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Jeter with his first HR at the Stadium all season!
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Jeter with his first HR at the Stadium all season!
Michael Kay using Shane Greene as a reason to raise doubt to not chase Jon Lester, Max Scherzer or James Shields :x
A-GAWD
The former coach the Yankees should bring back to organization
By: Joel Sherman
September 15, 2014 | 4:55pm
The Yankees’ farm system has not been very good, particularly in the area of producing even useful position players.
Some extenuating circumstances exist, including being such a consistently good team that the Yanks never have access to the top of the first round. But the excuses only go so far. Before there were any monetary caps on the draft and international signings, the Yanks spent lavishly in those markets — by far the most in Latin America, for example — and the results have defined underwhelming.
Since the turn of the century, the Yanks have developed just four above-average position players. They signed Robinson Cano and Melky Cabrera out of the Dominican in 2001, and they drafted Brett Gardner and Austin Jackson in 2005 — taking Jackson in the eighth round and using their cache of cash to convince him to play baseball rather than point guard at Georgia Tech.
From within the organization and within the game, I have heard criticism that ownership has been too loyal to certain failing executives, the GM has not orchestrated well enough, the scouting director has not drafted well enough or the developmental leadership has been flawed. I am not sure there is a proper formula to divvy up blame.
What I know is the ownership of the Steinbrenners is not changing, and there are strong signs GM Brian Cashman and scouting director Damon Oppenheimer are going to be retained. What is definitely changing is that senior VP of baseball operations Mark Newman is retiring. Thus, a new person will soon head that department.
I think it should be Brian Butterfield, currently the Red Sox’s third base coach.
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Butterfield congratulates Mookie Betts on a triple.Photo: Getty Images
Butterfield has boundless energy, a sterling reputation for cooperation and loyalty and renown throughout the game as one of baseball’s best teachers, specifically of infield play.
What stands out the most, though, is that Butterfield has a unique ability to be adored by players while demanding high standards, hard work and no excuses. He is that characteristic drill sergeant who puts his charges through sweat and hell but does it with pure intentions and a good heart. I was at approximately 30 Red Sox games last year, including all 16 in the postseason as they rolled to a title, and the universal praise for Butterfield’s dedication, knowledge and relentless passion was overflowing and universal. It corroborated everything I came to believe about Butterfield since watching him daily with the early 1990s Yankees.
Butterfield has bloodlines that run through the Yankees. His father, Jack, held the very job that his son should now be hired for up until his death in a car accident in 1979. Brian Butterfield was drafted by the Yanks as a second baseman and became a coach later in the system, and he is most credited for refining Derek Jeter’s defense so that Jeter could remain at shortstop — the two spending 35 straight two-a-days at Instructional League after the 1993 campaign working on the finer arts of the position.
Butterfield was promoted to being a major league coach when Buck Showalter managed the Yanks from 1992 to 1995.
There is no sure thing Butterfield would come — though I believe he is a Yankee at heart. I know he aches to manage. But, at 56, he might be at the wrong age and on the wrong end of a trend in which organizations now seem to be favoring younger managers with long major league playing resumes such as Brad Ausmus, Robin Ventura and Matt Williams.
There also will be questions if Butterfield could do the administrative work associated with the job. But I find that nonsense. If you want his on-field acumen, hire someone else to handle budgets and rules. Also, this job needs to be narrowed. Newman over the years was very involved in the draft and, particularly, international scouting. This job has to be about creating cohesion and excellence on the field at the Dominican Academy, throughout the domestic minor leagues and in the Instructional League.
The Yanks have done better at getting pitchers through the system, and they feel prospects such as Greg Bird, Eric Jagielo, Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez have a chance to be above-average performers. However, they have felt good about players in recent years such as Slade Heathcott, Mason Williams, Austin Romine and Eduardo Nunez, who flat-lined.
They must do better as Cano has left, Jeter is retiring and the current core desperately needs an infusion of youthful talent that knows how to play what, in better days, used to be known as the Yankee Way.
Hiring Brian Butterfield as a super teacher with high standards would be a good start.
We play TB 4 more times (1 Home, 3 Away) , Toronto 4 times (Home), Boston 3 times (Away), Orioles 8 times (4H, 4A)
Take 3 of 4 from the Rays
Sweep Toronto
Sweep Boston
Take 5 of 8 from Orioles.
15-4 to close it out
Would put us at 89 wins, tied for Detroit's pace.
Unless the Yankees stage one of the greatest comebacks in history, they will be eliminated from the playoff hunt in the next seven days, and while we’ll never know if a different use of Jeter could’ve been difference-making in the standings, the numbers are clear: He was one of the worst players in the majors this season, day after day.