Gettin’ the job done

If I owned a major league base ball team, Joe Girardi could be my manager any day of the week.

You hear people say he’s over-managed during the postseason, but in reality he has done a superb job. He has been in the game long enough where he is not going to sell his team short and he is always going to have a solution.

Last night I loved the fact he showed confidence in two struggling players, Nick Swisher and Joba Chamberlain, and both delivered for him. The Yankees are in good shape thanks to their 8-5 victory over the Phillies in Game 3 of the World Series, and Girardi deserves some credit.

Managing the ballclub is easy. It’s managing the bullpen that is tough, because you’ve got to make sure guys get well-rested. You can’t burn them out. But you don’t want to create a dead-arm period for them either. That is where you have to manage the bullpen, and if people want to call it over-managing, so be it.

As long as my bullpen is healthy I’d be happy, because pitching is going to win you games. Joe has done a fabulous job and Charlie Manuel has done the same thing with the Phillies.

I admire the way Charlie manages because he goes on gut feelings. I like what he did in Game 2 of the Series, when he let Pedro Martinez return for the seventh inning. It didn’t work, because the Yankees scored another run, but Pedro is a veteran guy, and if he wanted out of that game he would have said something. You’ve got to admire guys that want to stay in the game like that. You also have got to admire the managers who let you stay in the game.

The other night, Girardi left Johnny Damon in there to face Cliff Lee, even though Damon had bad numbers against him. And in the ninth inning Damon got a hit. Joe went with his gut, and you can’t fault him for that.

Girardi will go with his gut tonight and give CC Sabathia the ball on short rest. I’m not so sure I agree with the decision, but we’ll see how it goes.

In my mind, you are ahead in the series, so give Chad Gaudin the ball and let Sabathia take the extra day of rest.

I certainly wouldn’t be afraid to start Gaudin, even with the long layoff since he last started a game. You have to remember that Pedro Martinez hadn’t started in awhile before he faced the Dodgers in the NLCS, and all Pedro did was throw seven shutout innings.

Gaudin is capable of winning a ballgame. If you are down in the series, you go with your 1-2-3 guys, but when you are up, take a chance on a fourth starter because the extra rest will benefit everybody.

I didn’t let short rest bother me, because if you prepare yourself in the season and keep your arm in good shape, it’s not going to be that bad. You might get tired in the game, but sometimes your emotions ride you through it. You know when you’re tired the ball might get up or you might be a little flat and it makes you concentrate a little more and makes you pitch.