Davidoff: Fun time of year to scrutinize managers

In switching from Dustin Moseley to Phil Hughes Sunday, Joe Girardi sent precisely the wrong message to his players and to Yankees fans.

Which is nice and all, but Alex Rodriguez sent a much louder message with one swing of the bat.

A-Rod's two-run, seventh-inning homer to right-centerfield off Boston's Daisuke Matsuzaka, with the wind blowing in, put the Yankees ahead by a run in a tight, tense contest. And as the season twists and turns toward its conclusion, it reminded us something we often forget at this time of year:

It's fun to scrutinize managers. Except that managers control only so much.

Hughes, informed Saturday night that he would start in Moseley's place, came through with six-plus strong innings. Girardi's gamble worked out.

This is results-based evaluation, however, as it should be at this time of year. If Matsuzaka had flummoxed the Yankees all the way to a 1-0 loss, elevating the buzz of an ultra-historic collapse, then we would've said that Girardi fired a key bullet and didn't hit his target.

So we're not talking about the result here. We're talking about the questionable process.

"I think the message is that we're trying to win games," the Yankees' manager said of his pitching change before last night's game. "That we're throwing a guy out there that's [17-8], and we're trying to win games, and we're trying to win our division. I have never stated during the course of this that we're not trying to win our division."

When the natural follow-up question came - "But weren't you trying to win games and the division with Moseley pitching?" - Girardi said, "Yes, I'm a little bit concerned with how it's perceived in [the Yankees' clubhouse]. Not necessarily anywhere else. But I think they know what we're trying to do."

Anyone who has watched the Yankees compete for the past few weeks knows what they've been trying to do. Girardi, with the backing of general manager Brian Cashman, has attempted to ensure optimal condition for all of his pitchers, even if it came at the expense of yielding the American League East title to Tampa Bay. That has meant going with marginal guys like Chad Gaudin, Sergio Mitre and Royce Ring in some big spots.

It didn't please many Yankees fans, yet it was working - until Sept. 22, when a rain delay left Girardi with six innings to fill, and the 7-2 loss to Tampa initiated the snowball that chased everyone out of this monument to largesse.

The switch to Hughes reflected the urgency that Girardi suddenly felt. Should he have felt it? No. The Yankees still have time on their side here, even if it doesn't necessarily feel like it.

Did the Yankees' lineup struggle early in the game because it was pressing, knowing that even their manager regarded this as a crucial game? Maybe, a little. Maybe, too, Matsuzaka just put together a great night, harnessing his stuff to overwhelm baseball's top offense, limiting them to just two singles over the first six innings.

"My job is to make decisions with the information that I have," Girardi said. People are going to look at it the way they want to."

I regard it as inconsistent. Yet no matter what happened Sunday night, the Yankees know they have A.J. Burnett, CC Sabathia and Andy Pettitte going the next three nights against the Blue Jays in Toronto.

Many of us feel that we can do better than the manager. Very few of us feel we can hit 612 career home runs. Which is why, I suppose, our focus often goes where it doesn't matter as much.