The Case Against Torre

I have Torre bashed a lot on this website already. In short, he has established a pattern of running his best set-up men into the ground, has displayed no ability to identify the proper situations to use his best reliever, and is notoriously reluctant to give any younger, that is not considered a "can't miss" prospect a chance. I won't even play the "He has followed up the worst post-season collapse in sports history with 3 consecutive first round losses" card.

The rest of this article will attempt to counter the "bring him back" arguments that are being floated on sports talk radio.

1) Common Claim: "Nobody else can handle this job." My response: Everybody laughed when Joe Torre was hired. Now, he is considered irreplaceable. This leads the logical person to conclude that some combination of the following two statements must be true

a) The job ain't really that hard

b) Without inside information, it's tough to identify who will thrive in the position.

The idiot simply assumes that since nobody else has done the job in 12 years, nobody can do it.

2) Common Claim: "He can't play for these guys" My response: First, if a manager's role is that inconsequential, then they certainly shouldn't be paid $7 million per year. Second, nobody trivialized Torre's role on the championship teams. You can't have it both ways. If he gets the credit for the World Series victories, he must be held responsible for the first round defeats as well.

3) Common Claim: "He has made the playoffs for 12 straight years. You can't fire him." My response: Think of the worst manager your team has ever had. Now, put him at the helm of the 96-07 Yankees roster. How many times does he miss the playoffs? Once? Maybe twice? Torre inherited a team that made the playoffs in the season before he arrived and had the best record in baseball (before the strike) the season before that. I hardly think that the Yanks will have a string of 4th place finishes when he's gone.

The late Owen Hart would have said "Enough is enough and it's time for a change!"