Forcing Minority Hiring’s a Tough Sell in MLB

If the 2016 MLB season were to begin today Major League Baseball would not have any African-American managers in the game, something that Commissioner Rob Manfred wants to change. Lloyd McClendon was the only African-American manager in the league until the Seattle Mariners fired him this month after just two seasons at the helm and unless McClendon, or another African-American manager, finds a job before Opening Day 2016 MLB will be without one for the first time since 1987.

There are managerial openings in Miami, San Diego, Washington and Los Angeles so McClendon could latch on with one of those teams while former Astros manager Bo Porter has also interviewed with the Miami Marlins so it’s not likely that the season starts without a minority manager but it’s still possible. How do you fix this though?

There is already a rule in MLB that states that all teams must interview at least one minority candidate for a managerial vacancy, that doesn’t mean they will be hired though. How Manfred plans to expand the minority hiring’s, and not just African-American hiring’s mind you, remains to be seen but I just can’t see how it happens. Diversity and the opportunity is there in MLB and I firmly believe that in the year 2015, almost 2016, that racism is not a factor here much anymore so what is?

Can you force owners to hire minorities? Not likely, especially when it comes down to the Union vs. MLB. So what’s the answer? Unfortunately nobody has one and I don’t see how Rob Manfred could either.  Manfred already hired a company to provide support services for qualified candidates, specifically for minorities and women, to help them in the interview and preparations process so what more can he conceivably, and legally, do? The opportunities are there, however limited with just 30 MLB managers in the league, so I don’t know. Stay tuned. 

Joe Girardi & The 2010 Offseason That Could Have Changed Everything

The New York Yankees went into the offseason of the 2010 season after failing to defend their World Series crown and an early exit in the postseason. The Yankees faced much uncertainty that offseason like they do most winters but this winter was a little different as their manager Joe Girardi was a free agent.

Girardi was hired for the 2008 season on a three year deal to replace the popular and legendary Joe Torre and promptly snapped the Yankees skid of 13 straight seasons of making the postseason. This was not exactly the way the Yankees wanted to say goodbye to Yankee Stadium and goodbye to Joe Torre but the team bounced back in 2009 to win the World Series. The Yankees were back in the playoffs in 2010 but failed to defend their crown leaving Girardi unsure about his job security.


The Chicago Cubs pursued Girardi hard and heavy this offseason but ultimately on this day Girardi signed a new three year deal to stay with the club. What would the state of the Yankees be in today if Girardi had not signed on with New York and went back to Chicago where he spent some of his playing career? Would the Yankees have made the playoffs in 2011 and the ALCS in 2012? Would the Yankees have missed the postseason in 2013 and 2014? Does the team win the AL Wild Card Game in 2015?Who knows! One thing I do know is that if he had not signed on with New York on this day in 2010 Joe Maddon would probably be donning pinstripes right about now.


It’s something to think about anyway as we head towards a long and cold, dark winter.

Commissioner Manfred’s First Year on the Job a Success

The 2015 Major League Baseball season marked the first season under the new tenure of Commissioner Rob Manfred and with the season just about in the books you have to label this first season as a success. Manfred took over for former Commissioner of Major League Baseball Bud Selig with the promise to change the game, maybe not radically but change nonetheless, while improving the game and keeping the most progressive and old school fans happy at the same time. It seemed impossible at the time but it looks like Manfred may have pulled off the impossible.

Manfred’s first agenda was to speed up the game with his new pace of play rules in both the minor leagues and the Major Leagues. Pitching clocks were installed in the minor leagues and experimented with in the Arizona Fall League with varying degrees of success while television time outs, commercials and the annoying “stepping out of the batter’s box to adjust your batting gloves, read the signs from the third base coach and spit in your hands even though you took a ball a foot off the plate” were eliminated from the majors. Excluding the postseason and the month of September, due to rosters expanding to 40 players from 25 players leading to a slew of pitching changes night in and night out, Manfred and his pace of play rules shaved about 15 minutes off a game every single night.

Attendance is up across the board once again in MLB and television deals are fruitful and as plentiful as the oceans on Earth. Baseball is a business and the money is definitely here and definitely being spent. Manfred also introduced a domestic violence policy to train and potentially stop a domestic violence case before it happens and Manfred has enjoyed a spike in youth and exciting young players to hit the game this season. Manfred watched as Alex Rodriguez made his comeback tour, the Yankees (which love them or hate them you have to admit that it’s good for the game when they are relevant) return to the postseason and the return of the Chicago Cubs as a power house team in the league.

