1. Joe Girardi Is Out as Yankees’ Manager (NY Times)
This postseason was both exhilarating and painfully disappointing for Girardi and the Yankees, ending in a loss in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series. Two other managers — the Washington Nationals’ Dusty Baker and the Boston Red Sox’ John Farrell — lost their jobs this month after their teams were ousted from the postseason. Girardi becomes the third.
Girardi was in the final year of his contract and was the third-longest-tenured manager in the major leagues, behind the Los Angeles Angels’ Mike Scioscia and the San Francisco Giants’ Bruce Bochy. He compiled a 910-710 record in his 10 years in the Bronx and is leaving a team that is brimming with young talent and a farm system rife with promising prospects.
That Yankees team, with so many players who had not been tested, exceeded most expectations this season and chased the Red Sox to the next to last day of the regular season for the division title. Ultimately, the Yankees settled for a wild-card berth before embarking on an inspiring run to the cusp of the World Series.
To me, this season’s best trick was getting guys like Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, and Greg Bird to perform like legitimate superstars so soon after their major league debuts. I don’t know how much of that was Girardi, how much was on position coaching, how much owes to a quality developmental process, and how much came down to individual effort in a motivated team environment. I suspect that all of those things are important, and that the last owes as much to Girardi does as anything else.
There are plenty of folks who can manage the tactical and operational aspects of the Yankees’ game day decisions. I doubt that this is the hard part. The Yankees have a good thing going with their developmental pipeline, though, and that, to me, seems like a much tougher thing to manage.
2. Twitter is banning all ads from Russian news agencies RT and Sputnik effective immediately (Business Insider)
"This decision was based on the retrospective work we've been doing around the 2016 U.S. election and the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that both RT and Sputnik attempted to interfere with the election on behalf of the Russian government…"
Twitter announced the policy change one week before its representatives are set to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee, along with representatives from Facebook and Google, about how Russia exploited the platform to spread disinformation and propaganda during the 2016 election.
A day late and a dollar short, but probably better than nothing. That said, there are probably still aspects of the 2016 election that will be decided by the outcome of the 2018 midterms, so there’s probably more of this still on the horizon.
3. Friday Hair Metal: Def Leppard
It’s my wife’s birthday! This one is for her.
Twitter has never had a profitable quarter based on generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), but it said on Thursday “we will likely be GAAP profitable” in the fourth quarter if it reaches the high end of its own estimates…
Helping to improve Twitter’s margin was a 16 percent cut in expenses from a year earlier. One factor was stock-based compensation, which declined 36 percent year-over-year, but Twitter said the cuts were broad-based, covering sales and marketing and research and development.
This is great news, but it’s mixed news, too. Of course, it’s always important to control expenses. However, you’d rather see a company reach profitability through growth than shrinkage.
5. Army Football Update
Your @MortellAward Holder of the Week is @ArmyWP_Football's Zach Potter! 🏈👈🏻— MORTELL HOTY (@MortellAward) October 25, 2017
Congrats @Zach_Potter17! pic.twitter.com/kR2wDqcTaO
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That's all I've got. Enjoy the weekend!
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