Feb
19
Melky opts out of Classic
ByFighting for a position on the Major League roster, Melky Cabrera has opted out of playing for the Dominican Republic in the upcoming World Baseball Classic. Melky was one of two true center fielders on the DR’s preliminary roster and probably would have seen some playing time during the tournament. However, the 24-year-old, coming off of his worst professional season, has, according to MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo, told the team he wants to stay in camp to win the starting center field job. That’s probably a smart choice for Melky.
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Actually, he was forced to step down from the team on a technicality: Melky Cabrera is only half of the one singular centerfielder known as Brellky Gardbrera, and that player is only half Dominican. He doesn’t qualify.
The Yankees have some diversity on the squad, and that’s a good thing.
i really doubt the yankees would be concerned about a lack of an old wooden ship on their roster.
Nice!
Good call on Melky’s part
Its either do or die this season for him.So yea he should be working hard towards getting the starting spot.
IT’S SO DAMN HOT!!!! MILK WAS A BAD CHOICE!!!!!!
guys!? guys! it’s me! ron!
My sweet Brick.
Melky will rebound from last year. His batting average should be right around 265-275 all year. I’ll take that if everyone else hits to the back of their baseball card. I also expect much of the same from Gardner. A platoon in center could work. The two of them could be better then any one player who is out there to play CF. Also whichever one doesn’t start could be a late inning replacement in the field to upgrade the defense. Not to mention Gardner to pinch run in late game situations. Everyone needs to do their job. In this case Melky and Brett could be very important if they fill their roles and do their jobs.
If Melky hits .275, but with an OBP of .320 and SLG of .380, then he’s not a viable starter.
Agree-
OBP will be better this year but I’m not sure how much better his SLG will be. I can see that staying around 380ish
Give Gardner the Tough pitchers, he can relish on giving them tough ABs while Melk Feasts on the easier pitching.
Gardner can be the unsung hero in the yankeeography09
I could really care less what Melky’s batting average is. If his OBP is close to where it was last year — .301 — he is a black hole in the lineup. Even if he hits .265-.275 with an OPB of .315-.325 (based upon a .050 difference last year), he’s still not contributing much.
OBP? WTF is OBP?
Why don’t you go make love to your spreadsheets, nerd.
but be quiet so your mom doesn’t hear you in her basement wOBA-ing yourself
Haha.
But who is gonna hit clean up for the Dominican team, now that Melky is gone?
Bernie Williams.
Alex.
Isn’t bern rican?
Shhh… Don’t tell anyone. Ixnay on the Uertoricanpay.
Pujols is gone also. I heard Sammy Sosa is available
Maybe he got scared when Bernie Williams came into camp today.
IETC
It looks like the Yanks might pick up another starter:
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/.....adres.html
I’m sorry, apparently this post says that the Yanks need more pitching depth.
seems like the Yankees have noticed the Mexican league has some undervalued talent and they are doing their best to exploit that inefficiency.
not sure if Aceves or Jorge Vazquez will ever amount to anything, but why not? there is no risk to giving them a shot.
I dunno, this Walter Silva guy sounds pretty good.
Heh, sounds.
DAMN YOUS NEW YORK WITH YOUR NO SALARY-CAP-HAVIN-ASS! GOD DAMN YOUS TO HELL!!!!!!11!!!1!!!1!
Sincerely, John “51M for the right to talk to Dice-K” Henry
I’m all about Brett at this point, Melky is going to get shipped out at some point. Brett and AJax on the roster to start 2010, maybe even later this year AJax will be there…Melky has shown what he can do most likely, but I’d be okay if they give him his last shot right now.
I hope Melky proves us all wrong this year. /steroids
ietc
/primobolan
check out melky’s new haircut
/jaegerbombs
Not now chief, I’m in the fucking zone.
I don’t care what others say, that video is classic.
The Protein!
There are people who don’t think that video is fucking hilarious?
Alex eats that shit for breakfast lunch and dinner, not melky.
He will mash in ST, win the job, and hit 16 home runs this year. While having a productive season. That’s my bold prediction for 09.
i think melky mashes in ST then shits the bed during the reg season. literally. his tarveling roommate breaks melkys jaw and he is released
I think Melky hits .246/.300/.339 and is released in May after he steals some bats and gloves from Derek Jeter’s locker.
He will sell them on eBay to make some extra cash.
and Michael Kay re-tells this story every time Miguel Cabrera and the Tigers come to New York.
holy shit, you put this one on a tee for me.
I agree.
ST stands for ScranTon Wilkes-Barre, right?
You got it!
I can’t believe the Cavs can’t use Wally Szczerbiak, Eric Snow, and Anderson Varejao’s expiring contracts (plus Sasha Pavlovic and J.J. Hickson’s team-friendly contracts) to bring in a quality big man for their title push. Shaq and Amare were both there for the taking.
When Garnett, Dwight Howard, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum annihilate the Cavs inside and LeBron doesn’t win the title, he’ll remember that shit.
Epic FAIL.
I read Amare was taken off the block, but I’m not trying to make any excuses for them. I agree that they had their oppurtunity to get their man but they didn’t make a good move. Should of got Chandler, haha.
Thoughts on the Knicks moves? Pretty meh in my book. I guess it helps in the sense that they get 2 usable bodies as opposed to the Jerome James/Malik Rose deadweight platter.
I love the Rose for Wilcox swap (I love it so much, I have absolutely no f#$%ing idea why OKC agreed to it.)
I don’t like the Hughes move, but I understand it. Hughes is a better scorer than Tim Thomas (James and Roberson are just warm bodies, they’re irrelevant).
