Kuzul

Through the first 33 games of the 2013 season, the New York Yankees are defying predictions and poor expectations. When they take the field on Friday night in Kansas City, they'll do so as a first-place club.At 20-13, New York is playing .608 baseball.While much of the credit in New York has gone to general manager Brian Cashman's ability to find contributors on the scrap heap over the winter and into spring training, it's been manager Joe Girardi who has gotten the most out of those players.The 2006 Manager of the Year arrived in New York for the 2008 season, taking over a franchise that hadn't missed the postseason since prior to the 1994 strike. If replacing a legend like Joe Torre wasn't hard enough, a portion of the fanbase was unhappy with Girardi's hiring at the expense of former Yankee legend Don Mattingly.Even though Girardi was a former Yankee, ...

A bizarre phenomenon has been occurring over the past decade in Major League Baseball regarding the hiring of ex-MLB players over experienced managers. Most of these decisions to hire managers who have played in the past 15 to 20 years have been initially controversial, but the majority have actually benefited teams over the past few seasons. Third baseman Robin Ventura was just eight years out of baseball when the White Sox hired him as their manager last year. Ventura transformed the previously sub-.500 White Sox to a legitimate contender in the AL Central with a relatively unchanged roster from 2011. Guys like Alex Rios, Adam Dunn and Gordon Beckham showed vast improvements over their 2011 numbers as a product of the coaching change. Take another guy like first-year manager Mike Matheny, just six years removed from the majors, and look at the results of his St. Louis Cardinals this season. ...

New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi had a “great” phone conversation with slugger Alex Rodriguez last week, according to an anonymous source who spoke with ESPNNewYork.com. According to the source, the call happened Friday. That was the same day CBSSports.com reported that Girardi placed a call to the public address announcer during a postseason game at Yankee Stadium. The call, according to the report, was to request Rodriguez not be named when Raul Ibanez was going to pinch-hit for A-Rod. Instead, Ibanez went to the plate and was announced, but there was no mention of the player he was hitting for. It’s nice for Girardi to be considerate of Rodriguez’s feelings, but it doesn’t do the embattled slugger any favors. Fans of the Yankees and every other team in Major League Baseball have more than a half-billion reasons—the combined dollar amounts of A-Rod’s last two contracts—to hold him to a ...

Even though it's a tough decision for manager Joe Girardi and the New York Yankees, the decision to bench Alex Rodriguez for Game 3 of the ALCS against the Detroit Tigers was the correct one.New York's decision came just hours before Tuesday's 8 p.m. ET game, and the Yanks are desperate to pull out a victory, as they trail the series, 0-2, with the series heading to Detroit for Game 3.ESPN SportsCenter's Twitter account broke the news about A-Rod's benching: BREAKING: Alex Rodriguez not in @yankees' lineup for Game 3 vs @tigers— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) October 16, 2012  Rodriguez hasn't exactly been hitting the cover off the ball this series, as he's batted 1-for-7 through the first two games of the ALCS.That hasn't been his only problem, apparently. News broke out early Tuesday that A-Rod engaged in some flirting with females in the stands quickly after being taken out in the eighth ...

The New York Yankees and the Detroit Tigers are exposing the MLB playoffs, and the game of baseball in general, for what they really are.In baseball, a single pitch in a hitter's hot zone could be the deciding factor between a World Series appearance or historical insignificance. More often than not, a confident team feeding off of recent success is better-suited for October than a team that appears to be superior on paper.In the case of the 2012 American League Championship Series, the Tigers are playing the role of the team that's on fire, and the Yankees are starring as the team that can't remember how good it was in the regular season.The series is not over, of course. The Yankees have a huge hurdle to clear tonight against Justin Verlander, but the playing field will be more even if New York can avoid the 3-0 hole.In order to do ...

Last night's 6-4 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays could not only be pinned on an ineffective start by C.C. Sabathia, but one can also look no further than the manager as to who was responsible for the key setback.This season has been a series of high peaks (a 20-7 June record) and deep valleys (5-7 in September so far) for the "Bombers."  In each case, manager Joe Girardi has been a responsible leader in either giving credit to those contributing wins, or accepting blame for the frustrating losses.Yesterday's game is a microcosm of the entire season, and coming out of it are several questions as to why Girardi chose to do (or not do) moves that led directly to failure.Taking a look at his decisions against Tampa may reveal why Yankee fans are frustrated with their manager's performance.Begin Slideshow

FOXSports.com’s Ken Rosenthal listed the managers who might be in trouble come the end of the season in a column posted this morning. Among the managers on his list were Jim Leyland of the Detroit Tigers (in the last year of his contract), Mike Scioscia of the Los Angeles Angels, embattled Bobby Valentine of the Boston Red Sox, underachieving Ozzie Guillen of the Miami Marlins, Manny Acta of the swooning Cleveland Indians and Fredi Gonzalez of the Atlanta Braves. But at the top of Rosenthal’s list? The New York Yankees’ very own Joe Girardi, and it’s a point worth exploring. As Rosenthal points out, Girardi isn’t the guy who put the roster together. That falls on Brian Cashman, who assembled an aging team (baseball’s oldest with an average age of 32.7 for the 43 players who have appeared in at least one game in 2012, according to Baseball-Reference.com). Among the ...

Entering play on Saturday, July 21st, the New York Yankees have the best record in baseball, surging of late, winning nine of their previous 13 games. The Bronx Bombers lead Major League Baseball in home runs, are eighth in team batting average and first in OPS (on base + slugging percentage).However, the Yankees are second to last in the American League while batting with runners in scoring position (RISP). Huh?Of all the major sports, baseball is the simplest to quantify and to project team and individual performance. It's a sport that is eminently easy to follow statistically, given its large sample sizes and isolated moments of game action.Baseball's statistical projections and prognostications are mostly based on past performance and studying trends. In certain respects, this differs very little from the methods behind predicting stock market successes or failures.These trends project whether a player or team will perform at certain levels given their age, health and ...

Have you ever seen that sign that says "maximum capacity is…" before entering a room?  At this rate, the Yankees need to put up one of those signs in their rehab room.  In the 1993 film The Program, James Caan portrays a hard-nosed college football coach. In one scene, Caan asks his running back, played by Omar Epps, "Are you injured?"  He goes on to say, "If you’re injured, I can’t let you go back in, but if you are hurt than you can play.” CC Sabathia and Andy Pettitte are injured.Both Yankee pitchers are the most recent victims of the disabled list.  They are not alone in that undesirable distinction.  As the ballclub appears to be limping into the All-Star break, scheduled for July 7-10 in Kansas City, the timing couldn't be better. The first sign of injury setbacks occurred back in late March, when the team had to indefinitely shut down the ...

During the 1995 offseason, New York Yankees general manager Bob Watson and new manager Joe Torre made some bold moves. They allowed free agent catcher Mike Stanley to sign with the Boston Red Sox and acquired Joe Girardi from the Colorado Rockies. Stanley was an offensive force that Girardi couldn't come close to matching. In his three seasons as the Yankees' regular catcher, Stanley batted .290, hit 61 home runs, and drove in 224 runs. Girardi, in seven years with the Chicago Cubs and then the Rockies, had hit .269 with 18 home runs and 190 RBIs. Torre told Murray Chass of the New York Times why he was pleased to acquire Girardi. "It depends on what's important to you," said Torre at the time. "My priority is a catcher...When a pitcher has confidence in a catcher, he pitches better...Hopefully we'll have enough offense. We could make up elsewhere what ...