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Projo SoxTalk: Krasner on the Torre "death watch"

Today on Projo SoxTalk, Steve Krasner talks about the panic in the Bronx as the 9-14 Yankees wonder what's going to happen to their manager. Other topics of discussion: Why Alex Cora probably won't be the regular second baseman anytime soon, and encouraging signs from Manny Ramirez. Click here to listen to the audio file.

Posted by Mike McDermott  at 11:50 AM to Krasner | Permalink

Baseball Today: Monday, April 30

Some fun stuff and some not-so-fun stuff . . .

FUN: The Red Sox sure had some the last two weekends, thanks to people like Hideki Okajima, Alex Cora and a host of others. If you're look for omens, having the best record in the American League at the end of April, as the Red Sox do now, is usually a good sign (Boston Globe). And if you don't want to go that far, you can at least agree with Mike Lowell when he says ''I'd rather win five of six than lose five of six.'' (Boston Herald)

NOT-SO-FUN: The Yankees went from rescuing their manager (Bergen Record, Saturday) to putting his neck back in the noose (New York Post, Sunday) in the time it took for Chien-Ming Wang to lose to Julian Tavarez on a Sunday afternoon in the Bronx. Derek Jeter thinks it would be unfair for Torre to take the fall for this (New York Daily News), and Bill Madden points out that George Steinbrenner ''has to ask himself if firing Torre at this juncture is going to accomplish anything''. (ibid) But Madden also notes that, unlike last October (when Steinbrenner got out the sword after the Yanks' ALDS loss to the Tigers, then was convinced to put it back in its sheath), no one in the Yankee organization is going to step into the line of fire to defend Torre this time.

So it looks like The Joe Torre Watch is officially on, even if The Post says nothing will happen today. A good place to keep track of unfolding events might be here, on Peter Abraham's excellent LoHud Yankees Blog.

HARSH REALITY: Mark Feirsand concluded after Friday's loss that the Yankees ''may just not be very good'' on the Daily News Yankees blog. (www.nydailynews.com/blogs/yankees) He backtracked a bit after Saturday's victory, so it'll be interesting to see what he says in his next entry.

THE FENWAY EFFECT: Joe Posnanski takes a must-read look at how playing at Fenway Park altered the careers of many Red Sox stars (thesoulofbaseball.blogspot.com) Warning: The Jim Rice-for-the-Hall-of-Fame people aren't going to be happy. At all.

CLOSE TO HOME: The tragic death of Cardinals pitcher Josh Hancock (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) stunned many people at McCoy Stadium since Hancock, a former Red Sox farmhand, still had ties to people in the Boston organization. (projo.com)

IT'S COMING: All along, I've felt the drug scandal -- steroids/amphetamines/performance-enhancing, etc. -- that's about to hit baseball would be uncovered not with a big crash, but with wave upon wave of disclosures like this one. (espn.com) The most telling comment? From ex-Mets GM Steve Phillips: ''I had suspicions about individual players here and there, but it was one of those situations that you didn't ask about [because] there was nothing you could do if they said no. My attitude as a GM was, I want a level playing field. If other teams were doing it, I wasn't going to go through my clubhouse and look in every shoebox. I wasn't proposing that my guys use it, but I also wasn't going to propose that the Mets be the only clean team in baseball. I couldn't go back to my owner and say, 'We tried to beat these teams full of big guys with our little skinny guys.' "

Before you go off on Phillips, remember: That was probably -- no, we can say it was definitely -- the majority opinion in baseball's executive suite back then.

'THE WAGES OF WINS': Steve Walters says owning a major league baseball team is not a way of making a fortune; ''it's a way of enjoying a fortune''. (The Wages of Wins Journal)

LIGHTEN UP: After the last three entries, we all need a laugh. Here's one, involving ex-Red Sox reliever Bobby Howry. (Chicago Tribune)

DOWN UNDER: An on-site look at the Red Sox' Australian scouting operation. (theage.com.au)

CHANNELING JOHN VALENTIN: Troy Tulowitzki joined a pretty exclusive club yesterday. (Denver Post)

Posted by Art Martone  at 7:10 AM | Permalink