So in this Peter Botte article, Brian Cashman takes the blame for the Yankees dismal season.  That shouldn’t be news of any kind, yet this is finally a team put together by the General Manager.  Its a shame though that Cashman didn’t get this opportunity until the last year of his contract though.  Yes, Cash has been the GM for many many year, but only with George Steinbrenner’s illness has he been relied on to know more than anyone else about baseball.  Still, the Yankees expected him not to miss a beat as the organization transformed.  Most “rebuilding teams” get a year or two to make a transition, Cashman was not afforded that luxury.  Some of that has to do with the “Yankee tradition”, some with the last 14 years, and some with closing out of the old Yankee stadium and the need to sell very expensive seats at the new stadium. The Yankees not making the playoffs is a bit of a surprise, and though it hasn’t been determined yet, and I would never put money down against them, it should have been a greater surprise if they did make the playoffs.  Though a lot has been written about the failures of Phil Hughes and Adam Kennedy, really fans should be shocked at the success of Mike Mussina and Sidney Ponson.  If you  rewind the tape to March, that’s where the doubters placed the blame.  Kudos to Brian Cashman for carrying the mantle of blame, but before we decide the Yankees need a GM, let think about how well they did with that lousy pitching staff.  And lets think about how well they will do next year with the salaries of Giambi, Abreu, Pettite, Damon, Matsui, Mussina, Ivan Rodriguez all coming off the books.  Its almost a blank slate.  Without being hobbled by aging stars, who now seem overpaid, Cashman should be able to put together a young, fun to watch team for 2009… and that is truly something to root for.

By the way, the winner of Trivia Tuesday is Mindy from Baltimore who knew that the number of regularly scheduled MLB games totaled 2,430.  Thats total number of teams (30) divided in half since each game has two teams playing= 15 multiplied by the number of regular season games (162) = 2,430.