What Manfred did not deal with is any major steroid suspensions, Ervin Santana maybe being the biggest name to be suspended this season, or fall outs of any kind. Manfred wasn’t a part of discussions to contract a team or two in the league, instead he is spear-heading a movement to play games in Cuba and Mexico while potentially adding another team or two somewhere down the line. When a manager leads his team to the World Series, much like Ned Yost and Terry Collins have in 2015, you have to push the right buttons more time than not and the same can be said for a Commissioner. Manfred pushed the right buttons this season but his job is far from done. He has the second base collision rule to work on and the collective bargaining agreement ends when the 2016 season does, but if the past is any indication of the future than Manfred, and Major League Baseball, will be just fine. 

Weekly AFL Check In: Domingo Acevedo

We have been checking in with the members of the New York Yankees that are down in the Arizona Fall League all week this week here on the blog and that continues this morning with another promising Yankees prospect. This all started off with Tyler Austin, the man who needed the AFL the most, and it continued to Gary Sanchez, the man tearing up the AFL. It continued on with Ian Clarkin, the biggest story of the AFL as far as Yankees fans are concerned after missing the entire regular season with an elbow injury and today we move on to probably the biggest prospect of the bunch, Domingo Acevedo.

Acevedo opened many eyes this season hitting 100+ MPH consistently this season and tearing up the lower levels of the minor leagues. Acevedo doesn’t have to build innings like Clarkin, or prove himself like Austin, or rebuild his value like Sanchez all he has to do is keep the hype train rolling… and early indications look like he can and then some. Check the stats out below:

Domingo Acevedo

G: 2

GS: 0

IP: 3.0

W/L: 1-0

ERA: 0.00

K: 3

BB: 0

WHIP: 1.00

This Day in New York Yankees History 10/29: Jeter Wins Clemente Award

On this day in 2009 Derek Jeter would win the Roberto Clemente Award which is given to the player who best exemplifies the game of baseball, sportsmanship, and community involvement. Jeter would be the 3rd Yankees to ever win the award, Ron Guidry and Don Baylor the other two, and would join 13 Hall of Fame players with the award.


Also on this day in 1991 the Yankees hired Buck Showalter to replace Stump Merrill as the Yankees manager. In four seasons, including the strike shortened 1994 season, Buck would compile a 313-268 (.539) record as a 36 year old manager. Buck would win the American League Manager of the Year Award and the AL East title in 1994 and would lead the Yankees to the playoffs in the first Wild Card series in 1995.


Finally on this day in 1920 the Yankees hired ex-Boston Red Sox manager Ed Barrow to be their General Manager. Over the next quarter of a century the Yankees would see 14 American League pennants and 10 World Series Championships while Barrow would see a Hall of Fame induction.

Andrew Miller is the AL Reliever of the Year

Andrew Miller has been named the American League's Best Reliever for the 2015 season, congratulations to him. Miller finished the season with 36 saves in his first season as a closer in the league. Miller wins the Mariano Rivera Award while pitching for the New York Yankees, seems like fate to me.

World Series Game Two Open Thread

The World Series continues tonight with the second game inside Kansas City's Kauffman Stadium. While having to watch these games on Fox with Joe Buck in the middle of the night is not ideal it's the World Series and it only comes once a year. While we complain now we will all be missing baseball in a couple of weeks, I know I personally already miss it and I'm not without it yet. So here is your thread for the second game of the 2015 World Series and your thread for the night. Go crazy!

Who Gets a World Series Ring?

With the World Series in full swing and both the New York Mets and the Kansas City Royals vying for their first World Series ring in nearly 30 years. Speaking of World Series rings I always find it interesting to see actually who gets a World Series ring when the team wins the championship. To simplify things, everyone gets a ring. Literally, everyone.

Dan Uggla won a World Series ring with the San Francisco Giants in 2014 despite playing in just four games with the club and despite going 0-for-11 with six strikeouts and two errors. The only saving grace for Uggla struggling so much is that Joe Panik was inserted into the lineup at second base and the team may not win that World Series ring for Uggla without Panik in the lineup.

In 2013 Boston Red Sox pitcher Brayan Villareal received a World Series ring after facing one batter, Marco Scutaro, and walking him on four pitches. The walk was with the bases loaded so it walked in a run and he was immediately relieved after the walk. No worries for him though, technically he is still a World Series champion.

It’s not just those types of scenarios and players that get the rings, it’s almost literally everyone. We’ve heard so many stories of a training assistant, a scout, and the water boy etc. getting a ring only to sell them on EBay a few years later. The bat boy probably gets a ring and so does the girl sweeping up all the sunflower seeds.

Imagine if the Yankees had won the World Series this season with all the players that were sent down, called up, designated for assignment, traded away, or casted off in some way, shape or form. Hell I bet even Hank and Hal Steinbrenner would get one, Randy Levine too. Might not be a bad thing that the team didn’t win a World Series in 2015, there would be no money left for 2016. I joke, kind of. 

