Cashman: Blame Me For Yanks Struggles

From the Peter Botte:

Whether it was aimed to take pressure off first-year manager Joe Girardi and his torpedoing team - or a signal that he is unsure about returning next season - GM Brian Cashman fell on the sword Thursday when asked how much of the Yankees' current state of disarray falls on him.

"All of it," Cashman said before the Yanks looked to avoid an embarrassing three-game sweep against Boston and to keep their faint playoff hopes alive Thursday at the Stadium. "Bottom line, I'm the general manager, so if you want, we can clear this out of the way. This is not a Joe Girardi issue, we have a terrific hitting coach I think in Kevin Long, I think we have extremely talented players. I put together a club that is where it's at and I'm responsible for that."

"Cut through all the red tape and stuff, I think Girardi's done a tremendous job, giving what has occurred," Cashman said. "He continues to try to remain upbeat with this coaching staff to try to keep these players up and to try to perform up to their abilities.

"That's frustrating for all of us, but the buck stops right here with me. And I'd say it shouldn't go any farther than that. My job is to put it together, my job is to fix what's broken and my job is obviously frustrating the hell out of me right now, to be honest. Because I just believe we're better than this."

With 30 games remaining, even Cashman seems to realize that baseball's highest-paid team might need a miracle to extend its streak of playoff appearances. "I do know one thing. This team is trying, they are not laying down. That's a fact. They do care, they want to win, and for some reason it's just not happening. That's obviously for us internally to try and figure out," Cashman said. "We haven't performed. So there you go. We haven't performed, bottom line. We're not getting what we need to from everybody.

"If I knew why, I would've fixed it. Unfortunately, it's my job to put it together and then fix what's broke and obviously I have not been able to figure that out. If I could've, I would've fixed it by now.

"So it's very hard to accept. No one likes to deal with losing. We're losing right now and we feel we're better than this. At some point, you are what you're record is until you prove otherwise. Our record says what we are right now, the standings say that's where we're at, and it's up to us to prove otherwise. And we're certainly not doing a good job of that at this point.

"The owners have done everything they need to do. You can't ask for anything more than what the Steinbrenners have done on their end. We just obviously are what we are right now, and a lot of people deserve better than that, fans included."

In Cashman's defense he didn't hurt Chien-Ming Wang's foot, or Jorge Posada's shoulder. Where this team would be with those two guys we don't know, but they'd probably better than six games out of the Wild Card.

Cashman deserves some blame of course. He relied far too heavily on Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy, and did so without a sufficient backup plan. And I could blame him for the Ivan Rodriguez trade, which has turned out to be a disaster, but I guess on paper it was a move he had to make.

I also will blame him for defending Joe Girardi and Kevin Long, two guys who do not deserve his support. What has Kevin Long done to deserve this much support? This team is on pace to score 750 runs, and that's pathetic. He should at least get some of the blame for that. And Joe Girardi has been decent at best. Certainly not good enough for the GM to put his neck on the line in support of him.

As I said last week I would keep Cashman here next year. This team is in a transition period, deep down we all know that, and sometimes it takes a few years to get where you want to be. If he can't get the Yankees to the promised land in the next two seasons then get rid of him, but until then let him finish what he started.

There were also these quotes from Hank about Cashman from the NY Post:

"He has to take part of the blame for what has happened in the last five years, as far as whatever is showing up now,'' Steinbrenner said of his GM during today's 3-2 victory over the Red Sox in front of 55,092 at the Stadium. "It's been a cumulative effect. But what we've got to do, myself and my brother (Hal), is get this thing back on track like they did in the '90s.''

"There is enough blame to go around, certainly it's not Joe Girardi, that's for sure,'' Steinbrenner said. "There was a five-year period where things didn't go very well building the minor leagues, and this is the first full year that myself and my brother have to straighten things out. It wasn't just Brian. There were some people that aren't with us any more. As usual it was a group effort."

Steinbrenner then said, "Yet to be determined, but I am leaning that way'' when asked about Cashman returning and said, "I think so, yeah'' when asked if brother Hal agrees with him on Cashman.

If you believe what he says it would seem likely that Cashman will return, IF you believe what Hank says. I still don't understand this blind faith in Joe Girardi, not only from Cashman, but from Hank too. Are they watching these games?