"It's Christmas, Theo, it's the time of miracles!"

Congratulations Coach Harbaugh. It's been a long time coming. The work isn't over yet, but you did something most of us thought would never happen.

GO BLUE!

 

Synthetic Debate

The second week of November not only brings us the latest College Football Playoff rankings but the inherent controversy around those standings. Perhaps even more so than the initial rankings, the CFP committee this week left some folks shaking their heads, with others shaking their fists. But might this be more of a "little c" controversy instead? 

The biggest point of contention this week centers around the state of Michigan: last week's #3 team, Michigan State, got clobbered by Purdue. The Spartans tumbled to #7, just behind... #6 Michigan! Yes, Michigan, the team that was previously unbeaten before falling to Michigan State the week before now sits ahead of them in the rankings.

This is a manufactured controversy. The committee viewed MSU's loss to Purdue, an unranked opponent, as a "worse loss" than Michigan's loss to an unbeaten, top 10 team in, ironically, Michigan State. But neither ranking on November 9th means anything.

With three weeks left to go before the conference championships, there is A LOT of football left to be played. Both Michigan State and Michigan still have to face the #4 team in the CFP, Ohio State. OSU figures to be heavy favorites in both games, so chances are good both Michigan teams will drop from the top 10 before the season is out. Should either prevail, they could potentially end up in the top 4 themselves.

Another point of "contention" is Alabama and their spot at #2. With one loss, the Crimson Tide has fans of unbeaten Cincinnati and Oklahoma crying foul. The Oregon and OSU camps have also raised questions about the Tide. But again: if things play out as expected, Alabama will face #1 Georgia in the SEC Championship. If Georgia wins, a 2-loss Alabama team drops out of the playoff picture. Should 'Bama prevail, they would likely rise to #1 and confirm the committee's perceptions. 

Less controversial, but still hotly debated, are those two previously mentioned unbeatens who can't seem to gain the respect of the committee: Cincinnati and Oklahoma. Though both the Bearcats and Sooners gained ground this week vs the initial rankings, neither cracked the playoff ceiling. 

Unlike the problems discussed above, these questions aren't as easily resolved. It's not hard to imagine both teams winning out and neither qualifying for the playoffs. While Cincy is vying to become the first non-Power 5 school to make the playoff, no unbeaten Power 5 conference champion has ever missed the cut. Could this be the year that the committee sends Oklahoma packing to the Sugar Bowl instead?

Again, so many games have yet to be played. The results of this weekend's games will factor into next week's rankings. Who knows what will happen on Saturday or what we'll be arguing about on Tuesday? The playoff committee knows this all too well.

Enough Is Enough Is Enough

As the old saying goes, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." The next obvious question becomes, "How many times does Jim Harbaugh need to lose a big game before it becomes apparent that he's not a big game coach?"

The smoke has cleared following Michigan's latest failure, a 37-33 loss to Michigan State on Saturday, yet another excruciating Wolverines' loss at the hands of a bitter rival. To that end, here is just a sampling of the ugly numbers from the Harbaugh Era against top competition: 

• 3-4 vs Michigan State
• 0-5 vs Ohio State
• 2-13 vs teams ranked in the Top 10
• 1-4 in Bowl games

In spite of their 7-0 record and #6 ranking coming into this weekend, anyone watching the 2021 Wolverines closely could have seen Saturday's game coming. Against Rutgers, Michigan got a big lead early, failed to close them out, but held on for the win. Off to an early start against Nebraska, Michigan once again failed to put a team away, going so far as fall behind before eventually making a comeback. Michigan State, though, is simply better than those other teams. Up 16 in the 3rd quarter, Michigan couldn't put Sparty away. The Wolverines were outscored 23-3 the rest of the way.

This is Year 7 under Harbaugh. Since he took over, Michigan has employed three different Offensive and Defensive coordinators. Not a lot of consistency there, though Don Brown was a defensive genius for five seasons, until he wasn't. Josh Gattis was brought in to modernize the Wolverines' offense. Similar to Brown, offensive performance improved under Gattis, until late in the game when it doesn't. 

At this point, it's no stretch to think that Michigan could lose to a scrappy Penn State team on the road. Don't even think about competing against Ohio State. Should that happen, Harbaugh will have another 9-3 record before making the inevitable trip to the Outback Bowl to get beaten by Auburn. 

