Olney: Yanks in no rush to find a righty hitting leftfielder
ByIn this morning’s blog post, Buster Olney says the Yanks are not in a big rush to bring in a righthanded hitting left fielder to caddy Brett Gardner. He says the team will simply wait out free agency to see how the market develops for Reed Johnson, Jonny Gomes, and the like. It makes perfect sense for the Yanks to operate like this, as there is no shortage of qualified players on the open market, and frankly because we haven’t heard of too many teams being interested in Johnson or Gomes or Rocco Baldelli or whoever else.
Would it be nice to upgrade in left? Sure. Is it that big of a hole that Brian Cashman should rush out and sign the best available player? No, of course not. It could be way worse than having two good-to-great defenders age-25 or less fit at the very bottom of this lineup.
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The Mason Williams Watch
Cashninja is always in stealth mode.
He actually DID sign Mike Cameron…to be a double agent!
“I dunno, Tito…I guess my range just isn’t what it was. I guess it’ll be a long two years…hang on, I have to go strike out again.”
My thoughts exactly…
Additionally, waiting out the market could possibly enable the Yanks to sign Damon again if the market drops out on him even more. Its a small chance, and I’m sure they wouldn’t turn down an opportunity to sign a different player on their terms because of it, but I feel its worth noting.
I’d like the Yankees to get Fernando Tatis. Can actually hit, play several positions and would likely not cost that much.
He wouldn’t be the worst option. In fact, after RJ, I think he’d be the best of the cheapies.
I’m not confident Nady can play the field and throw a ball, Church has ugly splits, ditto on Thames, the word’s out on Mora, Dye is a regressing DH, Johnny Gomes is now a member of Limp Bizkit, Rocco Baldelli has a freakin’ incurable disease that renders him unable to play for more than very limited stretches. It’s not a super collection, but RJ seems to fit.
Hairston too.
Yeah. I see him more as an all-around utility guy than a LF platoon option, though he can certainly do it. Just my take.
I don’t think we’re actually looking for a true platoon partner for Gardner.
I think Gardner is actually the presumptive everyday starter, and we’re just looking for quality depth in case he (and Hoffmann) fail on a Varitekian level.
JMHO.
I think the Yankees are flexible with what they want to do, and they’re open to playing Gardner in whatever capacity that final offensive signing dictates, from everyday LF to platoon to 4th OF.
I agree, if Hairston were signed, he’d be more a sometime caddy or PH, and play 3rd when A-Rod isn’t. Gardner would be, for all intents and purposes, the everyday guy.
Yeah, I don’t think it’s a true platoon but against good LHP like the Lester-types, he’ll sit, but yeah, he’s the presumptive starter. And that’s fine with me.
I’m actually not as sour on Gardner as I’ve been in the past.
I’m working on that whole “irrational” thing.
nah, hairston’s a utility guy. if gardner started sucking badly you need to have a guy who can play lf every day. i don’t think hairston can do that
Are you baiting me? You didn’t specify a Hairston you know….
I’m talking about the father. He can platoon with Barry Bonds’s dead father.
We could get John Mayberry Sr. too, just pull him out of the YSIII crowd.
/Fox fail
Do it, Cash$$$!
RJ is the best of the cheapies, but he also has some legit concerns with his injury history.
I dunno about Tatis. He’s 35 years old and I just looked at his ESPN stats real quick. Something tells me we’ll see some regression.
We’re picking off the scrap heap. All of them will have injury concerns or one serious red flag.
Regarding Tatis: meh, his 2009 was pretty ok in terms of offense. Yeah, he’s old and could be on the downswing, but there doesn’t appear to be a particular trend. It looks worse when you compare it to 2008, which was actually his best year in about eight seasons. He might totally regress, but from looking at just numbers, he seems like he’d be a good RH LF platoon caddy for Gardner. In fact, he looks almost like a Hairston with a better bat and a worse glove.
Yeah you’re totally right.
Also, holy fucking shit at his 1999 year. I do love a good career outlier season.
*cough* Brady Anderson *cough*.
*cough* Adrian Beltre *cough*.
Just imagine, the Yankees could have the two greatest single inning players in baseball history.
Why would we want any position on our team to be the “scrap heap” one?
This is why we need to stop the nonsense and resign Johnny. I personally think Gardner is a bum. I can understand trying to see if he can amount to anything given a full time slot but I suspect we’ll be active around the trade deadline once it’s obvious he’s nothing more than a slap hitter who can steal bases.
