Hairtrigger Joe, Heart vs. Handbook, and X-Factor Updates

--Hairtrigger Joe is what they would call him in the "Old West". That's right, Yankees manager Joe Girardi loves pulling his pitchers regardless of how they are performing. Imagine if you were a car salesman and you were on fire selling luxury sedans and sport coupes left and right, and then your manager taps you on the shoulder and says, "Hey Robertson, even though you are keeping our dealership alive here from the recession, I'm going to go ahead and let Aceves take over on the lot." You would probably take your plaid sports coat and throw it in his face and leave. That's probably what Dave Robertson (and every Yankees fan with half a brain) felt. There was absolutely no excuse for the pitching change there as Robertson burned through the first two batters with ease. If you watched the press conference with Girardi, his face was a lot different than his words. He knew he screwed up, and was "playing" manager a little too much last night. if you muted the press conference and just looked at his facial expression, you would think Girardi was on the verge of tears apologizing for being such a moron in that moment.

--There is a clear cut difference between Joe Girardi and his predecessor Joe Torre and it comes down to what I like to call "Heart vs. Handbook"

• The "Heart" theory is a manager being close with his players and having a "gut" feeling or faith in them coming through, regardless of a statistical matchup. It's the classic "I can get him coach" approach that Joe Torre so excellently executed with his players. Granted, Torre was known for falling in love with using one or two guys to the point of blowing their arms out.

• The "Handbook" approach is what I refer to as a manager relying too much on history, numbers, and matchups. This is the Girardi philosophy. It seems like every time a batter is coming up in the late innings, Girardi walks over to that Bible on steroids to see who does good against what. He probably checks how pitchers throw based on barometric pressure, dew point, dawn, dusk, rain, shine, or mood. This is what hurt Girardi in game 3 last night.

• Because Girardi needs to be such a smart baseball mind, he didn't look at the situation last night from a simple point of view. A three year old (aka the intelligence level of Hank Steinbrenner) could have pointed out that the kid was pitching great, so you leave him in.

--We will see if this winds up dooming the Yankees in the end. But for now, let's see what CC Sabathia can do to the Angels tonight, and if the Yankees can stop being brainwashed at the thought that Scott "ouch ouch my elbow" Kazmir is Sandy Koufax (even though they have the same initials).

X-factor grades update:

Yankees: AJ Burnett: A -, Jorge Posada: C
Angels: Chone Figgins: C, Bobby Abreu: D -

based on my X-factor predictions, the Yankees should still win the series if these players keep on these grades, especially the "pie-man" AJ Burnett.