I agree - it was all Bobby Meacham's fault

Thats right, Mr. Meacham - he is out and it is your fault. Keep up the good work

I am too young to remember Bobby Meacham as a player, but everyone old enough to remember his days in MLB tell me that he was a horrendous baserunner (among other aspects of his game).

The fact of the matter is, Meacham was set up to fail. Not only because he didn't have baserunning instincts, but because he was following in the footsteps of Larry Bowa - one of the best base coaches out there.That being said, I had low expectations for third base coach going into the 2008 season.

That being said, even I was shocked at how many times Meacham had to be mentioned because of his bad instincts. If he wasn't sending a guy home when he had no business doing so, he was holding a man at third when the outfielder had a noodle arm. It was a comedy of errors from the third base coaching position from the beginning. Rule of thumb if you are a third base coach - don't get noticed. The only exception to that rule is if you are Larry Bowa, since then you will be running down the baseline next to the baserunner and nearly sliding into home with him.

Am I overstating Bowa's influence on the outcome of baseball games? Probably. However, the New York Yankees baserunning cost them runs in 2008. Baseball Prospectus 2008 introduced baserunning as a key stat they were developing a system for evaluating. I can't wait to read their analysis of 2008 based on the above numbers.

Maybe it wasn't ALL Bobby Meacham's fault, but he definitely did not HELP the New York Yankees win baseball games in 2008. For that, he earned himself a trip to the unemployment office.

Another theory on this firing is that when he was younger, he looked like Melky Cabrera and the Yankees can have NONE of that:



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