After the true disaster that was the COVID-shortened 2020 season, Harbaugh was given another chance to right the ship. Despite the 7-0 start, we're right back where we started. Michigan loses to top competition. Michigan loses to a big rival. Stop the insanity. Harbaugh needs to go.

Dogging the Dawgs

Don't get me wrong: the Georgia Bulldogs have the #1 defense in the country, by a lot. They are a ferocious bunch, having surrendered only 5 touchdowns in 7 games. It's not hard to see them arriving unbeaten to the SEC Championship game in December. In fact, perhaps only Florida will provide much of a test for the Bulldogs the rest of the way.

But before we anoint the Dawgs as national champs or even as a historic defense, we might want to take a deeper dive into those numbers. Specifically, exactly who has Georgia been stopping all season?

A quick check of their opponents tells the story. Here are the current total offense rankings for Georgia's seven opponents this season:

• #18 - Arkansas
• #30 - Auburn
• #76 - Kentucky
• #84 - UAB
• #114 - South Carolina
• #117 - Clemson
• #124 - Vanderbilt

Three of their opponents couldn't even crack the top 100 in offense. Two more aren't better than 75th. In fact, Arkansas was the only team Georgia played with even a top 20 offense. 

On average, those teams gained 373 yards per game, which would place them 85th in the nation. Take out Arkansas, the best offensive team the Dawgs have played, and their opponents' average falls to 356 yards, "good" for just 98th overall. Yes, Georgia shut these teams down. But it seems the rest of college football hasn't had much trouble with the likes of Vandy, S.C. or Clemson, either.

None of this is Georgia's fault. You play the teams on your schedule, and Georgia has absolutely dominated. Vanderbilt gained only 77 yards! Even as badly as those teams have moved the ball all year, their totals against Georgia were far short of their per game averages. But it certainly puts into perspective just how dominant a group the Georgia D has been.

All of this is a long way of saying: let's wait and see. More than likely, Georgia will face Alabama in the SEC Championship game. As of this week, the Crimson Tide has the 10th-best offense in the nation, averaging almost 500 yards per game. Alabama will be far-and-away the biggest test of the Georgia defense. 

Should the Dawgs get past the Tide, the College Football playoffs would await. So might a date with history. Or perhaps a date with Ohio State, the nation's top ranked-offense. As much as I hate both teams, that could be one helluva title game.

Simple Math

The 2021 baseball season is winding down, but the playoff races are heating up! As of this morning, the Yankees hold a 1/2-game lead on the Blue Jays for the second A.L. Wildcard. The Yanks are also 2 games behind the Red Sox, who would own the first Wildcard spot. The Yanks and Sox have 9 games left to play this season, while the Blue Jays have 10 on the schedule.

Who will win enough games to qualify for the post-season? Let's dig into the playoff math.

YANKEES

The Yankees play three games each against the Red Sox, Blue Jays and Rays, the first two series on the road. The first thing that jumps out at you are the records: all three opponents are playoff contenders, well above .500 on the season. The optimist says that the Yankees have their fate in their hands: beat the teams ahead of you and move up in the standings. The realist looks at the head-to-head results and doesn't like what they show:

• 6-10 vs Boston
• 6-10 vs Toronto
• 7-9 vs Tampa Bay

Of the three teams fighting it out, New York has by far the toughest schedule.

BOSTON

Once they finish up with the Yankees at home, the Sox finish the season on the road... but against Baltimore and Washington. At 48-104, the Orioles have the worst record in baseball. Though the Nationals have played better of late, they aren't a very good team. They have also struggled mightily against .500 teams, going 29-56. It would be hard to see the Red Sox losing too many games past the Yankee series.

TORONTO

The Blue Jays will play 10 games, one more than the other two. Fortunately for them, they get the Twins four times, yet another cellar-dweller. The Jays will then face the Yankees and finish out the season at home against the aforementioned Orioles. Like Boston, the Jays don't face much competition beyond the Yankees for the rest of the way.

Like the saying goes, the games aren't played on paper. Anything can, and will, happen on the field. But you ignore the data at your peril. The Yankees are 19-29 against their remaining opponents. Boston and Toronto are a combined 45-22 against the teams they will face, including the Yankees. As had been said before, the baseball season is long enough to separate the contenders from the pretenders. The simple math says the Yankees will be watching the playoffs at home this October.

Will the Real Slim Shady Please Stand Up?

