Jennings on the Yanks’ infielders

February 19, 2009 by Mike Axisa 22 Comments

Chad Jennings is breaking down the Yanks depth basically position by position, and today touches on the infielders. We all know what 2009 has in store for Robbie Cano and Derek Jeter, but what about guys like Doug Bernier, Juan Miranda and Kevin Russo? Give it a read, Chad breaks it all down.

Also, I thought I had already linked to his pitchers and catchers breakdown, but apparently not. There’s the links for ya.

Artist formerly known as ‘The’ Steve

Jennings and BA say Romine is our Catcher of the future, figuring Montero gets moved out from behind the plate.

If Montero is no longer a catcher, where does he play?

1-LF
2-RF
3-Another position
4-1B for another organization
- Mike Pop
  
  5-DH.
- A.D.
  
  C/DH Basically Romine can be full time, Montero catches a few times a week and DHs
  - Reggie C.
    
    Interesting thought. Some RAB’ers are fine with Montero at catcher even if it meant that he was no better than Piazza. Of course, the flip side of that would be that Montero hit like Piazza.
    
    I think Montero has the ability to hit his way up a level, whether that be in ’09 or ’10. Romine doesn’t have that top prospect hit tool, so at some point, I predict Montero to jump ahead of Romine.
    - Artist formerly known as ‘The’ Steve
      
      I always thought Piazza’s defensive deficiencies were over-emphasized, like the beautiful girl with a bump on her nose. Yes, he was horrible at throwing runners out. But he blocked the plate well, was OK on pop ups, studied his opposing hitters, called a good game and pitchers liked throwing to him for the most part.
      
      Heaven forbid Montero winds up like Piazza. He’ll only wind up in Cooperstown.
- http://evilempire20.wordpress.com/ Ryan S.
  
  Under the premise that he’s no longer capable of being a catcher, I’d go with #4.
- Artist formerly known as ‘The’ Steve
  
  I’m going with LF myself. He’s said to be a decent athlete, and its the least demanding OF position.
  
  He can take over for Jeter around 2012.
http://mvn.com/milb-yankees Eric

I doubt he’s fast enough for left field in Yankee stadium. He has the arm for right field, and maybe he could become adequate out there given some time, but I doubt he’ll ever be above-average. DH is his most likely outcome if he remains in the organization, though luckily he looks to have the bat to be able to be valuable at the position.
- whozat
  
  If he’s going to be consigned to DH, they’d get more value by showing him off in AAA as a 1B and trading him while he’s still young.
Rich

I think Montero will remain a C.
- http://actyankee.blogspot.com Matt
  
  Ditto.
  - Peter Lacock
    
    I’ll vote for that too.
- http://ranger2709.blogspot.com Old Ranger
  
  Montero could stay at catcher if, he doesn’t get much larger and improves his defence. Conversely, if Romine improves his hitting he could be the every day starter. Very good defence with good hitting is worth more then great hitting and poor defence, unless there is a big gap between the two.
  Another consideration is; Posada is not known as a good defensive catcher, would Montero be a step up or down? If one is put out there on the trading block, who would it be? Should they keep both of them and play them as co-catchers/RF/DH?
  - Chris
    
    But Romine does not have very good defense.
  - Reggie C.
    
    The truth is that Romine appears to be a “one level at a time” type prospect. I don’t think he’ll ever hit his way up a level, unlike his counterpart Montero, but time is on Romine’s side and he showed good batting skills in ’08. He’s got no weight, size, or strength issues. Its really just a matter of gaining defensive confidence.
  - Artist formerly known as ‘The’ Steve
    
    Posada is good now, but when he came up he had a LOT to learn. That’s why he was a backup to Girardi for so long (96-1999)and didn’t become the everyday Yankee catcher until he was 28.
    
    The Yanks have always valued highly having guys who can hit above their positional norm, they feel its one of the things that separates them from other teams. You’ll hear Cash talk about stuff like that a lot. So I suspect they will do everything they can to keep him at catcher.
- http://monterawiollremainacatcher yankeewanabe7
  
  I do also, he has made huge gains in his catching , he has a strong arm and ml has had big catcher before carlton fisk for one and i’d take that career for montero anyday.
Bryan

Apparently the Yankees are big in Afghanistan

URL
- Bryan
  
  Ick, sorry about that, I didnt know it would strech the page out like that. My apologies
Mike

new website design, i see?
Reggie C.

Hey …. is this a midnight Beta version of the RAB??
MJ

Is it just my computer or did everyones RAB homepage turn to a crappy format?