A slap hitter who steals bases and plays plus D is a perfectly fine #9 hitter. He’s replacing Melky Cabrera, not Johnny Damon. And if he is unsuccessful, it will be easily to upgrade.
Bring back Marcus Thames. It would be like all the chickens are coming home to roost. We can pick Lowell up too, when the Red Sox put him on waivers.
kidding
Bring back Miguel Angel Sano!
/had to
Are you trying to make me cry?
Cause it’s working……….
There’s still time to grab Cyclops Mateo in time for the new X-Men movie.
who’s the other good to great defender at the bottom of the lineup?
oh nevermind i just realized you meant hoffmann
You know, it’s funny. If it were up to some of us RABers, the team’s off-season additions would look like Sheets, Dusch, Cameron, Nick Johnson.
I’d say we’re all pretty happy with Vazquez, Granderson, Johnson, (mystery LF platoon guy), right?
Is it better than what we’d suggested?
YES. What Cashman did was way fucking better.
See, as fans though, how could we know that Granderson was available in Detroit? Or that The Yankee organization wanted Vazquez back AND Atlanta needed to deal him. We mainly just play around with the available FA class and publicly known trade commodities like Doc.
If I knew what Cashman knew, I think I would’ve done the exact same things he’s done so far.
(except offered arb to JD)
I don’t think that Boras would have made that same mistake twice. Johnny would have accepted arbitration.
Nah I doubt that. He was going for that 3 or 4 year deal back then.
I seriously, seriously doubt he ever expected someone to offer 3 or 4 years.
Standard practice for Boras is to start the offseason by throwing out an absurd demand that everyone laughs at. That way when his client signs for less, people feel like they got a deal, yet the contract is still high by any other standard.
Agreed. But Damon at the time was definitely looking for a multi-year. Would he have accepted? Considering there was no established market by the 7th, I’ll say no, but it’s totally possible.
Going to agree with JWZ. I’m not upset he wasn’t offered arb—that’s a big risk to take if he accepts—but I really don’t think he’d have accepted it at the time. He’d only have a week to decide and nothing had been established on the market at that point.
Yeah, I think we may have lost a fair amount of depth from the farm, which will preclude us from possible mid-season trades, but I’m pretty happy with the deals.
Jackson, IPK, Coke for Granderson was solid. IPK would only be providing depth (even more so now that we have Javy); Jackson at best will probably never be as good as Granderson, and it will likely take him at least a few more years to establish himself; Coke was a decent LOOGY, but we don’t really need too many lefties. We dealt from a position of strength.
So that deal was freakin’ solid.
Losing Viz hurts but he’s a ways away. Dunn was probably our answer to losing Coke, so that’s also not great, but whatever, he was too wild anyway. Melky’s a league-average CF with a slight possibility of developing some power. But he’ll probably not ever develop a plus tool; he’s just okay at a lot of things. Unnecessary with Granderson, especially when you have a chance to get a guy like Vazquez. Getting Vazquez was a wonderful move, though I’m slightly concerned with our LOOGY situation. We have Marte, but he seems too good to be used situationally like that. After that it’s Boone Logan, WDLR? Hmmm…
It says a lot about how good our team looks if I’m saying things like, “I’m worried about the LOOGYs.”
Excellent job, Cashman.
Losing Viz *might* hurt, who knows? 19 year old who has yet to pitch in a full season league. And even if he did succeed, what were his chances of making the Yankees top 5? With their money and the organizational competition he’d have for whatever roster spots he could possibly attain, he still may have ended up being a trade piece, and who knows if that would’ve been as good as Javy Vazquez?
I don’t miss Viz one bit, not in the context of the Yankee organization. Makes it all the more impressive of an off-season for Cashman. The team could not make another move until after April and they’d be more than fine. 2010 is going to be the year of Fucking Shit Up. Boston is trying to be all suave and fancy with their run prevention mojo. FUCK THAT. Yankees have sheer power throughout their entire pitching staff and lineup. The infield defense should be steady and the outfield defense looks to be above average. We will not be stopped.
Silver lining of Vazquez is if we lose him, we may get really good picks back, possibly guys as good as Viz.
Exactly.
