Torre Torre Torre...

Everybody is abuzz with the whole Joe Torre revelations regarding his tenure with the Yankees. Leaving aside the ethics of the whole “what happens in the clubhouse stays in the clubhouse” issue--it does raise some interesting questions.

The Yankee team of 1996-2001 had a lot less pure talent on it than the 2002-2008 edition that has featured a bevy of future Hall of Famers, superstars, former superstars, perceived superstars and players paid as if they were superstars in their quest to again win the World Series: Alex Rodriguez, Mike Mussina, Jason Giambi, Randy Johnson, Jeff Weaver, Johnny Damon, Kevin Brown, Jaret Wright, Carl Pavano, Cliff Floyd, Gary Sheffield, Hideki Matsui, Tom Gordon, Al Leiter, Robin Ventura, Raul Mondesi, John Olerud, Kenny Lofton, Javier Vazquez, Bobby Abreu, Pudge Rodriguez plus guys like Roger Clemens, David Wells, Andy Pettitte and Tino Martinez were brought back in hopes of recapturing aura and mystique.

Despite that galaxy of stars they couldn’t duplicate what guys like Scott Brosius, Paul O Neill, Bernie Williams, David Cone, Tim Raines, Chuck Knoblauch, Jeff Nelson, Orlando Hernandez, Jim Leyritz and earlier incarnations of Wells, Martinez and Pettitte accomplished.

Obviously, talent is a prerequisite for a team to contend--there is no substitute for that. I remember someone stating the biggest difference between the clubs pre and post Opening Day 2002 was that the more recent incarnations of the Bronx Bombers had all the best players whereas the four time World Champions had all the right players.

Put another way, you can put together two high performance engines--one can be cobbled together with all the biggest, baddest state-of-the-art engine parts simply pieced together so that the engine runs; the other assembled with lesser (but still quality) parts but put together with the thought of the pieces interacting smoothly and working with a minimum of friction and maximum output and chances are good that the better assembled engine can beat the one that has all the bells and whistles but simply tossed together.

As Torre allegedly states: "The team wasn't tough enough ... A lot of those players are more concerned about what it looks like as opposed to getting dirty and just getting it done. Those other teams, they were ferocious."

In short, one team was greater than the sum of its parts--the other was whole was lesser than the sum of its parts.

Is this the “chemistry,” the “intangibles” that are often spoken of? The thought that talent--raw talent, while irreplaceable isn’t enough when putting a team together but having the talent mesh harmoniously and work as a unit with common purpose is important as well?

My biggest memory of the Yankee team of 1996-2001 is that if you opened the door a crack, they’d kick it down; any mistake by the opposition would be capitalized upon with extreme prejudice--there was a unity of purpose…beat the other team by any means necessary. However, there has been no shortage of drama on the 2002-08 clubs; each year, whether in the trade or free agent market the brightest, shiniest bauble available would be brought into the mix with little thought about how they would play with the other kids. The sheer overwhelming amount of talent on the roster was sufficient to win out over 162 games but when facing talented teams in the more randomized post season tournament, they didn’t have the common focus of the previous assemblage and were repeatedly beaten by very capable teams that functioned as a unit.

Instead of having a club that was fairly anonymous (compared to more recent rosters) and the assumption was that somebody would step up with the big hit, the big play when needed, the team now had specific players that were expected to do so; the 1996-2001 Yankees expected the team to succeed whereas the 2002-08 Bombers expected Jason Giambi, Alex Rodriguez, Randy Johnson etc. to succeed in their behalf.

One group was a team, the other an assembly of extremely talented players.

As Torre said: "Never forget there is a heartbeat in this game"--obviously the “heartbeat” wouldn’t be enough to turn the Kansas City Royals or Pittsburgh Pirates into world beaters but maybe it’s the difference when the talent level is within range of several teams.

Something to keep in mind at any rate.

To change gears…

Scott Boras is reporting that Manny Ramirez will sign by spring training and that several teams have expressed interest in his client.

This isn’t news, what Boras is saying is (1) Ramirez will sign by spring training, (2) a team or two has called wondering if their contract demands have come down (3) Boras is compelled to let this (that clubs have been in contact) be known publicly in hopes of getting the Dodgers to sweeten their offer by getting them thinking that other clubs are suddenly willing to break the bank for Ramirez so that (4) Manny will have a slightly better deal than the one in front of them when he signs with the Dodgers before spring training.

Put a jacket and tie on a hamster, place hamster on a wheel and watch him run in place and get absolutely nowhere but looking quite determined nevertheless and you’ll get a pretty good idea of what is behind Boras’ latest bit of “news.”

Finally…

In a bit of fun news, Jack Marshall--who wrote The baseball ethicist: Why nobody signed Barry Bonds that inspired my reply The baseball ethicist…a reply has agreed to do a post mortem after the decision in the MLBPA’s collusion case against MLB regarding Bonds with me.

Despite our differing opinions on the subject, we do agree that Bud Selig is far worse than Bonds and neither of us is a real fan of BLB. I’ve promised to recant if it wasn’t collusion and it will be my forum to do that--if they are guilty (of collusion)…well, any sarcasm and invective will be directed at Bud and the ownership cartel. I’m not a told-you-so kind of guy and Jack’s opinion is a good faith one and let’s face it--the media has portrayed Bonds as everything that is evil in this world so it’s not unreasonable to think that the media circus and perception of his melon-ness would keep a number of teams at a distance.

Best Regards

John