Who will be the 2008 Yankees Manager?

First I want to make my position on Joe Torre clear. I think he`s done a lot for the Yankees. He deserves the HoF and has just been great. The players love him and I have to wonder if Clemens or Pettitte would have returned this year without him. The biggest part of being a manager is handling the players and Joe is amazing at that. He`s the only manager I`ve ever known and I`ll be sad to see him go and to see the end of an era. Him leaving would make me nervous Posada, Rivera, and Pettitte will leave. However, he is terrible at managing a bullpen and I believe he needs a good bench coach to help him out. The total amount of Joe Torre loses this season was 7. If they had won less than half of those they might have won the division. I think they should bring him back but they definitely need to get a new bench coach. Having Tony Pena and Mattingly flip flop might be a good idea. Unfortunately, it sounds like he`s done, who else could manage?

Girardi originally sounded like a great idea to me but the more I learn about him the less I like him. A few of his young pitchers in Flordia were hurt this year. I don't think I`d want to trust Joba and Phil to him.

Mattingly sounds like a Joe Torre clone only without commanding the same respect from the players. I don't see any reason to believe he`ll be a good manager.

Bobbt Valentine I`m sorry to say i know next to nothing about. From what I`ve heard from others he might be a good option.

Larry Bowa is the kind of guy that could lose his team early on after a bad start by going crazy. I love him but he`s not the kind of guy that I thinkc an handle being the manager of the Yankees.

Tony Pena is interesting but wouldn't command the same type of respect as Joe. He ahd nothing in Kansas City to work with and in his last year there he was struck by losing the only good players he had to injury or free agency.

Tony LaRussa is the only one who has as comparable resume to Joe's but his personality doesn't seem right for New York's many newspapers and I think he might lose his team. LaRussa's bullpen managemant also annoys me and the prospect of him bring in Ron Villone to face David Ortiz in the 8th inning of a tie game scares me.

None of the options sound great and if Torre comes back I think many of the player's will come back and in all honesty that's the most important part of the team, the players. Torre's flaws in handling a bullpen can be helped by a new bench coach. Who that coach is I`m not sure. I think Torre's gone and Mattingly will be the next manager but I`m not crazy about the idea. Even if he doesn't come back next year I wouldn't be surprised to see him come back in 2009 if the new manager has a bad season.