But Hughes is a headcase and a ballhog. And remember, I’m saying that in comparison to TIM FREAKING THOMAS here. I’m not enthused to see him taking shots away from Nate, Chandler, and Gallinari. I’m not pumped to see him in Dantoni’s running offense (it’s a horrible merger, IMO.) I hope I’m wrong.
At least none of the deals impact the Summer of LeBron. I’m sure Donnie’s still scheming a way to use DLee to get rid of Curry’s contract (like, possibly, this http://tinyurl.com/dkgtdh ?) ESPN says we turned down a Nate Robinson + Jared Jeffries for Kenny Thomas swap… I’d agree with that. I’d love to get rid of JJ’s 7M, but not at the expense of Nate (unless the Kings throw in a pick).
Or this:
http://tinyurl.com/ddpttv
BAM! Tell me that doesn’t make sense.
Couldn’t tell ya. Doesn’t load.
Loads just fine for me. Did you wait long enough? There’s a lag while the server retrieves the trade.
Here, try this:
http://games.espn.go.com/nba/t.....eId=b9q8vn
Ya, that badboy’s just not loading for me. Must be the computer.
heh i traded lebron and garnett to the knicks
I will explain. No, there is too much… I will sum up. It’s a threeway between the Knicks, Spurs, and Warriors. (Usually you pay double for that kind of action, Cotton).
Knicks give:
Eddy Curry, David Lee
Knicks get:
Bruce Bowen, Kurt Thomas, Ime Udoka, Jacque Vaughn
Spurs give:
Bruce Bowen, Kurt Thomas, Ime Udoka, Jacque Vaughn, Ian Mahinmi
Spurs get:
Corey Maggette, Anthony Morrow, Marcus Williams
Warriors give:
Corey Maggette, Anthony Morrow, Marcus Williams
Warriors get:
Eddy Curry, David Lee, Ian Mahinmi
The Warriors have been dying to get out from under the 5 year/50M deal they inked Maggette to from the moment he signed it. Lee is a good way to recoup their investment and Mahinmi is another good young bigman they can build around. Curry’s contract isn’t pretty, but to be able to turn Maggette into Lee and Mahinmi is probably worth taking on Curry’s deal. In any event, with the long term deals of Ellis, Biedrins, Crawford and Jackson all on the books for the next 3-5 years, they’re not going to be under the cap anytime soon anyway.
The Spurs have been looking for another scorer to add to their core (they were sniffing all over Vince Carter), and Maggette is probably a better fit for them anyway. They don’t give a crap about the cap, they’re locked into their big three of Duncan/Parker/Ginobili anyway. Morrow and Williams are tiny contracts for cap purposes, but they’re both half-decent guards, they could contribute.
The Knicks get four guys who are all a has been or never was, but they all have contracts that expire at the right time. Udoka and Vaughn are utter throwaways; they’ve been in every proposed Spurs deal this year. The good thing about the trade is, Bowen and Thomas are two of 4 different Spurs all making roughly identical money on identical, expiring-in-two-years deals (the other two being Roger Mason and Matt Bonner), so whichever two the Spurs are most willing to part with works in the deal.
Win-win-win.
Winnings? Winnings? What winnings?
Good looking deal though.
Stay on topic.
hypothetical: melky has a scorching spring training and first month of the season.
if you’re cashman, do you hope he’s turned a corner or take advantage of the window to trade him for a B prospect?
if the return is only a “B prospect”, you’d hold onto him and let him fill the gap until Ajax is ready.
Depends on:
A) How well Gardner looks at that point as the short-term replacement
B) How well AJax is progressing as the long-term replacement
C) How healthy Damon and Matsui look
D) How well Nady and Swisher are playing and how much interest there is in Nady
If everything looks good, all are playing well and contributing, I’m probably more inclined to ride it out with Melky and move Nady for a better package of prospects instead. It all depends.
amazing that melky’s only 24. feels like he’s been playing for 12 years.
Depends on how much they believe in Austin Jackson, I suppose. And how you define “B prospect.” And “scorching.” Heh.
Here’s what I mean: if Melky comes out and hits .350/.380/.450, I trade him. If he hits .280/.350/.450, I think I might keep him. The former looks like a batting-average spike fluke. Lotsa singles falling in. The latter looks like improved plate discipline and some XBHs… actual development.
Realistically no matter what Melk does for a month of the season his value won’t really change. If he hits for the first half, then there might be something.
agree with this. he needs more than a hot month to build up any trade value.
I still think you could get decent value back if you package him. We all joke about IPK/Melky but I do think in the right package you could get something that can help the team out back.
Come on people, Melky is still a prospect. He’s in the best shape hes ever been in. Brett Gardner is nice but we already have a Johnny Damon(of course Damon has more pop). Gardner is a slap baller, Melky will be the man and i hope we don’t get rid of him! especially for a prospect
Here’s where I disagree with you, Drew. Melky was never really a highly touted prospect. He never really projected to be much more than a fourth OFer on the Yanks and a starter on some worse teams. These expectations for him are based on an outlier rookie season. He won’t be as bad as he was in 2008, but he probably won’t ever be as good as a lot of his fans think he could be.
A man can hope… and if you’ve seen recent pics he’s in great shape.
Smart move. He’s got too much to accomplish over here.
what do the stats say about him defensively. i know he has a good arm. is he above average in terms of range?
No, he is avg.
yet another question: what would gardner need to hit in order to stay in the line-up? would .700 OPS be enough considering his defense?
Considering that Gardner doesn’t have any pop at all, a .700 OPS for him is probably equals a .270 BA + a .350 OBP + a .350 SLG, so yeah, a .700 OPS for him is plenty.
Especially if he’s got a .270/.350/.350 plus 50+ stolen bases and a UZR/150 in the +20 to +30 range, I’d personally be ecstatic with that.
UZR/150?
http://www.google.com
sorry about that
Don’t let it happen again. I swares!!!!