By the Deki-ade: Left field strengths
ByThroughout the latter half of the 1990s, the Yankees won without a true left field solution. They used Tim Raines and Chad Curtis, Ricky Ledee and Shane Spencer to try to fill the hole. It was not until 2003 with the arrival of Hideki Matsui that the Yankees had a true left field solution.
Now, as the Aughts came to a close, the Yankees’ left field position is again up for grabs. Johnny Damon is gone, and someone will step in to fill the hole. That is a concern for other posts. Today, as we continue our Yankees By the Decade retrospective, we come to toast the left fielders. The table below is those who made at least 10 appearances in left from 2000-2009.
| AB | Hits | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | IBB | HBP | K | GDP | BA | OBP | SLG | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hideki Matsui | 2080 | 605 | 122 | 8 | 82 | 357 | 265 | 18 | 9 | 293 | 54 | .291 | .371 | .475 |
| Johnny Damon | 974 | 293 | 61 | 6 | 35 | 146 | 109 | 1 | 2 | 142 | 12 | .301 | .372 | .484 |
| Melky Cabrera | 569 | 157 | 32 | 3 | 11 | 64 | 58 | 2 | 3 | 65 | 14 | .276 | .345 | .401 |
| Chuck Knoblauch | 424 | 104 | 14 | 2 | 7 | 27 | 45 | 1 | 8 | 52 | 9 | .245 | .329 | .337 |
| Rondell White | 410 | 101 | 19 | 0 | 12 | 55 | 21 | 1 | 7 | 75 | 9 | .246 | .292 | .380 |
| Shane Spencer | 387 | 106 | 22 | 1 | 14 | 67 | 26 | 1 | 3 | 76 | 8 | .274 | .320 | .444 |
| David Justice | 201 | 67 | 13 | 0 | 17 | 42 | 25 | 1 | 1 | 25 | 1 | .333 | .406 | .652 |
| Xavier Nady | 176 | 47 | 8 | 0 | 9 | 30 | 11 | 1 | 4 | 39 | 5 | .267 | .323 | .466 |
| Tony Womack | 160 | 36 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 22 | 1 | .225 | .256 | .237 |
| Juan Rivera | 160 | 38 | 12 | 0 | 2 | 15 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 21 | 10 | .237 | .275 | .350 |
| Ricky Ledee | 148 | 41 | 11 | 1 | 6 | 27 | 22 | 2 | 1 | 28 | 6 | .277 | .370 | .486 |
| Luis Polonia | 57 | 17 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | .298 | .375 | .404 |
| Brett Gardner | 56 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 17 | 0 | .143 | .210 | .161 |
| Ruben Sierra | 51 | 17 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 1 | .333 | .358 | .529 |
| Karim Garcia | 46 | 18 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 1 | .391 | .417 | .609 |
| Glenallen Hill | 41 | 15 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 1 | .366 | .395 | .756 |
| Ryan Thompson | 34 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 0 | .235 | .333 | .353 |
| Bubba Crosby | 31 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 0 | .258 | .281 | .355 |
| Jerry Hairston | 27 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | .148 | .233 | .407 |
| Clay Bellinger | 21 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | .095 | .136 | .333 |
| Gerald Williams | 16 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | .062 | .118 | .062 |
| Totals | 6303 | 1743 | 346 | 25 | 214 | 912 | 649 | 30 | 42 | 977 | 137 | 0.277 | 0.346 | 0.441 |
By virtue of playing time alone, Hideki Matsui is the left fielder of the decade. For a few years from 2003-2007, before his knees gave out, Matsui brought stability to the spot and man, did he hit. Over his 2080 left field at-bats, he hit .291/.371/.475 with 82 home runs and 357 RBIs.
Even with this gaudy counting stats, I’m a little hesitant to flat-out proclaim Matsui the best of the decade. The simple truth is that Matsui’s fielding in left was, for five years, atrocious. He never once put up a UZR better than -1.6, and his combined left field UZR for his time in the Bronx was -57.8. Without Matsui’s big bat, the Yanks would have been in deep trouble in left.
For the 2000s, though, the trend for the Yanks in left focused around a big bat with less emphasis on fielding. Johnny Damon, the successor to Matsui in left, put up nearly identical numbers to Matsui. He hit .301/.372/.484 and sported a better OPS out of left than Matsui did. For the first two seasons, Damon put up positive UZR totals in left, but in 2009, that figure dipped to -9.2. It was ugly for sure.
Before these two stalwarts of the late 2000s, the Yankees tried everyone. The Rondell White era was a misguided attempt to plug a hole left by the end of the Paul O’Neill era. Never able to stay healthy, White signed a multi-year deal with the Yanks, put up some atrocious numbers and was traded for Bubba Trammell. The two-year, $10-million deal White signed was one of the worst of the early 00s.
As the early years of the decade wore on, others came and went. The Yankees tried to put Chuck Knoblauch in the left field spot in 2001 after he couldn’t throw from second to first. They tried Melky Cabrera when Matsui went down with an injury in 2006. They even gave Ruben Sierra 51 at bats in the field during the mid-decade years.
