Time For Cashman to Go

It's a dream, really — college kid gets a job interning at the Yankees, and winds up becoming general manager. Except this is no dream, this is reality in the Bronx. And the nightmare of having Brian Cashman as general manager must end.

Cashman, gifted with the Yankees general manager job in 1998 after his tutor Bob Watson retired, could not have had a sweeter gig. All he did was sit back and try not to mess it up.

And how could he, really? He already had an established, well-oiled machine to go along with the biggest piggybank in all of baseball, and he did well in his first three seasons, with the Yankees winning three World Series trophies. But one small chink in the armor was dealt with unsuccessfully and the spiral downward has not stopped from there.

Jeff Nelson decided to leave the Yankees after their 2000 World Series win. Cashman didn't go for a big free agent, instead opting for a midseason trade in the form of Jay Witasick. Witasick didn't pan out, but not everyone gets everything right all the time — this was thought to be just a blip on the radar for the man who brought Roger Clemens to the Bronx for David Wells.

But then Mariano Rivera blew a one-run lead in Game 7 of the 2001 World Series, and everyone decided the team needed to be overhauled. More bats, and more arms in the pen. Jason Giambi and Rondell White were brought in. As was Steve Karsay, the reliever with a history of arm trouble. Cashman wasn't worried, though, and gave him a four-year, $20 million contract.

Cashman compounded this by giving Sterling Hitchcock $12 million over two years. Not that anyone can fault Hitchock — I mean if someone is stupid enough to pay him that much, what's he going to do? Turn it down?

Hitchcock almost made it through two years in the Bronx — after a season and a half of an ERA in the mid-5s, he was sent packing. Karsay fared only slightly better. And after a terrible 2002 postseason, he would make a total of 13 more appearances for the Yankees over the next three seasons.

The 2002 offseason was less active, signing the one-season wonder Chris Hammond of the Atland Braves to a two-year deal. Hammond lasted a year before the Yankees dumped him. A host of other relievers were also brought in at various points — Antonio Osuna, Juan Acevedo, Armando Benitez (who was also traded away in the same season) Jesse Orosco, Felix Heredia, Dan Miceli, Gabe White, and others. Jeff Nelson was even brought back, but even he was just as mediocre as the rest.

Somehow, the Yankees squeezed past the Red Sox, only to lose to the Marlins in the World Series. Cashman responded like any confident GM — by going into full panic mode. Roger Clemens was on his first retirement, and the Yankees decided reciprocate all of Andy Pettitte's efforts by waiting until the last minute to tender him an offer.

Cashman had a plan, though. He could have signed Bartolo Colon, who had a successful history in the American League, as a free agent, or he could trade for Javier Vazquez, who had only ever pitched in Montreal. The option for Cashman was obvious — if Vazquez can flourish in front of 4,000 screaming French hockey fans, the South Bronx will no doubt be a perfect fit.

Furthermore, he pulled the trigger for another successful National League pitcher, but this one was almost 15 years older than Vazquez. Kevin Brown was coming in to replace the departing Pettitte, and going were Jeff Weaver and a flame-throwing kid by the name of Yhency Brazoban, who obviously wasn't qualified for a chance to prove his worth in the Yankees outstanding bullpen.

In addition, Paul Quantrill and Tom Gordon were brought in to form the seventh and eighth bridge that led to Mariano Rivera in the ninth — Yankees announcer Michael Kay even had a name for the three-headed monster — QUAN-GOR-MO. And it worked for the most part in the regular season. But once the postseason came around, Quantrill was MIA, and Mariano was often relied upon to clean up the mess Gordon left every night against the Red Sox.

The true goats that postseason though were the combined Game 7 effort of Kevin Brown and Javier Vazquez, two pitchers that Cashman engineered trades for that would never wear Yankees pinstripes again. But there was one silver lining to come from the 2004 season.

In what was a very shrewd business decision back in 2003, Cashman had signed Jon Lieber to a small two-year deal, fully knowing that Lieber would miss the entire first of the two seasons with arm surgery. And in 2004, Lieber blossomed into becoming one of the Yankees' most dependable postseason starters.

But Cashman decided to eschew the man who proved he can pitch competently with the most on the line, and opted for Jaret Wright, who used to be good seven years ago. It was then, in 1997, that Cashman watched him dominate the Yankees, and he figured why not go with him over Lieber?

True, Wright did pitch now exclusively in the National League, where the lineups have about one-third of the potency of an American League one. And it's also true that he pitched in pitching-friendly Turner Field, with the pitching staff-friendly Atlanta Braves. And true, he was coming off an abysmal postseason where he looked worn down, and he also did have that nagging history of arm trouble.

But I think Cashman was genius in this respect — knowing what a colossal failure Jaret Wright would prove to be, it would displace some of the anger fans directed at him for bringing Kevin Brown to replace Pettitte. It was also that 2004 offseason where he signed Carl Pavano to a four-year, $40 million deal (Pavano has made 17 starts in three years and is once again out for the year).

The next season ended even earlier, with the Yankees bowing out to the Angels in the ALDS. Cashman, having learned his lesson from bringing in National League relievers, decided to reward Atanta Braves pitcher Klye Farnsworth's disastrous 2005 postseason with a three-year, $18 million contract. Guess how that is currently playing out?

And after losing to the Tigers in four games last postseason, Cashman played his final card and bid $26 million for Kei Igawa, a Japanese pitcher who because he was so ineffective, needed to have his delivery restructured in the minors. Oh, Igawa signed a 4-year, $20 million deal this spring.

And because every other deal of his has been so disastrous, Cashman was forced to bring back Roger Clemens for a pro-rated, one-year contract at $28 million.

What's incredible is there are still a bunch of other signings that have been plain terrible that I have completely omitted (does anyone remember the Kenny Lofton and Tony Womack multi-year deals?)

Cashman has no feel for what it takes to put out a championship team. He was devastated last season after the Yankees were eliminated from the playoffs, but has learned nothing from it. Their pitching will be largely the same this time around if they even make it to October (Mike Mussina and Roger Clemens have six innings and four runs all over them come playoff time) and they have largely the same lineup.

Pitching is what wins, not hitting, no matter how many bats you acquire. The Yankees used to consistently beat the overrated, big-bat squads in the late-'90s, and now they have become one of them. They replace weak-armed, old outfielders (Bernie Williams) with weak-armed, old outfielders (Johnny Damon).

Cashman got lucky two years ago when he was forced to bring up Robinson Cano and Chien-Ming Wang to the majors because Tony Womack and Jaret Wright were so disastrous that he had no choice. And if Jason Giambi hadn't been injured, we'd still be seeing Johnny Damon in center not covering ground and essentially kicking balls into the infield.

The madness has to stop. The Yankees need a leader, who understands how to form a team, not just play fantasy baseball with the largest wallet. Brian Cashman needs to get back to reality, and realize he is not a general manager, just an extremely fortunate person who got to live every fan's dream.