...and it makes me sick to my stomach that he's still the manager of this team. In a year in which the Yankees can't afford to lose winnable games, he has cost them far too many wins already with his idiocy. Today, Torre bungled his way through a disastrous, 13-inning loss to a dreadful team, screwing up his bullpen, his bench and the game as a whole.
First of all, yet again, the Yankees lost an extra-inning game while their best pitcher sat around waiting for a phone call. Mariano Rivera lingered on the bench while a parade of inferior arms threw inning after inning against the Giants. In one ultimate tour de force of lunacy, Joe Torre allowed Scott Proctor to bat for himself with the winning run on base in the 13th inning, then sent him and his limp, dangling, wizened right arm out for a third, and ultimately fatal, inning of work. All the while, Rivera sat in the bullpen playing Connect Four with the bullpen catcher and one of San Francisco's "ball dudes."
Torre also fucked up by botching the 7th inning, bringing in the inept Mike Myers for Chien-Ming Wang, who walked his only batter faced, then calling for Brian Bruney and Ron Villone, severely limiting his options the rest of the way.
This game exposed Torre's strategical inadequacies, but it also exposed the severe lack of depth and flexibility on the Yankees' roster. Mike Myers and Ron Villone are just taking up space in the bullpen (Chris Britton has apparently died in Scranton). Chris Basak isn't even sent in to hit in favor of a pitcher. Miguel Cairo, Andy Phillips and Wil Nieves still have jobs. Kevin Thompson is hanging around. Christ, even the ghost of Bernie Williams would have been better than these Keystone Kops.
Brian Cashman gave his manager a short hand to play this season, and there's almost no manager in baseball less well-equipped to handle limitations than Joe Torre.
Oh, and Derek Jeter's hurt.
