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Con: Veterans need an outsider to shake up clubhouse
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Don Mattingly may be too close to current players to become the next manager of the New York Yankees.
Too close to the ways of mentor and outgoing manager Joe Torre.
Too inexperienced — make that no experience, period — to be handed the job of directing the most successful franchise in major league baseball history.
The Yankees certainly don't need a baby sitter to fill the position of leadership over a team that has expectations of winning World Series titles every year under the scrutiny of media and ownership overlooking every move.
While Mattingly is quite familiar with the New York media and George Steinbrenner watchdogs, he hasn't had to deal with it from a management role.
One question you have to ask is why the Yankees didn't want Torre, who led the team to 10 divisional titles and four World Series championships, back as manager.
The answer appears to be the ownership wanted to shake up the dugout.
Light some fire underneath some of those players with fat contracts.
Can you see Mattingly in that role?
Not exactly.
That's why the Yankees must look outside the current organization for its next manager.
Isn't that what they did when Torre was hired in the first place?
One manager for the taking is 2006 National League manager of the year Joe Girardi.
By most accounts, Girardi is a no-nonsense manager; able to prod and poke to get the most out of his team. In his only major league managerial season, Girardi took a young Florida Marlins program and made a strong second-half push.
As a former Yankees catcher — for four seasons — Girardi knows the ins and outs of working with the New York media.
Two other possibilities are St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, who could enter the free agent market depending on who is hired as the St. Louis general manager.
And there's former Oakland A's manager Ken Macha.
Macha averaged 92 wins in four seasons in Oakland, but was released when the low-budget A's didn't win a World Series title.
In the season after Macha departed, Oakland's record dropped to 76-86.
— Derry Eads is a staff writer. His e-mail address is deads@VenturaCountyStar.com.
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