Why the Yankees Don't Regret Letting Joe Torre Go

Now that Joe Torre's new team is playing in the National League Championship Series while his old club failed to reach the playoffs for the first time since before Torre's tenure there, some people believe that Hank Steinbrenner made a mistake by not re-signing the manager last year.

Well, he didn't.

The fact that the Dodgers are still playing and the Yankees are not has little to do with Torre and a lot more to do with the National League and Manny Ramirez.

The bottom line is that New York was a better team than Los Angeles this season.  Despite putting together their worst season in 15 years, the Yankees still won five more games than the Dodgers.  They did that even though they played in the best division in three decades, while Los Angeles was the best team in the worst division of 2008.

The Bombers played 36 games against the Boston Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Rays—two teams that are now battling it out in the ALCS.  The Dodgers played 36 games against the San Diego Padres and the San Francisco Giants—two teams that were among the six worst in baseball this year.  And yet L.A. still finished with a worse record than New York.

If the Dodgers played in the AL East, they would've finished fifth.  Not fourth behind the Yanks, but fifth—two games back of the Toronto Blue Jays.

And that's simply because the American League is better than the National League. The AL was 149-103 versus the NL in '08 (New York was 10-8, while Los Angeles was 5-10).  In fact, the AL has beaten the NL in eight of the 12 years of interleague play.  Furthermore, the American League is undefeated in the last 12 All-Star Games and has won 11 of the last 16 World Series.

I'm not saying all this because I agree with Steinbrenner's ridiculous playoff realignment plan, because I don't.  The Dodgers won their division and deserved to go to the postseason.  The Yankees finished third and therefore did not.  But let's not get that mixed up with New York regretting letting Torre go.

Since Game Four of the 2004 ALCS, the Yankees have gone 5-12 in the playoffs, getting eliminated in the first round in '05, '06, and '07.  This is largely because Torre refused to play small ball, constantly shuffled the lineup around, and mismanaged his bullpen.  The goal in New York isn't to make the playoffs; it's to win the World Series.

The Dodgers would not have even made it to October had it not been for the addition of Manny Ramirez at the trade deadline.  On July 31, the Dodgers were 54-54, two games behind first place Arizona. My friend, who's a fan of the team, was complaining about the same things I complained about when Torre was in charge of my favorite club.

But with Manny, L.A. went 30-24 over the final two months to clinch the division.  Did Torre all of a sudden become a better manager?  No, the Dodgers put a Hall of Famer in the middle of their lineup.

Joe Girardi did a less than impressive job in his first year with the Yankees, but Torre would not have done any better with the injuries and front office blunders the team suffered this season.

Maybe the organization regrets bringing Girardi on as skipper, but it certainly does not regret letting Torre go.

Jordan Schwartz is Bleacher Report's New York Yankees Community Leader. His book "Memoirs of the Unaccomplished Man" is available at amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, and authorhouse.com. Jordan can be reached at [e-mail].