Brian Cashman's Net Worth

Why? Because as a society we are inherently nosy, especially Yankees fans who like to boast about this being a $3.5 billion franchise. Here is Brian Cashman's net worth courtesy of Get Net Worth. Just how much is being the GM of the New York Yankees worth in the grand scheme of things?

Brian Cashman is an American Major League Baseball executive; he has a net worth of $9 million. 

Brian Cashman has earned his net worth as General Manager/Senior Vice President with the New York Yankees; he started as an intern with the New York Yankees organization in 1986. Cashman, was born in Rockville Centre, New York, he helped create the video game MLB Front Office Manager. And he made the Crain's New York Business 40 under 40 list for 1999. Brian Cashman Salary What is Brian Cashman's salary? $3 million

Brian McGuire Cashman (born July 3, 1967) is an American Major League Baseball executive for the New York Yankees. He has been their General Manager and Senior Vice President since 1998.
Cashman was born in Rockville Centre, New York and raised in Washingtonville, New York. He was raised in an Irish Catholic family. He moved with his family to Lexington, Kentucky, where his father John managed a farm that raised standardbreds for harness racing. He attended Lexington Catholic High School before moving to the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. He graduated from Georgetown Preparatory School in 1985.

He attended The Catholic University of America, where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1989. He was a four-year starter at second base and the leadoff hitter for the Cardinals' baseball team. He set a school record for most hits in a season, which has since been broken.

Cashman started with the New York Yankees organization as an intern in 1986. In February 1998, he was named Senior Vice-President and General Manager, succeeding Bob Watson.

During Cashman's tenure, the Yankees have won six American League pennants and four World Series championships. Despite the team's success, in 2005 Cashman considered leaving the Yankees due to conflicts with owner George Steinbrenner and organizational disputes between team officials in New York City and Tampa. The Washington Nationals were rumored to be interested in hiring Cashman, which would have brought him back to the city where he attended school. Instead, Cashman agreed to a new contract with the Yankees following the conclusion of the 2005 season which gave him more authority in personnel decisions and paid him an average of $1.3 million more over the following three years.

The Yankees Connection to the World Series

The 2015 World Series is underway now with the New York Mets and the Kansas City Royals fighting for the ultimate crown. Neither team has won a World Series in nearly 30 years, the last victory for the Royals coming in 1985 and the last victory for the Mets coming in 1986, but would either team be in the position to finally reward their players, fans and organization if it weren’t for the Yankees? Maybe not.

I may be putting on just a bit but it’s true, there are plenty of connections to the New York Yankees in this World Series. From players to coaches former members of the Bronx Bombers are everywhere and it may seem like the Mets and Royals are getting the last laughs on New York.

Currently on the Mets roster the team boasts hitting coach Kevin Long (Yankees hitting coach from 2004-2014 including the minor leagues and Major Leagues), right fielder Curtis Granderson (Yankees center fielder from 2010-2013) and relief pitcher Tyler Clippard (Yankees farm hand and pitcher from 2003-2007). Currently on the Royals roster the team boasts pitching Dave Eiland (Yankees pitching coach from 2000-2010 including the minor leagues where he coached Ian Kennedy, Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain among others).

Now the fun part, to play Devil’s Advocate. Would the Yankees be in the World Series if they had this cast of characters on their roster in 2015? Well we know what the offense did with Kevin Long when they have a suitable cast of characters but you have to think the team couldn’t have been much better with Long, the team had the second most potent offense in the league behind the Toronto Blue Jays. The Yankees offense would have been better with a healthy Mark Teixeira, not a new hitting coach. Down the stretch the pitching became the problem but I’m not sure the pitching coach, Larry Rothschild or Dave Eiland, could have fixed it. The team was wore down and the sample size was humongous, that’s what happens when you’re starting rotation only goes five innings a night.

Would Curtis Granderson help the Yankees offensive woes? Probably would, sure, but it would make the Yankees even more dependent on the home run or nothing. Carlos Beltran, presumably who Granderson would replace, would simply make the Yankees even more dependent on the long ball and even more left-handed. He may have added a few RBI and home runs along the way but New York is still likely shut out in the Wild Card Game. You can’t win a game when you don’t score any runs so having Clippard on the team would likely be a moot point as well, the problem was the offense.

It’s a great story to follow, former Yankees winning it all elsewhere, but it’s nothing to lose sleep over and it’s nothing to make you wonder if they are getting the last laugh on the team. Some decisions work out, some don’t and some only work out elsewhere. That’s life and that’s baseball.