[DesertCat]

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Sylar,

You forgot an important question int he poll, "who SHOULD be manager of the Yankees next year?" and that answer is Girardi. Donnie Baseball will be.

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The absolute worst managerial choice would be Girardi. He wasn't fired by the Marlins for clashing with the owner, he was fired for clashing with everyone in the Marlin's organisation, esp. his superiors. The Marlin's GM (Beinfest) did such an awesome job of stocking that team with young talent that virtually any competent manager could have done well with that team. And at the end of the year the GM wanted Girardi as far away from his youngsters as possible, and was worried about Girardi burning out his pitchers arms. Girardi is too headstrong and arrogant, and one of the most undeserved Manager of the Year winners in history.

In reality, the Yankee empire is coming to an end. The middle aged elephants are taking active roles and have big mouths and this spells doom. Proof of that is in the following elephant interview.

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Hank Steinbrenner said four or five people will be interviewed, but Valentine wasn't on the list. Valentine, former manager of the New York Mets and Texas Rangers, currently is managing the Chiba Lotte Marines in Japan.

"I would say at this point probably not. He's certainly a smart guy, but probably not,'' Steinbrenner said.

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Bobby Valentine would easily be the best choice available. He's not only smart, but he's open-minded. He's open to input from the front office on finding the best way to use his personnel. He's not tied down by some hoary old managerial "book" of how old Joe used to do things, or how Casey Stengal did things. He's willing to think through situations with a fresh eye, which is what a great manager should do.

It looks like Cashman wanted Valentine in for an interview, and the elephants squashed it in favor of local retread heroes. Cashman is losing influence to two middle aged trust fund babies and that's the end of it.

The only way to save the situation is to hire Mattingly or Pena and have the front office put a tight leash on them, dictating the most optimal way to use personnel. Just like the A's work. There is no reason for a GM to build a strong roster and stand by as it's used sub-optimally by a quasi-independant ego-centric dictator. Pick the best motivator from the list and give them the right in-game guidelines and things might work out well. But this all assumes that Cashman is retaining any serious authority in the organisation.