To be fair, fans didnt really know the true asking prices of Vazquez/Granderson so its tough to put those guys on the list of guys you want
I’m just reading this thread now and I was about to make a similar comment… Yeah, this is probably better than what we were discussing, but what we were discussing was restricted to the FA market, only. To compare what we thought might happen/wanted to happen to what actually transpired is kind of to compare two groups of transactions (or proposed transactions) on an uneven playing field.
Yeah, you’re right on point. I was just noting how funny it is what some of us (myself included) lobbied for and the eventual haul. It’s just an interesting talking point.
I will say this, though: I would have been pretty happy if we picked up Sheets, Cameron, Dusch and didn’t give up prospects (of course, this is all assuming they’d be on one-year or short deals for a reasonable salary).
I don’t think that even the Braves or Tigers knew exactly what it would take to give up those guys. I think they both just knew that they needed to shed some payroll, had a list of players they were thinking about trading, and some preferences over who they’d rather trade from the list.
After that, I think they just collected all the offers they could get and picked the best.
As a fan, you really can’t come close to predicting how something like that will play out.
(puts burrito back in freezer, unplugs microwave)
Plug it back in, all this proves is that Cash is teh suxor!!11!!!1. Just because they are in no rush doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be in a rush.
Let them wait and get more desperate.
Can Orlando Hudson feel good about switching to left? for the shot at the WS?
That’s a new one. I don’t see it happening and I doubt he’d come cheap.
What sense would that make for the Yankees?
What tells you he can actually play LF? It’s real life, not The Show
Casey Kotchman to LF. What do you think?
I’ve grown to hate that name so much over the last 2 months. Dont know how many times i read “Casey Kotchman” with “potential” and “really good hitter” in the same sentence
It definitely gets unnerving. That guy priced himself WAY too high.
The O-Dog is an asset because he plays second base. He’s not nearly worth it as an LF.
DAMON, DAMON, DAMON….rotate at DH and LF…and be the #2 hitter!
Terrible rhyme scheme. Work on a haiku or something.
Damon is the best
Gets on base, hits some homeruns
Defense is ok
Defense is bad.
For my opinion on Damon’s defense, I will simply defer to Joe P’s post about it, which more or less reflects my thoughts in a much more intelligent way than I could ever.
http://riveraveblues.com/2009/.....nse-20172/
Sweet, this post gives me yet another chance to pine for the perfect solution…..
That sounds eerily familiar.
/Grandpa?
You love Scott Hairston like I love shark week.
Damn right. I will continue to love him until someone tells me why he’s not the perfect solution.
If nothing else, you’ve given me a topic for my next blog post. Thanks bud.
Just don’t poke any holes in my theory….
I’ll be on the lookout for it.
Sign Damon.
What $ amount and how many years are you thinking?
how about bringing back Roy White ?
How about Roy Munson?
Roy White takes on Johnny Damon in a throwing contest…..priceless…..both were solid players and neither could throw (Roy from the right and JD from the left)
Jonny Gomes Baby…..
The Yankees should look at Johnny Damon first and give him an ultimatum. If he doesn’t sign then that’s the time the Yankees should go for guys like Jerry Hairston Jr.
The Yanks are missing the boat on Vlad. Even playing hurt last year he was still a legit threat with the bat. He’s young enough to rehab himself into playing the field. At what looks to be his price (around $5M) he fits the budget. If the Rangers are willing to waste salary on him that they can’t afford to be wrong about my bet is he will be the steal of the off-season.
“It could be way worse than having two good-to-great defenders age-25 or less fit at the very bottom of this lineup.”
Are you referring to when Jorge is out? Couldn’t think of the other guy other than Cervelli.
“It could be way worse than having two good-to-great defenders age-25 or less fit at the very bottom of this lineup.”
Maybe someone has asked/answered this already, who are you referring to?
Gardner is already 26 and will turn 27 during the upcoming season and Hoffman is 25 and will turn 26 during the season. Also, I get the good defender assessment but to infer they might be “great” is unfounded and just an exaggeration.
They may do the job but let’s not water down the discussion with inflated valuation.
We’ll be trading for a right handed bat late in the season. These experiments with lightweights never work in Gotham. Gardner will stink when he plays everyday. Reed Johnson seems to be the best of the lightweights left, has good numbers against lefties, can field lf or cf and run. Utility guy needs to be a righty too, Hairston seems to fit.
Reed Johnson and Gomes out-injury Nick Johnson and can’t hit half as well. Look somewhere else to someone who can make a contribution.
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