I have been a yankee fan all my life. I like Joe Torre but have never thought he was a great manager. He was a good 'people' manager and he may know baseball, but lets face it, his decisions blew a lot of games this year. Oh sure, the pitching had some weak spots and I am not talking about games when absolutely no one was available, I mean when he had 4 or 5 oitchers available and he brings in a Sean Henn, or in the playoffs when he brings Wang back on short rest after getting clobbered. He had other choices and didn't use them, and those are just 2 poor decisions. This year especially Joe looked like he was just going through the motions. The Yankees, even with their unstable pitching are going to win around 90 games every year just with their bats. A great manager can win a team a dozen games more than they would have won with out him. I can think of more that he lost for them than he won for them.
Torre had a losing percentage as a manager before he came to the Yankees. Sure, when a decision works, the manager is a genious, and when it fails he is a bum but he made some decisions this year especially that were so obviously wrong that I think it is a miracle he wasn't fired mid season. His main job was keeping egos in check. You have to combine that with good decisions on the field. Like to see what he could do with a team like Baltimore. Sure, Joe is a nice guy and we have gotten use to him but I have to say I am not sorry to see him go. I wish they could steal Lou P away and see what he could do.
Everybody likes Don Mattingly but I just don't have good feelings about his managerial skills. He failed as a batting coach even though he was a great hitter himself. So they made him the bench coach. I think Joe G would do a better job.
Everybody loves to pick on George S. The last few years he has kept a low profile and still people like to jump on him. I think when you pay people what he pays them he has a right to expect them to produce.
The Yankees are going to have to pick up a top pitcher or two.besides their young guns. I just hope they don't trade them away.
Any team can spend money for ball players. Some owners don't want to, it is not that they don't have the money...Winning teams bring in the fans.
As far as him turning down 5 mil... You don't reward people for not producing. I don't think he wanted to come back. He looked tired.
He's a millionaire many times over...So enjoy the rest of your life Joe, maybe even take up fly fishing, you're a good guy,...just not a great manager...