Friday Night Open Thread: If Yanks choke this away should Girardi be fired?

Jesse Spector of the Daily News wrote about this today, and I think he has a point. Spector isn't saying the Yankees will blow it, but if they do he thinks Girardi should go. Besides the terrible managerial decisions he's made that have directly led to the Yanks losing two games this series Spector points out the historic aspect of this and how most teams don't recover from such choke jobs, especially not with the same manager at the helm. Here's more from Spector:

So this is not to say that the Yankees will lose this ALCS, but if they do, Joe Girardi should be fired.

It's harsh, yes, and it's not easy to fire a manager coming off a 103-win season, but the burden of a collapse in this series would fall squarely on Girardi, who has made decisions in both losses that are indefensible. In both Games 3 and 5 in Anaheim, Girardi's management of the Yankees' pitching staff left fans saying to themselves, "What the hell is he thinking?" And that was before Alfredo Aceves coughed up Game 3, and before A.J. Burnett let the tying runs get on base in Game 5. From the time that Aceves came in, and from the time that Burnett stayed in after a long top of the frame, Girardi's decisions had "mistake" written all over them. Both proved catastrophic.

...

Really, though, this is about history as much as it's about Girardi's present. And what history has shown is that there are some things you just don't come back from - like blowing a 3-1 series lead.

There have been 12 teams in baseball history who have coughed up a 3-1 lead in a series, and of those teams, only two came back to win a World Series for the skipper who was at the helm for the collapse.

...

Girardi won 38 more games than Wedge this season, but after failing to guide a $200 million team to October a year ago, compounded with a collapse in the playoffs this year for which he must bear the responsibility, it's impossible to see how the Yankees could keep him if the Angels do come to the Bronx and win two games this weekend.

Hopefully after Saturday's game six this is a moot point and the Yanks are spraying champagne and beer all over each other. But if they do blow it and you're Brian Cashman, what do you do with Joe Girardi?

Besides that question here's a quote from Jeter that hopefully sums up the Yankees' feelings on the situation: “

Coming into this series,” Jeter said, “all the talk was how they dominated us over the years and how they were going to be a big problem for us. And then, we’re up 3-1 and we lose one game people say, well, we wasted an opportunity and ‘What’s wrong with the Yankees?’ It’s a long series. Last I checked, I think we’re in pretty good shape.”

You can also use this to discuss anything you'd like. D-Rob, Hughes and Joba, Swisher's slump, etc.