By the book doesn't always make sense.

Brett Gardner has been arguably the best player on the Yankees recently. His slow start maybe tainting Joe Girardi's baseball intelligence or Joe maybe doing what he always does which is strictly play by the book. In many ways this is the antithesis of what former manager Joe Torre did. Torre's lore came from his "going with his gut" moves in the late 90's and early 2000's which cemented him not only in rich history of the New York Yankees but in baseball in general. It also was his undoing. Torre would constantly play his gut and played favorites. This can be best illustrated with his over usage of bullpen arms like Paul Quantrill, Steve Karsay and the list goes on. Joe Girardi is a very "by the book" manager. Lefty vs. lefty matchups, playing the percentages, this has been the calling card of the Joe Girardi era. It may, just like Joe Torre, be his undoing.

Going back to where i started, Gardner has been on fire lately. Not only that he's been able to hit lefties the whole year. He has a .385 OBP vs. LHP this year. He's never had a problem with lefties in his career. Why does Joe continue to go to Andruw Jones when a lefty is starting against the Yankees? Simple, he's looking at the book instead of what he sees on the field.

Gardner's pro's far outweigh his cons. Andruw Jones is a below average fielder, well below average hitter, and not very good on the base paths either. Gardner is a superb fielder, very good hitter, and while his base running has declined this year he's always a threat on the bases. With Derek Jeter on the DL I expected to see Brett lead-off every game in place of Jeter, instead I've seen Nick fucking Swisher do the majority of that.

Swisher while being my least favorite Yankee has been playing better as of late and has been hitting for power, put him in the 6 or 7 spot and have Gardner lead off EVERY GAME. Why is this so complicated?

I remember something similar to this last year. Joe kept starting Juan Miranda to "keep his bat hot" then two weeks later he was sent down to AAA. Andruw Jones isn't a crucial part to this team. KEEP HIM ON THE BENCH. Jones isn't going to be starting in the playoffs so let him learn to be a bat off the bench


If Girardi doesn't open his eyes and stop trying to play by the book or even worse "keep Jones' bat hot" he may find the same fate that Joe Torre found.

Trying this

Looking back on my life there have been four main constants aside from regular rejection and disdain from the opposite sex; that being Professional wrestling, politics, baseball and football. The objective of this blog is for me to get my opinions heard (or at leas written) about these topics. I will try to leave it to one of these four topics per post but who cares I may not.

This one will be about our nation's pastime: baseball.

Fantasy baseball... ok I'll admit it, I don't have the patience, knowledge or brain power to be good at this. I tried it for the first time two years ago and have found it increasingly uninteresting. Although I am 27 I seem to have an old man's view on baseball. I don't understand WAR, OPS, Slugging, pVAR, or any other abbreviation outside of rbi and obp. This year will be the last year that I participate in fantasy baseball because it has taken my focus away from more important things... like MLB the show 11 for ps3. What a great game. I am up to my third season in "Road to the Show" mode and I can't get enough of it.

The problem with fantasy is that at it's core it's math. I am awful at math. I am awful with numbers. I can literally stare at a phone number for four minutes and not have a clue to any of the numbers two seconds afterwards. I prefer playing favorites in baseball, rooting for the underdogs, and calling Nick Swisher an asshole. Fantasy baseball lets me do none of theses things.

I understand that fantasy everything has a huge following, I'm just not one of them.