Other Managers Talk About Girardi's First Postseason

From AOL Fanhouse:

Asked if there is any way for a manager to be ready for his first playoffs, Gardenhire told FanHouse: "No. Guaranteed, no."

Gardenhire also said:

"You're quicker with the pitchers most of the time," Gardenhire said. "You don't want to get too deep behind in any game. And you change your roster too. You normally go with like,10 pitchers and more players on the bench so you have more moves off the bench."

Jim Leyland had this to say:

"Be prepared as you can be, but you're going to catch some surprises that you didn't know about. You can talk to other people about it, and they can advise you on it, but until it actually happens, it catches you by surprise."

As for off the field:

"That first time is a shock," Leyland said, "when all of a sudden you're dealing with travel plans, and families on this plane, and are we taking the family on that plane, and Uncle Joe wants eight tickets and Aunt Marie wants seven tickets, are my tickets there, no my tickets aren't there -- all that [stuff]."

Mike Scioscia:

"Everything's going to be magnified," Scioscia said. "There's more weight on everything that happens. That doesn't mean it changes what you do.

"When you're there, I think you should have a pretty good grasp of what the strengths of your team are and who you're facing and go from there."

But Joe Torre doesn't think it will be a tough adjustment for Girardi:

"The thing that's important is he knows what it's like because he caught in the playoffs," Torre said. "The catcher is the guy right there with the manager. He was my sounding board before [Derek] Jeter was because of his experience, and because he was a catcher in the early years when I was there. He's a bright kid."

Managing in New York everyday is like going through the playoffs compared to life in smaller markets, this should help Girardi deal with any of the off the field nonsense. I could see how that would effect someone in Minnesota, but not New York. There is no excuse for that in New York. Plus he played and won here so I think he already knows what he's in store for.

As for on the field, I think he'll be fine. All he's got to do is keep managing like he has been most of the year. Run a bit, move runners over when you need a run, and make the right bullpen moves (he has all year). The one thing he can't do is try to hard and start over-managing. There's also a risk of that, but I don't think he'll fall into that trap. At least I hope not.

Coming into this season my confidence in Girardi wasn't very high, but after 103 wins there's no reason to doubt him. Besides an eleven day period where I felt he took his foot off the gas I think he did a terrific job this season.

How do you think Girardi will do in his first postseason as a manager?