Compared to all other sports, the baseball season is long. So long, in fact, that over 162 games, the season takes into account all the highs and lows, the streaks, and the slumps. The Yankees won 13 games in a row not long ago, then somehow pivoted into a 2-11 free-fall. Those 26 games taken as a whole work out to 15-11. A record of 15-11 doesn't sound all that special. But over an entire season, if a team won 15 of every 26 games they played, they'd finish with 93 wins. Cream rises, while the flukes usually sink.

The 2021 Yankees aren't a 93-win team. Of course, they're not really a 2-11 terrible team, either. The truth of the Yankees lies somewhere in between. Their record is akin to how they play: all-or-nothing, swing-and-miss but sometimes connect. Pitch well for a while, but maybe blow the lead, the save, or the game. I like to say they are “consistently inconsistent”.

In the end, they are the hallmark of the Brian Cashman era:

• Play well enough to appear competitive

• Win just enough to keep the stadium coffers full

• Do just enough to make it look like you know what you're doing

• Fail against better competition in the playoffs

• Repeat for 20 years

It remains to be seen what the Yankees will do over the final 21 games of the season. As of this morning, they would qualify for the 2nd Wildcard and a date with Boston at Fenway Park. But with another loss to the Mets and a Blue Jays win today, the Yanks would be out of a playoff spot.

Either scenario seems equally plausible. Less plausible is the idea that these Yankees will make a deep October push. The Sox, Jays and ultimately the Rays could be standing in their way. If that happens, if the Yankees make another early post-season exit, or fail to make it at all, will that be the final straw? Will Hal Steinbrenner channel his father in the name of winning? Will the Real Slim Shady please stand up?

Off to a Fast Start

Once Michigan Head Coach Jim Harbaugh re-signed on the (reduced) bottom line, the next big question in Ann Arbor became "Who will be the starting QB for the Wolverines in 2021?" Sure it's only August, but there's no time like the present to start second-guessing Harbaugh.

In a somewhat surprising decision, Harbaugh named redshirt sophomore Cade McNamara as the starting QB over highly-touted true freshman J.J. McCarthy. McNamara is the safe choice... which is why I thought that a coach on the hot seat like Harbaugh might want to roll the dice instead.

McNamara appeared in four games last season and made one start. He ended up with a total of 425 yards passing, 260 of which came in a win against Rutgers. He completed 61% of his passes, earning a Passer Rating of 106.3. (As a means of comparison, Alabama's Mac Jones, the Heisman runner-up, had a mind-boggling rating of 203.1) So while McNamara was certainly more consistent than Michigan's other QB, Joe Milton, McNamara was nothing special. Given the way the Wolverines have played during Harbaugh's tenure, one would think that Harbaugh might want a little more than "nothing special" at the game's most pivotal position.

By all accounts, McCarthy is the real deal. A 5-star prospect with All-American tools, McCarthy is the future of Michigan's program. The only thing McCarthy lacks is experience, so why not begin the future right now? Let him get his feet wet against Western Michigan at home. A bigger test awaits in Week 2 as the Washington Huskies come to Ann Arbor. But even then, Washington is facing questions about their defense and might provide a higher profile opportunity for McCarthy to shine. 

By the time Michigan travels to Wisconsin in Week 5, McCarthy could be a seasoned Big Ten quarterback. Instead, should Harbaugh stick with the plan, McNamara will be under center for the biggest game of the season to that point. Will that be enough?

Another factor that works in McCarthy's favor is the very desperate need for Harbaugh to win and win now. Not that Harbaugh is big on making excuses, but starting McCarthy bakes the excuse right in: gaining reps and experience for McCarthy is a tradeoff. Maybe McNamara gives the Wolverines the best chance to win in Week 1 or 3, but an experienced McCarthy may be the only way Michigan will compete against Ohio State. Why not give him the chance to get better in real time against real competition, instead of just working it out in practice? 

It remains to be seen how Cade McNamara will play this season for Michigan. Can he improve on his performance from last year? Or will he be the same steady but unspectacular QB? Either way, it seems unlikely that J.J. McCarthy will remain on the sidelines for long. That being the case, I don't see any reason why he shouldn't take the ball right on that first Saturday in September.

Trader Brian

"Hello? Might I interest you
in some AA prospects?"

Questions surrounding the fate of the 2021 Yankees were answered resoundingly by General Manager Brian Cashman this week. A flurry of splashy trades ahead of the MLB Trade Deadline landed the Yankees on the back page. Going all-in on Joey Gallo and Anthony Rizzo signaled to the baseball world that these Yanks will be fighting to the finish.

