After the Yankees’ season ended, general manager Brian Cashman said that getting Girardi on board with a new contract would be the first order of business. After getting Girardi’s contract squared away, the Yankees will get the rest of their coaching staff together and start negotiating new deals for Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera.

The biggest news of the day is that the team has decided to let go of pitching coach Dave Eiland. Bryan Hoch of MLB.com tweeted:

Girardi spoke about how Andy Pettitte wasn’t fully healthy during the postseason and that played a role in why Girardi pitched him in Game 3 of the ALCS instead of Game 2. Pettitte’s back “locked up” and he couldn’t pitch Game 2.

The Yankees and Girardi are on the fast-track to a new contract. Both sides need each other since there aren’t good alternatives for either.

The Yankees still view Joba Chamberlain as a back-of-the-rotation guy.

Cashman still thinks highly of Derek Jeter and expects him back. Mariano Rivera is expected to be back as well.

May we see Jesus Montero’s big league career begin in 2011?

Cashman admitted that last off-season wasn’t his best. He also said that Nick Johnson was “plan c” behind Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui.

There’s not much more to say than the Yankees were beat by a better team. The Yankees didn’t pitch well and they didn’t hit well. When you don’t do those things better than your opponents, you lose. It’s simple. The team that executes wins and the Rangers executed better than the Yankees in all facets of the game.

It’s going to be an interesting off-season for the Yankees. They have some in-house decisions to make and I’m confident that they will do the right thing when it comes to Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera and Joe Girardi.

Some other things I’d like to see is Kerry Wood to return in the setup role, free agent Javier Vazquez not come back, and Andy Pettitte to return for one more year. Obviously, it would be nice if the Yankees can get their hands on either Cliff Lee or Carl Crawford, two of top free agents.

The Yankees will come back strong in 2011 and they will be a contender for the World Series.

Heyman writes:

The Yankees plan to bring back manager Joe Girardi at a raise, no matter what some fans may say about his reliance on his ever-present binder. He is well-liked by Yankees honchos Hal Steinbrenner, Randy Levine and Brian Cashman.

Girardi is the right man for this club and I hope he has a very long career as Yankees manager.

Bengie Molina had other plans.

With two outs in the top of the 6th, Burnett was one out away from giving the Yankees six strong. Something nobody believed Burnett could have done after the type of season he had. Burnett wound up going six, but his day ended on a sore note.

And it wasn’t his fault.

I put this loss on Girardi. A ton of people are always criticizing him and I usually take a backseat and give Joe the benefit of the doubt. This time is different, however. With two outs and a runner on 2nd base, Girardi had to pull Burnett for Joba Chamberlain. Had to do it. Instead he chose to play the numbers game, intentionally walked David Murphy and let Burnett pitch to Molina. Molina pounded a three-run homer to give the Rangers a 5-3 lead and they never looked back.

Before the Yankees chose to intentionally walk Murphy, I told my dad, “You gotta take Burnett out in this situation. Let the bullpen finish this inning.”

Girardi didn’t hear me and the Yankees are now one loss away from being eliminated.

The Yankees’ offense had their chances to put more runs on the board than three, but they couldn’t get the big runs in. The finger point of blame can be pointed in many directions as the Yankees face elimination, but even though they are barely breathing, it’s not time to pull the plug yet. We’ve seen crazier things happen and it’s going to take a huge turnaround, but this series isn’t quite over yet, although it’s hard to make a a case for the Yankees being able to come back.

After what I’ve seen this entire series minus the 8th inning of Game 1, there isn’t much hope. The Yankees are going to need three consecutive outstanding pitching performances by CC Sabathia, Phil Hughes and Andy Pettitte to win this series. One implosion by any of them, or by the bullpen, and this series is over because the Yankees’ offense is sputtering.