Is Girardi Actually On the Hot Seat?

Bob Klapisch decided to stir the pot by suggesting that these could be "judgment days" and the "critical phase of his managerial career". Subway Squawkers does a good job of going through Klapisch's main points. My thoughts? I totally disagree that the lack of attendance is due to Girardi in any way. It was other front office people who decided to price the Legends Seats so high and those really are the only ones that are available on any given night. I do agree on one thing with Subway Squawkers: it's playoffs or bust for Girardi. Even a first round exit (as long as they are competitive) probably secures his job, but he needs to get the Yankees back to October.

There are some events lately that have brought about this call for change. The fact that the front office had to demand A-Rod's benching, as FanHouse reports, is a big problem: "Saturday, Jon Heyman of SI.com reported that sitting Rodriguez down was not only requested by the front office, but ordered. Apparently there was a conference call where Brian Cashman -- accompanied by Hal Steinbrenner -- informed his star third baseman that he would be on the bench". That is a problem. While I don't believe that the front office should ever order a change be made to a roster, this was an obvious case where they had to do so. Why it took Girardi so long to do it himself is beyond me. I can understand that he didn't want to bench A-Rod while Jeter was injured...but he had PLENTY of time before that to do so. Even just DH'ing him a few times would have probably helped out.

Worse yet for Girardi, word comes from The Big Lead that the conversation between Joe Girardi and Alex Rodriguez after the slugger learned about his benching was anything but amicable saying that they "spoke sharply" and A-Rod "demanding" answers. And this season is all occurring in a home ballpark and lineup that A-Rod should be very, very comfortable in. But, as Baseball Prospectus notes on ESPN.com, the elevated walk rate is a bad sign for A-Rod's productivity. Now this may be due to being unlucky (he has a .192 BAbip) but it could also to due to hitting less line drives and more groundballs than normal for him. But why would his walk rate concern the Yankees? Jay Jaffe explains:

If there's an area of Rodriguez's performance that should draw concern, it's his elevated walk rate: He's drawing an unintentional pass in 17.5 percent of his PA, which would rank second among qualifiers, but more tellingly would shatter his career high (14.1 percent in 2000). That suggests Rodriguez may be laying off pitches that he'd otherwise hit -- and hit hard. Whether that's due to fatigue, injury or aging, only time and a larger sample size will tell

I happen to agree with Jaffe while watching Yankees games. For whatever reason, A-Rod is laying off pitches. Especially late in games. I don't know how much Girardi has to do with A-Rod's actual performance, but if he's playing poorly due to fatigue, that does fall on Girardi's shoulders (especially since he insisted on having Angel Berroa on the bench when everyone questioned that move).

Roster decisions and bullpen moves have been one of the big criticisms of Girardi. He's caused as many problems in that bullpen as they've caused him and his move to bring in Rivera in the 8th against the Mets reeked of desperation and almost backfired. Girardi not only kept Berroa on the team when he seemed useless, he kept Veras for a long time despite no real reason and now is keeping Tomko on the team despite his lack of recent success. The Yankees have players who are performing well at AAA (such as Shelley Duncan), why not bring up one of them? 

One guy I don't agree with bringing up, as Dugout Central suggests, is Austin Jackson (I actually disagree with a lot of the post, but that is the main idea of it so I figured I'd pick on that aspect). The Yankees have two capable CF in Brett Gardner and Melky Cabrera (though I think that Gardner should be starting more). They have Johnny Damon in left. They have Nick Swisher in right and Xavier Nady is soon to join. Where would they play this guy? And why panic and bring him up early? Let him develop in AAA and play every game so that he's ready for 2010. Jeter has been fine as the leadoff man and Damon has enjoyed a resurgence hitting second. I think the Yankees would be well-off moving Swisher permanently to a 2 or 3 spot in the lineup, but I can't really nitpick. The top of the lineup is fine right now. And no one is trading the Yankees a useful player for Melky Cabrera, so that daydream can end. Melky/Gardner will most likely be hitting 9th anyways and with the plus hitters the rest of the lineup, I think we can leave well enough alone with Jackson. Besides, Melky and Gardy both have OPS+ over 100 (as does the rest of the lineup). The problem in this lineup is not the lack of hitting, rather that they can't piece it together when they need it. The LAST thing this team needs right now is another streaky hitter like Jackson.   

But if fighting with the highest paid hitter in the game wasn't enough, it seems like there may be some disagreements between Girardi and the highest paid pitcher in the game. As Peter Abraham reports, CC Sabathia seems to suggest that his sore arm is not caused by his workload the past few years but by his early season workload this season. That's not a good sign for Girardi.

Abraham notes that maybe the problem is that Girardi is pushing guys like A-Rod and Sabathia harder knowing that his job is on the line (and maybe his career after being fired once, already). But that would be a problem in and of itself. The Yankees have these guys signed for many, many more years and cannot afford to blow them out this season. He also can't lose the confidence and respect of these two guys if he expects to be around much longer with those contracts in mind.

There was a point in this season where Girardi could not be blamed for bad play by the Yankees because of a rash of injuries (Posada, Bruney, and A-Rod especially). But now the Yankees are almost fully healthy with Xavier Nady, Jose Molina and Damaso Marte on the way. Injuries can no longer be an excuse for losing. Girardi had almost his entire team healthy for the past few weeks but finished off an 0-8 start against Boston and lost series to the Nationals and Marlins. 

Who would the Yankees replace Girardi with? I'm of the belief that replacing a coach with a bench coach is pretty pointless if the team is not performing because if they could have done something to spur this team to action, they should have done it while bench coach, but Tony Peña could be an interesting candidate because of his difference in style. Would the Yankees go out to Los Angeles and try to get Don Mattingly or Larry Bowa? I doubt either one would want the job. Would they hire someone like Peña temporarily and then try to get Bobby Valentine in the offseason? Possibly. But the hope is that the Yankees turn it around soon and this is a moot point. Because if they don't start playing more inspired and better baseball, this could be a LONG season for the Yankees and their fans no matter who the manager is for the Yanks.