles out of the 11th, Girardi left the Yankees with one pitcher -> Chad Gaudin — in the bullpen. In a tie game, on the road, when there always will be a bottom of the inning, even if you go ahead.

Great job Mr. Girardi - you are officially "mini" Skip Torre or Joe Jr. (Both are named Joe)

Or should we give Girardi, who tries to always say the right things, a break for this first postseason loss. He's always been humble, and has stated that he is still a young manager experiencing so many things on the fly, reaching the playoffs for the first time as Yankees Skip, and then everything else.

Don't think so, he screwed up big time!  It seems that Girardi comes from the Tony La Russa BS school of bullpen management which believes that there's no three outs in a late inning better than three outs picked up by three different pitchers who alternate which hand they throw with.

This needs to change Tuesday night if CC Sabathia is going to beat the Angels for the second time in five days. If it doesn't and if CC doesn't, we'll hit full panic mode and Girardi will be wishing he was back on the slow roast he put himself on by managing by bulk during tonight's loss.