A Month of Fundays

A New York Yankees, Giants, Knicks, Rangers and other stuff blog.


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Friday, September 12, 2014

Yankee VP Mark Newman to Retire

So Mark Newman's decision to retire is getting some attention today.  Mark Newman had been the pitching coach at Old Dominion when the Yanks first hired him.  He was head of instruction while Bernie, Jeter, Andy, Mo and Posada were coming up.  As he got promoted, his jobs had less and less to do with hands on player instruction and more to do with administration and trouble shooting.   He has done yeoman's work for all 6 titles teams of the last 20 years, and really helped develop the homegrown players who won them.   As a Yankee fan, I am grateful for his service.

Moving forward, the Post was speculating that Trey Hillman will be moved into a more meaningful role.  Trey returned to the organization last year, and was also a big deal minor league manager back when the Yanks were churning out players -- which they are getting ready to do again. I like Hillman a lot, and was hoping he'd be the next Yankee Manager.    But in the meantime, it looks like he'll be filling Newman's roll.   Color me intrigued.

Of course, it wouldn't matter if they could revive Ed Barrow, if they won't keep their picks and won't spend money, they won't get good results.  So ownership has to spend, or people will start blaming the new hires, too.

19 Comments:

At 9:54 AM, Anonymous MBN said...

Good job pointing out the NY Post article.

I did not realize that Gary Dumbo and Hillman are tight. Guess he will be moving up also. But wasn't there any issue with Gary and some of the major league hitters way back when? I can't recall, and a Google search is not bringing up anything.

 
At 10:00 AM, Blogger Mike in Mississippi said...

Phil is right — it's doesn't matter who is in charge if ownership isn't willing to go above and beyond in spending on amateur talent. This past year's IFA class was a step in the right direction, but more is needed.

 
At 10:27 AM, Blogger Kalel9 said...

I'd like to see them bring back Brian Butterfield, but he's the 3B coach for the Red Sox, now, too.

 
At 10:30 AM, Blogger Lawyer in NJ said...

It's not just ownership, it's the GM and the people he hires as well. Sure, Hal may make unrealistic demands, but it's hard to believe, for example, that he was willing to spend on Tanaka and not on Abreu.

 
At 10:35 AM, Blogger Lawyer in NJ said...

And they shouldn't have to spend more on amateur talent (although it would be nice), if they merely drafted and developed in line with the league average.

 
At 10:38 AM, Blogger Kalel9 said...

They don't have the average number nor position of picks. And I don't know what it is about the Cubans, but someone on the money side keeps saying no and it's on the level of where the owner would have to say yes or no.

Also, they had a huge scouting opportunity with Tanaka and watched him for years. Not the case with Cubans.

 
At 10:55 AM, Blogger Lawyer in NJ said...

They have been/are caught up in a vicious cycle in which they sign free agents to compensate for bad development, and that, in turn, reduces the possibility that they can ever develop effectively because they lose picks.

But they gave up on or messed up the development of what should have been good homegrown talent from Hughes through AJack, and they really haven't recovered in some ways.

They reportedly did make a pretty big offer for Soler, but got beat out.

So let's say for argument's sake, that Cashman wanted Abreu, and/or Chapman, and/or Puig, and/or Cespedes, and/or Castillo.

You would think that he would be fed up with being ignored and, like Theo, move on.

Yet he doesn't. So there is plenty of culpability to go around.

 
At 11:18 AM, Blogger Kalel9 said...

I think there are other factors in play, such as family considerations and divorce payments and stuff like that to say for sure.

I think it's more likely that Hal just wasn't interested in signing Cubans.

 
At 12:12 PM, Blogger Lawyer in NJ said...

I think it's reasonable to think that no matter what limitations have been imposed on Cashman, his resources compared to almost any GM since the introduction of the amateur draft have been pretty awesome, and he has failed to exploit them.

 
At 12:18 PM, Blogger Kalel9 said...

Fair enough. But he was against re-signing ARod, and a few of the other big moves that ate up lots of his advantage.

 
At 12:25 PM, Blogger Kalel9 said...

It's also true that the draft budgets which were trending up while George was alive, were trending back down even before the new rules once Hal took over.

Likewise, they were more willing to pass on IFA's like Sano under Hal than they were under George.

 
At 1:12 PM, Blogger Mike in Mississippi said...

And who continues to employ Cashman? That's right, Hal Steinbrenner, who is set to sign Cashman to an extension despite the team's steady decline since its last World Championship.

At this point, this mess is 100 percent on him, and no one else.

 
At 1:19 PM, Blogger Lawyer in NJ said...

I don't defend Weather Boy. He should retire to one of his palatial estates and let some other sibling have a chance to screw this up.

But that doesn't absolve Cashman.

btw, David "Blaine" Roberston





 
At 1:53 PM, Blogger Lawyer in NJ said...

Chris Young could be the starting RF next year. OK, probably...not?

 
At 2:05 PM, Anonymous yankyfan said...

LNJ I agree until we break it down for two or more years we'll just stay in this funk.

 
At 2:52 PM, Blogger Mike in Mississippi said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

 
At 2:53 PM, Blogger Mike in Mississippi said...

Not absolving Cashman. But when you have the power to make a change and refuse to do so despite evidence sitting right in front of you that you're getting nothing but status-quo mediocrity, then it's no longer a problem of who's working under you.

 
At 3:52 PM, Blogger Lawyer in NJ said...

Well I guess I just disagree in terms of complete absolution. It is what it is though, and we're stuck with it.

 
At 5:58 PM, Blogger Lawyer in NJ said...

What a pleasure not to have to watch a castoff, or a salary dump, or ome other pitcher almost no team wants, and instead to watch someone who ciuld be a part of the future. Yay! Not a bad first start for Mitchell

 

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