| The players played better last year. Last year was a better team and didn't have this degree of health problems/decline on it.
Torre didn't take anything with him, especially given how he's managed out in LA, despite having a very good deal of talent in a downright terrible division this year. If he was still here, we'd very likely be worse, because while Girardi hasn't been close to perfect and at times done some dumb things, he's still done a better job than Torre did the last few years just based on his management of the pitching staff alone.
Then again, maybe we'd have been better off being worse and getting to protect our pick next year from FA compensation (not that our inability to sign Cole this year makes that at the moment look like much...). |