[閒聊] Pinstriped Blog - Stay or Go? Positional Player

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CATCHERS
John Flaherty: This isn’t even funny any more. Catering to Randy Johnson’s
needs can apparently be a full-time job, but Flaherty isn’t the man for the
position, not if it means logging as many plate appearances as he did in
2005. In just 138 trips to the plate, Flaherty batted .165/.203/.252 and
managed to do more damage to the cause than Tony Womack did with three times
the opportunities. Every season the Yankees make a point of choosing the
weakest possible reserve catcher. Flaherty is taking things too far. A free
agent, he should be encouraged to fly, fly away. Johnson’s next caddy should
be required to carry a bat, though Joe Torre may consider “reserve catcher”
 and “hitter” to be mutually exclusive properties.

Wil Nieves: It’s not a typo — there is only one “L” in Nieves’ name. That
’s important, because if he had two of them he’d be “Will” and Nieves won
’t. Now 28, he’s a career .291 hitter in the minors but has neither
patience nor power. He’s the kind of player who can be safely removed from
the 40-man roster in favor of prospects prior to the Rule 5 draft.

Jorge Posada: Stay. He’s signed through next season, and contrary to what
you might have read, he’s still one of the five most valuable backstops in
baseball. He even had a better season than that hot free agent to be, Bengie
Molina. Even taking fewer walks than usual, Posada was on base more often,
.352-.332. Also, Molina will be 32, isn’t durable, and just had his career
best season. Any team giving him a big contract on the expectation he’s
going to be a big asset is really not doing its homework… There has been a
lot of talk about the Yankees needing to sign an almost-starting catcher so
that Posada can spend more time off or as the designated hitter next season.
It’s not a bad idea per se; Posada is getting older and Johnson will need
his human chew toy, as discussed above. The problem is the Yankees would have
to pay that player a full-time salary for a part-time job. There is also no
guarantee that a starting catcher — a Ramon Hernandez, say — would be happy
with the reduced playing time. Finally, such a disposition assumes designated
hitter would be open for Posada. Perhaps the Yankees can find something better
…

INFIELDERS
Mark Bellhorn: Go. Not a free agent, but arbitration eligible. He could still
be valuable under the right circumstances, but the Yankees have no place for
him to play. He was signed at a moment when it looked like Robinson Cano
might not make it, but that moment has passed.

Robinson Cano: Stay, obviously. He has huge strides to make to be a real
keeper and not just a passing fancy, especially keeping his head in the game
— a problem on the bases, in the field, and in front of the home crowds,
where he struggled to hit (that may be just a fluke; keep watching). Not
swinging at everything — at the plate Cano is like that embarrassing friend
who is so incapable of discriminating that he makes passes at all the women
in the bar, including the men — is of paramount concern. As we’ve seen,
when his swing gets out of whack he doesn’t have the plate judgment to still
make a contribution at the plate. Some players, when they slump, will take
walks or hit the occasional home run. Cano just makes outs.

Felix Escalona: Go. He’s going on 27 and can’t hit.

Jason Giambi: Stay, not that there’s any choice as he’s signed through
doomsday. With this year’s resurgence, that’s something to look forward to,
at least for a little while.

Derek Jeter: Stay. Signed even longer than Giambi; by the time Jeter’s
contract is up the Yankees will be paid in Yuan. Apart from his
shoulda-been-the-MVP 1999 season he’s been a very consistent player, so you’
ll know right away when he does the Bernie Williams Sudden Decline Two-Step.

Tino Martinez: Go. His option should be declined as there isn’t much left
that a younger, cheaper player couldn’t do just as well.

Andy Phillips: Go, for his own sake. He’s running out of time to have a
career as a major league reserve/platoon player and the Yankees don’t
believe in him.

Alex Rodriguez: Emphatically, stay.

Rey Sanchez: Go. A mistake who spared the Yankees much damage by getting hurt
— had he been healthy you never would have heard of Robinson Cano when Tony
Womack slumped.

OUTFIELDERS
Melky Cabrera: Stay, but we probably don’t need to see him again for at
least a year. He’s probably not a center fielder and he’s not even a hitter
— yet.

