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I think that Joe Girardi is not capable to manage the Yankees. He clearly does not have what it takes to manage this team. FIRE HIM!!!

Eric was understandably frustrated. His message arrived soon after the Sox's three-run fourth inning, which began when Jacoby Ellsbury gleefully embarrassed the Yanks with his steal of home, and continued with ESPN cameras panning on broom-waving members of the Fenway faithful.

Having spent an endless Saturday at Fenway Park watching many of the weekend's horrors firsthand, I'd felt rather testy myself at that point and wrote back:

Girardi didn't blow a save Friday night; Girardi didn't give up a six-run lead Saturday; Girardi isn't one of the outfielders who are giving the team no offensive production whatsoever (Damon excepted); and Girardi didn't injure the oft-maligned Alex Rodriguez, who every Yankee fan ought to be praying comes back VERY soon — unless of course you'd prefer the likes of Angel Berroa (at third base) for another few months.

My email to Eric drew this near-immediate response:

He [Girardi] is the manager and he gets paid to manage a team not to watch a game from the dugout. He is probably the worst manager the Yankees have had for a long time. The manager is ultimately the one responsible for the team's performance. It's called LEADERSHIP!!!

I decided Eric needed some serious calming down before his blood pressure went critically high, and wrote back, in part:

Girardi isn't simply watching the game. He put Mo in for an extra out Friday night, a move for which he was criticized — and one I would have made because he wanted that game in hand. Mariano blew a two-run lead and the rest is history.

Without rehashing the entire weekend, this team is playing hard. If it wasn't, or if Girardi had made some really serious managerial blunders, then, yes, you can say he shows a failure of leadership.

It's been a long, frustrating weekend. We all need to take a deep breath ... and, I reiterate, see A-Rod batting fourth rather than Nick Swisher, who's come down to earth hard lately.

That ended our exchange. I hope Eric's OK and not slumped over his keyboard somewhere. I also think a few of my comments to him bear a closer look.

Production from the outfield has indeed been anemic in the wake of Xavier Nady's injury. After a hot start, Swisher has been rapidly plunging toward his career .245 batting average. Swisher's numbers over his past ten games (courtesy of MLB.com) starkly show his decline:

From an offensive standpoint, Brett Gardner, the Yanks' nominal everyday center fielder, has performed dismally from the start-and is getting worse. Gardner's stats over his past ten games are:

Of the regulars only Johnny Damon's output has been solid, though we have to hope his recent downturn is a normal fluctuation rather than the result of his widely reported left shoulder issues:

It's worth noting that switch-hitter Melky Cabrera, who's been predominantly used against lefty starting pitchers, has also done well of late-leading me to conclude it's time for Girardi to give him a shot at reclaiming his old job out in center:

Gardner has frankly been a serious offensive liability. Yes, he runs as fast as the Flash-but while tapping into the Speed Force is great for superheroes, it doesn't do anything for a batter who can't find his way onto the base pads.

But let's not play favorites. Before we leave charts and numbers to others on this site who do them better than I, let's move in to first base for a look at Mark Teixeira's 10-game stats:

Folks, those digits aren't pretty ... especially considering that the hapless Gardner has done better on average.

One more set of statistical figures: Monday night in Detroit, Yankee batters went 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position. That's a .156 average.

The truth is that every facet of the Yankees' game has been mediocre, predictably resulting in a mediocre record — or less than mediocre, really, since they now have a losing 9-10 record.

Hopefully, Alex Rodriguez's imminent return will help reverse the current trend. Also, hopefully, Yankee fandom's A-Rod bashers have finally learned their lesson. But, if things don't improve soon on several fronts, changes will need to be made. Otherwise I'll be joining Eric in giving the manager — and general nanager — a very hard time.

Which lead me to speculate ... who exactly are the candidates for replacing Girardi should we reach that unpleasant juncture?

The answer came to me last night: Billy Martin is right the man for the job. And despite his tragic death almost two decades ago, I think I know how to snag him for the sixth time.

The Pythagorean Transmigration of Billy Martin
I often hear Yankee fans at the Stadium wishing they could channel the fiery spirit of Martin when the team's in a funk. Well, OK, those fans are usually me and my pal the Fellow Author, though we've often had seat neighbors join in our lamentations.

A lot of longtime Yankee fans miss the best elements of Billy Ball — his audacity, scrap, inventiveness, guile, attention to baseball fundamentals and singular knack for drawing team motivation from apparent discord.

Martin's leadership style has been characterized as controlling and occasionally ruthless — but when Martin was on his game, that style led to winning championships.

"On a ball club, there are 10 guys who would do anything for you, 10 guys who hate your guts, and five guys who are undecided," he once said. "The good managers get the five guys who were undecided on their side."

It's hard to say how Martin would do in this current era of GMs and managers massaging the egos of high-priced superstars, but I say we consider giving it a try. Again, assuming Girardi's leash runs out of slack.

Thing is, I now realize that I've had the wrong idea about how to do it. Channeling the spirit or energy of someone who's passed on requires a reach into the Beyond to establish contact. But, I've decided that Martin, whose his human flaws and weaknesses have been widely documented, may already be with us — albeit in an different physical form.

My thinking stems from some research into various cultural principles of reincarnation.

In the Hindu model a person's repetitive cycle of death and rebirth continues until he or she tires of earthly pleasures and opts for a higher, enduring level of contentment in the spiritual realm.

Over 2,500 years ago, the great Greek mathematician, traveler and philosopher Pythagoras offered a variation on this line of thought. He believed in metempsychosis — a transmigration of the soul — and claimed to recall many of his past lives. For Pythagorean mystics, one's immortal soul was a fallen piece of the divine trapped in a vessel of human flesh and blood. As the soul was finally purified over successive lives, it would automatically enter the spiritual plane, never to return to our physical one.

OK. Now hang with me. The Pythagorean Theorem, used to compute distances and geometric configurations, is key to the game construct we know as baseball, which is predicated on calculable distances and geometry. And since Pythagoras' overall thoughts revolved around mathematics and faith — exactly like baseball — I'm convinced his model of reincarnation is most applicable to baseball players and managers.

Martin, I again emphasize, is widely known to have very much relished his earthly pleasures. Since it seems unlikely that he's been altogether purified in a mere 20 years, it therefore stands to reason that Martin's with us somewhere — transmigrated but still essentially Martin. It's just up to us to find him.

Eric, I hope you're reading, because here's what I propose. Let's see how the Yanks are doing in, say, another month or so. In fact, let's mark the date as June 1 for the sake of convenience. Some of us may have to stay home from the office.

If the Yanks are still floundering along as they have thus far, and Joe Girardi's in the managerial hot seat, I think we fans around the world all need to turn in the direction of the Big Bat outside the old Stadium — assuming it hasn't been torn down by then — close our eyes, and picture Billy Martin standing there.

If he doesn't turn up after that, we'll probably need to stick with Girardi for a while. Because I don't believe there's another manager out there — right now — who'll do a better job.

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