If through all these moves, Cashman manages to assemble a playoff team, then kudos to him. At 53-48, sitting 3.5 games out of a Wildcard spot, no one thinks the Yankees are an October lock. Remaking a roster on the fly in mid-season would be quite an achievement.

On top of that, it doesn't appear that the Yankees overpaid to improve the team. Sure, it's possible that among the haul of players traded away is born another Buhner / Smoltz punchline. Even so, the current Yankees' team will be long disbanded before any one of those minor leaguers makes an impact at the major league level.

HOWEVER... before we start polishing up the Executive of the Year trophy, let's take a step back. Lost in all the excitement of Trader Brian's wheelin' and dealin' is this: Cashman is actively turning over the very same underachieving roster that HE created. The Yankees needed Gallo and Rizzo because the current lineup is unbalanced and sorely lacking left-handed power. If Clay Holmes is the answer in the bullpen, it's because Luis Cessa, Justin Wilson and the parade of arms already out there were not. Today's acquisition of Andrew Heaney speaks quite loudly, too: a pitcher with an ERA north of 5 isn't stepping into a rotation filled with aces. 

On paper, these trades seem great and will surely boost morale both on the field and in the seats. All indications are that the Yankees came away with major league fortifications while parting with only potential pieces of the future. Yet if all these flashy trades amount to an empty October without the playoffs, then someone needs to hold Cashman accountable for that. How much credit do you get for attempting to fix problems of your own making? These next two months should be Cashman's final exam. A failing grade should lead to his overdue exit.

Bull Market, Bear Market

Years ago, a fairly incompetent employee worked in the front office of the New York Yankees. George Costanza, repeatedly failing upward, somehow survived in the organization despite of his lack of accomplishments or any track record of success. (Sounds unfortunately familiar.) 

In addition to not knowing how to run a baseball franchise, George had little knowledge about the stock market. When asked about playing the market, in the midst of a lie, George noted that he's in all the markets: "Bull market, bear market, you name the market, I'm there."

In a roundabout way, that brings us to the 2021 edition of the New York Yankees and the impending MLB Trade Deadline. Throughout this up-and-down season, many have speculated whether the Yankees will be buyers or sellers by the end of July. Put another way, should Brian Cashman be bullish or bearish on this year's squad? 

From a purely mathematical standpoint -- and we all know how Cashman loves his analytics -- the Yankees are still alive for a spot in the playoffs. Though a division pennant is all but a pipe dream following this weekend's disastrous visit to Fenway Park, the Yanks sit only 3.5 games out of the 2nd Wildcard. While having to fight for the last Wildcard is falling wildly short of most pre-season predictions, the post-season is still within reach. Neither team currently in front -- Oakland nor Seattle -- is a complete team that one couldn't see fade as the season wears on. So what's a General Manager to do? 

Over the years, rightfully or wrongfully, Cashman has been reluctant to hit the "reset" button on the roster, whether in the off-season or at the deadline. The belief that New Yorkers won't settle for a non-contender may be true in the short term. Empty seats in September, not to mention an October without baseball, is a loss of revenue for the team. (Teams like Boston, however, have shown over the past two decades that stripping down a team and building it back stronger might be the best formula for long-term success.)

Unfortunately, there are too many holes on the current Yankees team to target any one area of need. Certainly the outfield has been thinned through injury and ineffectiveness. The bullpen, beleaguered of late, could use reinforcements. Even with Gerrit Cole and a rejuvenated Domingo German, there is still a need for a #3 or #4 starter in a post-season rotation. Any of the above could needs can be addressed without sacrificing top prospects or major league stars. A short-term rental typically costs less to acquire and can provide a boost, but will be off the books for next season.

With history as our guide, it seems unlikely that Cashman, or team ownership, will be willing to punt on 2021 while a playoff spot is still in reach. However, reinforcements for a Wildcard run should look decidedly different than a team poised to win it all now. (See San Diego's acquisition of Adam Frazier as an example of a team pushing all their chips into the center of the table.) 

We'll have our answers about the future of the '21 Yankees by the end of the month. (Perhaps we'll know even earlier if three games in Tampa play out like the trip to Boston.) What happens to the Yankees beyond that, and who will be making those decisions, could become more clear by the fall.

