Fire Rob Thomson

The New York Yankees are unlikely to clean house this offseason with manager Joe Girardi still under contract and General Manager Brian Cashman likely to be tendered another contract but the Yankees can improve the team going forward by firing third base coach Rob Thomson. I haven’t seen any sort of stat and don’t really know if there is one to begin with (if there is please leave us a line in the comments section because I would love to check it out) but Thomson has to be one of the worst third base coaches in the history of the sport.

How many times have we seen Thomson send a player only for him to end up meat at home plate? How many times have we seen Thomson hold a runner that could have fallen down, stopped to take a drink of water, and wink at a fan and still go into home standing up without a throw? Too many times on both accounts. Surely this cannot be the best the Yankees can muster up, can they? New York has great coaches in bench coach Tony Pena and Larry Rothschild, as much as I disagree with Rothschild’s approaches the stats don’t lie, but Thomson has somehow become a liability to the team.

Watching the game Tuesday night, I like to gather my thoughts for a day or two before I write so I have the ability to leave out the “F” word and keep this blog safe for work and children, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The Yankees had Chris Archer on the ropes and had battled all the way back to within one run when Thomson sent Stephen Drew home on a Jacoby Ellsbury single. First of all the Rays left fielder Matt Joyce had the baseball in his glove before Drew reached third base, which should have been your first sign to hold. Secondly Drew is not known to be a speed demon, he has average speed at best, so when in doubt with nobody out you have to hold him. The next batter was Derek Jeter who lined into an inning ending and rally killing double play to end the inning and any shots of the Yankees winning that game. A coach is not supposed to determine the outcome of the game but Thomson has more times than not.

I am in no way putting the struggles of the New York Yankees all on Thomson’s shoulders, this is a highly paid veteran team with extreme talent that they just are not harnessing. I am saying that the Yankees have had better third base coaches and could get a better third base coach with relative ease so why haven’t they? The Yankees offense has struggled to score runs so I understand that sometimes you have to be aggressive and hope for the best but there is a fine line between being aggressive and being dumb and the little I could stomach to watch of the Rays game on Tuesday all I saw was stupidity.