The best Managers in New York Yankee history

10) Yogi Berra: In slightly more than two years as manager, Berra had a 192-148 record, for a .565 winning percentage. He led the team to the 1964 World Series, but was stuck with a middling team in 1984, when George Steinbrenner saddled him with mediocre players.

9) Clark Griffith: From 1903-1908 Griffith had a 419-370 record, a .531 winning percentage.

8) Buck Showalter: In 1995 Showalter led the Yankees to their first playoff appearance since 1981, a fourteen year drought. In four years at the helm he had a winning percentage of .539, with a 313-268 record.

7) Ralph Houk: Managing the team for 11 years, Houk led the Yankees as they went from the top of the baseball world in 1961 to its bottom depths in the late '60's and early '70's. He finished with a 944-806 record, a winning percentage of .539.

6) Joe Girardi: The Yanks have made the playoffs in four of Girardi's five years with the team. His record is 479-331, a .591 winning percentage, with one World Series title. Girardi has done a good job managing his pitching staff and bullpen.

5) Billy Martin: Taking five turns as manager, Martin ended up with a 556-385 record, a .591 winning percentage. The team won pennants under his helm in 1976 and 1977, taking the World Series title in '77.

4) Miller Huggins: With the game's best players in Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig on his roster, Huggins compiled a 1067-719 record, a .597 winning percentage, from 1918-1929. A monument at Yankee Stadium was erected in his honor.

3) Joe Torre: Torre led the Yanks to four world championships in 12 seasons, from 1996-2007. His 1173-767 record, a .605 winning percentage, demonstrates consistency while facing adversity as manager.

2) Casey Stengel: In 12 years from 1949-1960, Stengel won seven World Championships, plus three more American League pennants. His 1149-696 won-loss record gives him a winning percentage of .623.

1) Joe McCarthy: The longest tenured Yankee manager at 16 years, McCarthy holds the record for most wins as Yankee manager, and his 1460-867 regular season record gives him a winning percentage of .627, which is also tops among Yankee managers who were at the helm for more than one season. His teams won seven World Championships from 1931-1946.

source for statistics: www.baseballreference.com

Yanks will regret signing Hafner

Signing Travis Hafner to a $2 million contract is one of Yankee GM Brian Cashman's sillier moves. Cashman, baseball's most over-rated general manager, is trying to make up for some of the team's lost home run production due to the departure of Nick Swisher, Raul Ibanez, and Russell Martin, as well as the absence of Alex Rodriguez.

However, Hafner has played in less than 100 games the past two seasons due to injuries, and at age 36 can hardly be expected to play 140 games a year, even if it's only as a DH.

Hafner hasn't played in the field since 2007, and hasn't even bothered to take ground balls at first base during spring training.  He's unable to throw due to a past shoulder injury.

So Cashman has saddled Joe Girardi with what will basically be a 24 man roster - assuming Hafner doesn't land on the disabled list first. Hopefully the Yankee manager won't have to deal with any major injuries during games, or be involved in many extra inning games. If that happens Girardi may end up using one of his pitchers in the field.

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What's wrong with hiring an unemployed person?

I'd like to hear from recruiters and hiring managers about why they won't even consider an application or resume from an unemployed person. It seems as though they don't care about bringing in the person who can best do the job and contribute to their organization. Instead they get hung up on silly things, like the length of unemployment. People can be unemployed for any number of reasons; it isn't automatically a given that they are lazy, not up-to-date on skills, or some sort of "low performer."

The most important question in any job interview is "What is your plan for doing this job effectively?" (Or for a profit, if it's in private industry). Anyone can talk about their past accomplishments. But what does that have to do with how they will perform in their next job? Past performance doesn't necessarily predict future performance.  Which is why length of unemployment should not be a consideration in the hiring process. Besides, does anyone stay in one job forever? Even your best candidates can leave a job - not only someone who is under-employed and looking for a better opportunity. Everyone is always looking for something better!

I'm not sure how hiring managers sleep at night, placing ads that state "only employed" need apply. So enlighten me, recruiters. What am I missing here?