Bubba Crosby: He wants to play every day in the same way that I really wanted
a date with Ally Sheedy when I was 13. Checking my dates, I am shocked to
discover she was 21 at the time of “War Games.” It didn’t happen for me
and apparently it wouldn’t have been legal anyhow. Crosby’s futile quest is
similarly unrealistic. He would probably make a decent fourth/fifth
outfielder if given a chance, but the Yankees don’t like him even that much.
If they don’t have a better choice to start in center next year, they’re in
trouble. As for Crosby, if he can get loose he probably should.

Matt Lawton: A free agent. Go. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but he
left his bat in his other pants and his glove in his previous life.

Hideki Matsui: The contrarian in me wants to argue “go” given his age and a
skill set that’s solid Grade Bs. He’s not patient enough to keep his
on-base percentage up if his batting average slips, and his batting average
isn’t so high that a slight slip couldn’t bring it into the .275 range. His
power more and more seems to be a gift of lefty-lovin’ Yankee Stadium. His
fielding is something less than Grade B. If Matsui is given three or four
years, that takes him from age 32 to age 34 or 35. He’s almost certain to
start going backwards somewhere in there. If the Yankees had an exciting
young left fielder coming along I’d be more vehement about moving on, but
that’s not the case. Besides, he makes the Yankees a ton of money in
advertising and overseas exposure, so this is one time that financial
considerations trump baseball concerns.

Kevin Reese: Stuck in line behind Bubba Crosby; as Dorothy Parker said, what
fresh Hell is this? That’s a fate up there with Greek myth. There’s
Prometheus, chained to a rock and having his liver pecked out by birds, and
being stuck behind Bubba Crosby. Reese could help a major league team as a
fourth/fifth outfielder, just like Crosby. The Yankees don’t care, so go he
should. That’s the last time I’ll end a paragraph sounding like Yoda, I
promise. Who was it who said of the early Time magazine house style, “
Backwards ran the sentences until reeled the mind?” Well, never mind.

Gary Sheffield: The Yankees will have to decide whether or not to pick up
Sheff’s 2007 option. Until they do, he’ll be pure fun to be around. Still,
he was the most productive right fielder in the American League after Vlad
Guerrero, and he was closer to Vlad than No. 3, Jermaine Dye, was to him. He’
d make a better designated hitter at this point, and if the Yankees wanted to
lock him in there so they could sign — well, wait. I was going to mention an
exciting free agent right fielder, but there isn’t one. If the Yankees moved
Sheffield to DH to sign Jacque Jones, that would be misguided. Either way,
stay.

Ruben Sierra: Go. Sending Sierra up to hit is like dropping a hand grenade at
your own feet. And I don’t care that he had a pinch-hit single in the
playoffs. Lenny Harris can get pinch-hit singles, so that’s an act that’s
been devalued. Besides, a reserve outfielder/DH has to be able to do other
things like get a hit in the playoffs — like get a hit the other 364 days of
the year.

Mike Vento: Still the player who sounds the most like something you’d order
at Starbucks. A righty hitter, he might have helped the Yankees this year
pinch-hitting against lefties, something that Sierra has been incapable of
doing since the first Gulf War. The Yankees didn’t bother, and Vento is
about to turn 28 so, go… Or fill the roster at Columbus. Either way, his
future isn’t in New York.

Bernie Williams: We love you, Bernie. Now go. Ever hear the Simon and
Garfunkel song, “So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright?” It was one of their last as
a duo. As the song fades, Garfunkel repeats endlessly, “So long… so long…
 so long…” until you can hear, very faintly, Simon saying, “So long
already, Artie!” It’s like that.

Tony Womack: If he can’t be traded he should be released. If he can’t be
released he should leave in a huff. If he can’t leave in a huff, he can
leave in an hour and a huff. I could dance with Womack until the cows come
home. On second thought, I’d rather dance with the cows until Womack comes
home. Of course, Womack never comes home, because you have to be on base to
score… And on that note, I’m going off to watch “Duck Soup.”




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推 ithinkurdumb:hilarious
推 weian:這兩篇太棒了.....XD
推 vanprasth:這樣幾乎全走光了~XD
推 Ofnir:可憐的Womack...
推 rosemars:Womack 已經是過街老鼠了...
推 vegas:讚......  這篇有酸到......