Girardi Starts His Second Camp

Joe Girardi officially begins his second year as Yankee manager as pitchers and catchers report on Friday. Obviously, last year was a fairly inauspicious debut for Girardi. Beset by injuries all over the place, the Yanks missed the playoffs for the first time since 1993. And while Joe did show a knack for bullpen management that far surpassed what we had gotten used to over Torre, not much else was impressive. Joe seemed distant to his players, and got on the wrong side of press by not always giving honest answers to their questions. More alarmingly, under his supposedly sabremetrically informed watch, the Yanks went from 4th all the way down to 21st in MLB in walk rate. Not good. Of course, some of that had to do with running out Molina and Cano's horrible year, and missing Matsui's and Po's walks. Still, the guys just weren't grinding for Joe. Hopefully, the additions of Teixeira and Swisher and the returns of Matsui and Posada will help, but Joe has to get Jeter, ARod and Melky back to grinding and Cano starting and ending the season as a grinder. Beyond that, he's got to relate better to the players and the press. He's got a loaded roster and getting back to, and winning the playoffs shouldn't be too terribly hard. Go Yanks!