Girardi probably deserves better. As he was in Florida, he’s being set up to fail. With the Marlins, his problem was that he couldn’t drive that franchise into the ground and force the team to move elsewhere. Now he gets to succeed one of the most successful managers in big-league history while one of baseball’s most notorious owners hands the reins over to his sons, who appear eager to leave their mark on the club they’re inheriting.

And you can be sure, they will leave a mark.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, Grady Little has resigned as manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Presumably this opens the door for Torre, while Little gets to make good on his plan to “play with my grandkids.”

Despite Torre’s track record in New York, I’m not sure he’s the right guy for the Dodgers. My gripe isn’t so much with Torre as it is with the fact that I don’t think the Dodgers are quite where they believe they are in terms of being competitive in the NL West.

As we saw down the stretch in ‘07, this division has become very tough. Frankly, if the Dodgers are going to be a serious player next season, they’ll need to make some aggressive moves over the winter. Actually, they were plenty aggressive last winter; this time they need to be smart as well.

Torre has demonstrated the ability to work well with big-league egos, with guys who are accustomed to fighting for (and winning) championships. How will he respond to a team that isn’t assured a spot in the postseason? How will that team respond to him?

And can his grandkids play with Little’s grandkids, or would that be awkward?

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The story so far:

• AL West
• AL Central
• AL East
• NL West
• NL Central

And now for our latest installment…

• Mets – Only a historic collapse kept me from getting this one right. They were supposed to be the strongest team in the National League, and I had them losing to the Angels in the World Series.
• Braves – You wonder what might have been if they hadn’t traded away Adam LaRoche for Mike Gonzalez and if Andruw Jones had shown up to play.
• Phillies – At the beginning of the season, I didn’t think they had enough pitching. I still don’t, but it appears not to matter. Running Cole Hamels out there every fifth day and having a bunch of guys beat the snot out of the ball in a tiny park turns out to be a pretty effective strategy. Who knew.
• Marlins – Clearly Joe Girardi was holding this club back. Good thing the owner got rid of him. It must be difficult knowing that too much success could force you to keep your team where it is.
• Nationals – Speaking of teams formerly owned by a certain art collector, vive Les Expos! I bought into the hype that said this would be one of the worst teams in big-league history; too bad they couldn’t even finish last in their own division. And forget Dmitri Young; I’d like to know how the Nats got anything out of Cristian Guzman.

My worst division by far. I got precisely zero spots correct. I’m okay with missing on the Mets, because a lot of smart folks blew that one, but I’d underestimated Philadelphia, and I need to figure out why.

The Nationals? I’m still blown away by their performance this year. They finished with a better record than their neighbors, the Baltimore Orioles, who spent far more money on salary (albeit rather stupidly).

Post from: Knuckle Curve

The Orioles, meanwhile, are talking to former Florida Marlins manager Joe Girardi about the vacant position. Girardi, you may recall, led a team with a $15 million payroll to 78 wins last season. That’s a little less than Baltimore is paying Danys Baez, Kris Benson, Chad Bradford, and Jamie Walker this year.

Girardi gets a lot of credit for the Marlins ‘06 season, as well he should. But let’s not forget that the team had a tremendous amount of young talent thanks to GM Larry Beinfest and the entire front office. Girardi wouldn’t have that working for him in Baltimore. He would have Nick Markakis, Erik Bedard, Adam Loewen, and a boatload of albatrosses.

What is the best this team can hope for in ‘07 — that they finish ahead of Tampa Bay and Toronto? Is the situation likely to improve in the near future? For the sake of Orioles fans everywhere, I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t see a lot of cause for optimism here.

Girardi caught in the big leagues for 15 years. In 1996, with the Yankees, he stole 13 bases. If Girardi has anything left in those legs, now would be a good time to start running.

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