Now, though, the era of Matsui and Damon is over. The Yanks’ DH went west, and the Yanks’ incumbent left field is trying to find some team willing to overpay him in both years and dollars. Maybe Damon will return; maybe Brett Gardner will fill the void. For the Yanks, that left field hole is nothing new, and as the decade ends, we will be Matsui, the man who received just 33 percent of all Yankee LF at-bats, as the position’s best.
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The Tyler Austin Watch
Glenallen Hill OPSed 1.151 and he only got 41 ABs?
Maybe he’s still available to fill our LF void
Roids.
Didn’t he hit a ball like 475+ feet in Wrigley?
Yeah I think so. I also believe he broke his bat checking his swing.
http://ballhype.com/video/glen.....erun_ever/
Coudln’t find it in HD for me?
You ungrateful little…
I don’t think they broadcast Cubs games in HD in 2000.
Get in the Delorean and invent HD before 2000 so that I can see that juice-aided bomb. I’ve been to Wrigley, seeing it in person makes that even more impressive.
i think thats a no-no
“Throughout the latter half of the 1990s, the Yankees won without a true left field solution.”
the yankees were able to win without an all star left fielder? amazing.
Pfft that like has any relevance whatsoever in regards to the current roster
Buh bye.
1.Glenallen Hill (1.151 OPS)
2.David Justice (1.058 OPS)
3.Karim Garcia (1.026 OPS)
4.Ruben Sierra (.887 OPS)
5.Ricky Ledee & Johnny Damon (.856 OPS)
I like that this is your thing.
How about ole Brett the Jet? He seems to love LF.
(ignoring all SSS screams)
Heh yea, I find this ignoring sample size thing to be kinda amusing.
Brett loves LF so much that all he did was dream about getting back there while batting.
Hmm Ryan Thompson is the only one I don’t remember.
I don’t remember the name either, but according to Wiki he is the Yankees who hit Bryce Florie in the face with a line drive (which I definitely remember watching).
I was at that game, the sound was sickening. Obviously the sight was awful, too, but I swear I’ll never get that sound out of my head.
Deki-ade
I get it. A play on the word “decade”. Good one.
Yea, I just got it too. It sounds like some Japanese energy drink.
/Salty’d
Hah, now this is a meme? That’s cool but kinda sucks at the same time.
http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs2.....yiLove.jpg (SFW)
Actually, this one is WAY more fitting. http://www.yodawgyo.com/wp-con.....-memes.jpg (SFW)
We’re laughing with you, not at you. Really, it’s all in good fun.
Definitely. Salty, you’re the best.
I don’t mind it. Like I said, while it kinda sucks, it’s pretty cool that I’m a meme on RAB.
i would have thought gary shefield would have been on that list too
I can’t recall him playing any games in LF for the Yanks.
For the Yankees Sheff only played RF, 3B, 1B, and DH. He never appeared in LF.
Louis Polonia and the Jai-lai Cesti FTW!
Largest glove I have ever seen – it was bigger than his torso.
Yeah, it was like unlocking some of the ridiculous cheat codes in the old Triple Play series.
When are you people going to come to the realization that Curtis Granderson is the new Yankee Leftfielder and will be batting 5th. Brett Gardner is the now the Yankees Centerfielder, and will be batting 9th. I can’t wait to watch these two perform. Its going to be a lot of fun.
What do you mean “you people”?
(golf-clap)
nicely done
This is a totally unnecessary comment and only tangentially related to the post. Don’t do it again.
Pwlnd. Being pwned by Pawlikowski.
/Salty Buggah joke explanation’d
You = Pippen
wow, SSS and all, but David Justice’s SLG is absurd!
Another shot at Melky by Kabak by posting his poor stats.
/Bo’d
I know you were just joking, but I would be quite pleased with that production this year from left field.
If it’s from Gritner hell yeah. If that came from an unappealing defensive LF, then it would suck.
Yeah, I was assuming a Jet-Hoffman LF.
I was going to talk down to you and then call you by your first name but…well, it’s just not as fun in certain cases.
Are we going to get a “by the decade” for Starting Pitchers?
I’m not going to ask about relief pitchers because to track down every relief pitcher to pitch for the Yankees over the past decade would be lunacy.
Btw: I think these by the decade things are awesome, and if you tell me to stop being greedy, I’ll understand.
By the decade: Concession food items, bench players.
The best possible by the decade: players’ wives and girlfriends.
With Jeter the WAG’s would be a longer list than relievers. Hell, it might even be a longer list than ranking all of the people who went to a game in the 2000′s.
I love this “decade” series. Brings back so much I’d forgotten.
Whatever happened to Glenallen Hill after he left us?
He became a gospel singer.
Went to the Angels sucked for a year (BA below .200) and retired.
He was bitten by a radioactive spider and acquired unbelievable quickness and strength, which rendered him capable of hitting balls 500 feet with a wooden bat.
Oh, after, you said. He became a 1st base coach with the Rockies.