PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan)- RADIO.COM SPORTS insider Joe Girardi is fresh out of MLB, looking to and expected to return soon as a manager.
He joined The Fan Morning Show Thursday to give his perspective on the Pirates season to date and MLB as a whole.
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Girardi marvels at where the Pirates in the standings in relation to all they've withstood this season.
"For the Pirates, they've had so many injuries, you start to run out of depth," said Girardi. "You know, you have two guys in your rotation out, you've got a couple of position players out, Polanco's been in and out. It's really difficult because you only have so many players."
"For the Pirates to be 24-22, I'm absolutely amazed. You look at the runs that they have scored and the run differential, there's no way they should be 24-22. So I give them a lot of credit for being where they are but they've got to get healthy if they want to stay in this because this won't continue."
Starling Marte made another curious play on Tuesday when he dove for a ball that was clearly out of his reach in the outfield allowing Charlie Blackmon to hit a triple. Girardi says players sometimes have more influence than coaches in preventing these things from happening.
"You just find different ways to try to do it (get players like Marte to focus and give their best effort every day). Sometimes you can sit him down for a day. Sometimes the embarrassment of making a mistake will help them in the future. When I say embarrassment, not embarrassment by what the manager does but just by the backlash that you receive. But I think the easiest way to do it is for his teammates to hold him accountable and to stay on him. Let him know, it's not acceptable and if I have to be the guy that in a sense is right next to you all the time, I will be that guy. You need him to be a big, productive bat along with Polanco so Josh Bell's not doing this on his own. But I think his teammates have to get to him."
Girardi was in the AL East as the manager of the Yankees when Chris Archer was at his best with the Tampa Bay Rays. He gave his thoughts on him and what might be going on with him right now in Pittsburgh.
"I think it (the move to Pittsburgh) probably just didn't rejuvonate him as they thought. I've always thought Chris Archer has good stuff. But I've always felt during the course of a game, he's going to make a couple mistakes," said Girardi. "The thing about mistakes today is they go a lot further than they used to and it leads to runs because the ball is just flying out of the park. So for him, it was always 'keep it close, keep it close and he'll make a mistake.' I think you're seeing that continuing as he has moved to the National League because you would think he could navigate a lineup a little bit better than maybe an AL East lineup but he's having a hard time."
He says that while he doesn't necessarily like the current trends of baseball having more strikeouts, walks and longer game times, he does think more and more players are adjusting to defensive shifts and trying to beat them at the plate. He also likes the idea of an "opener" if you don't have five legitimate starters, but says you must have a 7th or 8th inning guy open the game for you that will get outs to start the game.
Oh, and about those rumors that he is a leading candidate for the Mets managerial job if/when they fire Mickey Callaway?
"I want to manage again. I think that's a point blank question that is probably not fair to Mickey Callaway but I do want to manage again. I feel for guys who are on the hot seat because I've been let go twice and I know how difficult it is and it really rips your heart out because you put your heart and soul in it. So, I don't ever want to see a manager let go but I do want to manage again."
You can hear the entire interview with RADIO.COM SPORTS insider Joe Girardi, including his thoughts on his former player Francisco Cervelli and Josh Bell's monster season, below.