The Shot Heard 'Round the Bronx

It's been one day since the Yankees imploded against the Houston Astros, but the wounds are still fresh. By blowing a 5-run lead in the 9th inning, the Yanks suffered their worst loss of the season, if not in recent memory. That it came at the hands of the arch-rival Astros, and off the bat of their nemesis Jose Altuve, made it feel that much worse. But this game will have greater implications on the 2021 season than a single loss.

For one, the loss takes away the shine of winning the first two games of the series in impressive fashion. The Yanks shut out Houston's league-leading offense in back-to-back games, the first time that had happened in over 3 years. They also built a sizeable lead in Sunday's game before it all came crashing down. 

While it's easy to argue that the loss was an anomaly, and that a well-rested Chad Green shuts the door nearly every time, it is also easy to argue that a team on pace to win only 84 games is bound to suffer losses like this. The fact that Green was in the game at all speaks to the fact that manager Aaron Boone and the Yankees have lost a great deal of faith in their highly-paid closer, Aroldis Chapman.

That game also marked the symbolic end of the season's first half. New York slumps into the All-Star break with a 46-43 record, mired in 4th place in the A.L. East. Paradoxically, the Yankees' strong showing against Houston and Seattle belies their overall strength. Taking 4 of 6 games on this past road trip looks good on paper, and dampens the blow from Sunday's collapse.

What's worse, though, is that New York's recent success means it's harder to argue they should be sellers at the trade deadline. That could change, though, as after the break the Yankees will face Boston and Tampa Bay 11 times before the month is out. We will probably know all we need to know about the 2021 Yankees as the July 30th deadline approaches. Sunday's debacle just might be the game everyone talks about if the Yankees don't make a dramatic turnaround in the season's second half.

Is One Man's Trash Another Man's Treasure?

A moderately interesting development has just occurred in Knoxville, TN. The Tennessee football program has dismissed their former 4-star freshman QB, Kaidon Salter, after a second off-field issue. How is the state of the quarterback depth chart on a second-tier SEC program interesting, you ask?

For those that may not remember, one of the aspiring starters now at Tennessee is transfer QB Joe Milton, late of the Michigan Wolverines. Yep, there's the connection.

Michigan's head coach Jim Harbaugh as been under fire for the past few seasons, especially after the abbreviated disaster of the 2020 campaign. Among the many problems the Wolverines face is the perceived talent gap between Michigan and other elite programs. But that gap may not be as great as it seems: Harbaugh's recruiting classes are typically among college football's best. That being the case, is it an indictment of Harbaugh and his staff that they can't get the best out of these prized recruits?

Enter Joe Milton, the perfect test case. Milton's cannon arm and imposing size had recruiters drooling, but he never developed as a competent passer at Michigan. In the hands of Josh Heupel, a coach who has a reputation for high-powered offense and elite QB play, will Milton fulfill his 4-star promise? Can Heupel's guidance transform Milton into an All-American at Tennessee, or will he be the same inconsistent and ultimately disappointing player we saw at Michigan?

While the Volunteers will have a rather crowded QB room this summer, without Salter there's one less hurdle for Milton to clear. Should Milton land the starting job in Heupel's offense, who knows what passing stats he could produce? It's a real-time experiment worth watching this season. 

If It Walks Like a .500 Team...

Frustration in the Bronx

It's June 15th, and the Yankees sit in 4th place in the American League East with a record of 33-32. They are not playing well, having lost 13 of their last 18 games, including a brief, 2-game sweep at the hands of the Phillies. Despite all that, the Yankees haven't given up. At least not in the press:

"I don't think there's any getting used to freakin' losing." -- Aaron Boone

 "Really, the one thing we can do is focus on our work and our preparation, understanding we do have a lot of games ahead of us." -- Domingo German

"We’ve got quite a bit of season left. We do have a little bit of time left to figure that out." -- Brett Gardner 

The Yankees are saying the right things, but is there really "quite a bit of season left" to play? New York has played 65 games in 2021. That represents about 40% of the entire season. How late is too late to turn it around? To quote an old coach from another sport:

“You are what your record says you are.” -- Bill Parcells

And right now, the record says that the Yankees are a .500 team. If the season ended today, not only would the Yankees finish 9 games out in the East behind the Rays, but 4 games out of even the second Wildcard. Is this simply what the 2021 Yankees have to offer? 

In April, it was easy to write off the Yankees' slow start. Only 22 games into the season, there was still plenty of time to right the ship, for the silent bats to awaken. But here we are in June, and the same issues still plague the team: 27th in runs scored, 27th batting with RISP, grounding into the most rally-killing double-plays.

