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DesertCat makes inarguable points re: the ridiculous pitch counts Girardi piled on. I didn't know Girardi did that, and that is well beyond inexcusable. That is pretty much the worst thing a manager could do.

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Glad to see he is getting support from someone I assume is a big Yankee fan. His points are far from inarguable. Pitching is a very unnatural motion and pitchers -- particularly young pitchers -- are very susceptible to injury. In the month after hiring Girardi, the Marlins dumped most of the remaining veteran talent -- including the trade to the Red Sox that have brought them back to the World Series. The 2006 Marlins bullpen was aweful. There was no one to pitch other than young pitchers.

Despite that, Girardi never pitched the rookie starters on short rest and their average pitch count was manageable. Certainly the GM could have dictated guidelines to Girardi or given him additional arms to use in the games. That didn't happen. Girardi used the players that were provided to him. Failure of communication is obviously part of the problem and that was in large part due to the disfunctional relationship between Girardi and the Owner/GM. (A disfunctional relationship caused overwhelmingly by such owner and GM.)

Desert Cat can distort the facts and continue to rely on statistics that fail to give the complete picture. Girardi was thrust into a tough position that changed radically after he was hired. He made the best of that situation and that was why he received the NL Manager of the Year that he deserved.

That being said, the managerial job appeared to be Mattingly's job to lose and it does not appear he did anything to lose it yesterday... I suspect he will be announced as the new manager on Friday...