Depressed Fan

Pardon the photo-shopping skills (or lack thereof). There's a rumor circulating around the Legends Field area in Tampa today that the first fall guy for the Bombers will be pitching coach Ron Guidry. If this was leaked info, it could be meant to serve a couple of purposes: 1) It could mean Joe isn't leaving, but the front office is going to take the reigns away from him. They want to see if he'll say something like, "If Gator goes, so do I." 2) Gator is going to take the bullet for the loss to the Indians, and Torre will live to see another day. They may want to see what the reaction is to the rumor.

Personally, I don't think Gator has been a particularly good, nor bad pitching coach, he seems middle-of-the-road. There are a couple of pitching coaches who have profound effects on their staffs, Leo Mazzone comes to mind. Dave Duncan excels at reclamation projects. Outside of those two, I can't think of another top-line pitching coach (and I wouldn't trust Duncan with a young staff, I can't name one young pitcher he hasn't ruined). If Guidry does leave, I'd look internally to Dave Eiland, he's done an excellent job at the minor league level with the Yanks young pitchers, and with so many of them set to play such a big role for the Yanks next season, some continuity in their coaching can only help.

The public reaction to Torre's possible end was a support rally in Times Square.

UPDATE: Leo Mazzone is available, and I think he's worth going after. Hopefully, YES wouldn't focus on his incessant rocking. Take a look at what he did with Eric Bedard and a couple of the other young pitchers on that staff. He'd work wonders with Ian Kennedy especially.