Ever reliant on the home run, even that has failed the team. Though the "Bronx Bombers" are tied for 13th in baseball in homers -- a marked improvement since April -- they are rarely game-changers. Of the 80 home runs the Yanks have hit, 54 of them were solo shots, the 4th-most with the bases empty. Somewhere, Earl Weaver is shaking his head.

Beyond the rah-rah, beyond the speeches and the promises to get grindin', lies a reality that the Yankees need to face: this team, as presently constituted, is not good enough. An over-abundance of strikeout prone, right-handed hitters has doomed the lineup. Injuries and inconsistencies have led to a decline on the mound. The Yankees were 5th in ERA in April, 6th in May. Thus far in June, the Yankees team ERA is 5.38, 22nd in baseball. 

The Yankees also fall on the wrong side of history. Since 1996, the first season with the Wild Card, 85 of the 144 teams that eventually won their division held at least a share of that division lead entering June 1st, nearly 60% of the time. Simply put, good teams that sit atop the division by mid-season tend to stay there. Conversely, there are probably many reasons why a 33-32 team doesn't suddenly climb the standings. Not that it can't happen, but logic tells us otherwise.

If the Yankees continue to slide and miss the playoffs in 2021, what happens next? Will Hal Steinbrenner finally be motivated to make a change in the front office? Will 12 years without a title be a long enough drought for a franchise that spends like a champion? It remains to be seen what happens the rest of the way, and perhaps over a long, cold off-season in the Bronx.

Don't Throw the Boone Out with the Bathwater

Much is being said about the terrible state of the Yankees in 2021, and rightfully so. After a loss to a middling Orioles team last night, the Yankees suffered the indignity of falling into last place in the A.L. East with a record of 9-13. The calendar says that it’s almost May, which by definition would be past the point of dismissing a slow start by saying "It’s only April." As Yogi Berra once said, "It gets late early out there."

While it's perfectly fine to get on the Yankees, I'm also hearing a lot of chatter about their manager, Aaron Boone. Yes, the same Aaron Boone who won 203 games in his first two seasons as the New York manager and has guided the Yankees to the postseason all three years he's been at the helm. Unfortunately for Boone, when a team is slumping as the Yanks are now, the manager is an easy target. But is he the right one?

Of the four major sports, a baseball manager probably has the least effect on a game's outcome. Cumulatively over a 162-game season, even a bad manager will only cost his team a few games versus a "true tactician" pulling the levers. Even the most maligned manager's decisions, typically involving a pitching change (or lack thereof), ultimately come down to whether the player executes or not. Second guessing may be a part of sports, but no manager ever puts a player into a situation where he doesn’t expect that player to succeed.

Bottom line: the players with the NY on their caps and bats in their hands are not getting the job done this season. The Yankees are ranked dead-last in MLB in batting average, a woeful .203 as a team. They are 27th in runs scored, and sport an anemic .650 OPS. Only the Detroit Tigers, who not coincidentally own the worst record in baseball, have had less success at the plate. By contrast, the surprising Red Sox lead the majors in OPS: the team's whopping .795 mark has certainly contributed to their 5th-best record in baseball and first place standing in the East. 

Another popular angle to attack Boone is his seemingly rigid reliance on analytics. Every move he makes, from his lineup to the pitching matchups or to defensive shifts, can be tied back to a mathematical model. Worse, from the average fan's standpoint, is the contention that Boone can't make a decision without checking upstairs first. 

Whether or not Boone is Brian Cashman's puppet is a different debate, but we can all agree that OF COURSE Boone shares Cashman's analytical outlook. That's why he was hired, and why Joe Girardi is managing in Philadelphia. Anyone who thinks that Boone's hypothetical replacement would not follow in lockstep with the Yankee GM is being foolish. (If you'd like to argue that Cashman shouldn't be the GM, well, I've got a lot of columns that support that premise.)

I'm not saying that Boone is the reincarnation of Casey Stengel, or that he doesn't sometimes leave us scratching our heads. It's just that as managers go, Aaron Boone is not the reason the Yankees are 9-13. The players in that lineup are not hitting. Reclamation pitching projects might pitch well for a few innings, but ultimately the bullpen will bear the brunt. To put it another way, don't blame the chef for your meal if the guy buying the groceries keeps shopping on the "Clearance" shelves.