His continuing struggles at the bottom of the Yankees' order now have manager Joe Girardi contemplating a lineup switch.
"We'll sleep on it, and we'll make a decision what we're going to do," Girardi said Friday. "But Swisher is a good player and Swisher has done a lot of good things for us this year. And you look at the matchup against [Angels Game 6 starter Joe] Saunders -- he's had some hits off of Saunders."
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Girardi could also flip Swisher with Melky Cabrera at the bottom of the order; Cabrera has five hits in the past two games.
"It's not just one guy necessarily that you think about," Girardi said. "You think about where you might put the parts. Do you flip-flop guys? I don't ever really rush into decisions, because the one thing about the playoffs is you usually have a lot of time to think about it."
I have few memories of Joe Torre hesitating to sit a struggling hitter come playoff time, especially in the dynasty years. One example off the top of my head is when Tino Martinez sat in the 1996 World Series for the hotter hitting Cecil Fielder, and it payed off.
Sitting a struggling player when the game are as important as they can be is not stupid or short-sighted. The job of a manager is to put his team in the best position to win a game, not to stick to formulas or lineups that have worked in the past. If benching a struggling player puts your team in a better position to win you do it.
