Is New York Yankess Manager Joe Torre Really a "Lame Duck"?

Pitchers and catchers report today and while the rest of baseball seems settled and ready to start over in 2007, the New York Yankees may feel like 2006 followed them from Comerica Park to Legends Field in Tampa.

Joe Torre, almost fired for the Yankees four-game flop to the Detroit Tigers last October heads into the final year of his contract with similar problems that haunted the manager last fall, and then some more. As if being labeled a "lame duck" manager weren't enbough of an issue, his much-maligned third baseman Alex Rodriguez heads into the option year of his supposed decade-long $250 million contract. The Bombers acquired A-Rod from the Texas Rangers three years ago today after trade talks between the Rangers and the Boston Red Sox stalled when the players union voided a potential deal where Rodriguez would take less money to move. The trade worked out for the Red Sox, that is, as the Old Towne Team kept Manny Ramierez batting behind David Ortiz while riding Curt Schilling's arm and ankle to the franchise's first world championship since 1918. A-Rod's hitless performances in Games Six and Seven of the Yankees '04 ALCS meltdown have brought his approval rating down to David Berkowitz levels.

Rodriguez's American League MVP award did nothing to quell Yankees fans' thirst for their first title since 2000. His dismal 4-for-41 performance in his last two playoff series and his non-relationship with captain Derek Jeter have been the cornerstone of controversy in the Bronx, and a question that Torre will have to answer throughout the season even if the Yankees repeat last year's 97-win campaign. In six years, this team with a payroll that has swelled to over $200 million has been eliminated in three different divisional series, dropped a World Series to a Florida Marlins team with one-fourth its payroll, and choked a three-games-to-none lead to the hated Boston Red Sox in the ALCS.

However, A-Rod has been only one of Torre's issues. Randy Johnson's two-year stint in the Bronx that began with the surly hurler snapping at a camera man, proved fruitless despite the future Hall-of-Famer's 34 wins. Again, in New York, the regular season is just a warm-up and Johnson will only be remembered by Yankees fans as a guy who beat them with the Mariners, dominated them with the D-Backs in the 2001 World Series and as a $30 million stiff who couldn't garner two wins in three postseason games.

Carl Pavano is back in pinstripes, although injuries kept the $40 million man off the mound since June of 2005. Nobody will expect a guy who lied about breaking ribs in a car accident with a model while "rehabbing" in Tampa last September to make any cameos in the Yankees rotation until they see pitching coach Ron Guidry drive him to the mound in a golf cart for his own safety.

Longtime Yankee legend and fan-favorite, Bernie Williams, is nowhere to be found and has yet to take the Yankees up on a minor league deal at spring training. A 36 year-old Jason Giambi looks to be a full-time designated hitter after his awful performance at first last season. Aging stars Jorge Posada and Bobby Abreu are entering the final years of their contracts. And then there's Torre's new problem: Mariano Rivera's recent contract demands.

The longtime Yankee closer says he wants the team to come to him and pay him the respect he deserves. And the reliever doesn't mean he wants a bobblehead day at Yankee Stadium. General manager, Brian Cashman, says he will discuss Rivera's contract along with those of the rest of his impending free agents after the season ends. Meanwhile, the Red Sox are hoping they can land a closer in camp between has-been, Brendan Donnelly, and never-was, Joel Pineiro. If Cashman fails to give a raise and an extension to the greatest closer in baseball history, don't think Larry Lucchino and Theo Epstein wouldn't try to swoop-in and fit Rivera for Red Sox threads. And if a deal isn't done before the season, the New York media will take-up residence in the Yankee clubhouse every day down-the-stretch to remind Cashman that Boston and about eight other GMs will be calling.

Torre does have some help, however. Andy Pettitte, the last guy Cashman (and more importantly, George Steinbrenner) let walk is back after a three-year hiatus with his hometown Houston Astros. Chien-Ming Wang and Mike Mussina return while an embattled Carl Pavano battles with Japanese lefty Kei Igawa. The newcomer may have the edge because of his age (28 to Pavano's 31), his arm (lefty over righty in Yankee Stadium where Pavano gave up many of his 17 dingers in his only two-and-a-half months wearing a uniform) and his durability (Pavano hasn't pitched since his former Marlins teammate Josh Beckett was still pitching in Miami).

Another question that will follow Torre and the Yankees around until it happens, if it happens, is whether or not Roger Clemens will continue his now four-year goodbye tour back where he started it. For now, grab a Snickers.

In all honesty, while this season could end as tumultuously as it did in 2006, Joe Torre almost lost his job last season even with a year and $7 million left on his contract. If that's the case, any year the Yankees don't win a World Series with a payroll more than last season's combined payrolls of the Marlins, Devil Rays, Pirates, Royals and Indians would be considered a lame duck year for Joe Torre. Forget the fact that the most popular manager in franchise history doesn't have a contract at the end of the season. In baseball nowadays, if you don't win, you're out anyway. Ironically, those same rules in New York now apply in Boston, where this may be a make-or-break year for Tito Francona as well. After last year's fiasco between Lucchino and Epstein, somebody may have to be cut loose and fed to the evil Boston Globe sportswriters as a sacrifice.

The Yankees philosophy is win it all, or waste the year. If The Boss decides to let Joe walk, the manager's options may be better, especially if there's a job opening three hours north. And just imagine: wherever Joe goes, he may be able to bring his closer with him.

Hopefully Brian Cashman has that nightmare very soon and gets Mariano Rivera a pen. Then his manager will have more time to deal with the Yankees other problems:

Like the relationship between his $27 million, headcase third baseman and his never-do-wrong, four-ringed, clutch-hitting captain playing the third baseman's old position.

Doesn't sound like a job for a "lame-duck" manager now, does it?