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Filling X’s spot

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We’re still waiting for the official diagnosis and treatment needed for Xavier Nady’s injured elbow, but everyone expects grim news that will sideline X for the remainder of the season. The Yanks called up Juan Miranda yesterday to replace Nady on the roster, but more than likely this is just a temporary solution. This morning MLBTR pointed us to a report indicating that two possible options are Jason Repko of the Dodgers and Austin Kearns of the Nationals. The problem is that both Repko and Kearns kinda stink.

Let’s just eliminate Kearns as an option right now. He’s hitting .167-.310-.375 this year after hitting .217-.311-.316 last year. He’s owed $8M this year with a $1M buyout on his $10M option for next year. Sure he sort of has a big name after being an elite prospect back in the day, but Kearns doesn’t offer the Yanks anything they don’t already have in John Rodriguez. So he hits righthanded, big deal. I’ll take a good lefty hitter over an inferior righty hitter any day of the week. Pass. Pass emphatically.

Repko, on the other hand, is only slightly less useless. In nearly 500 big league plate appearances he’s hit .229-.300-.375 but has a spiffy 8.9 UZR rating in the outfield (primarily in center). Melky Cabrera’s career line is .268-.329-.375 and his UZR is a combined -2.4 in the various outfield spots, but he’s four years younger than Repko. Where’s the upgrade? Really, the best replacement option would have been Delwyn Young, who the Dodgers traded to the Pirates the day before Nady got hurt. It’s just a case of unfortunate timing.

I understand that the Yankees have likely just lost an everyday outfielder for the rest of the season, but given their current roster construction, why does he have to be replaced with another outfielder? They’re already carrying four players on their roster capable of manning the big swath of grass past the infield, and all four of those guys can play center in a pinch. That’s normally what a team carries. They could use this opportunity to upgrade the black hole that is currently third base, perhaps by picking up Mark Grudzielanek. That, of course, assumes he would be willing to assume a utility infielder role once Alex Rodriguez comes back.

We do know one thing for sure, Brian Cashman won’t rush into finding a replacement for Nady outside of the organization. He’ll let the market come to him like he did with Bobby Abreu and … well … Xavier Nady.

Yanks, Nady still unsure of prognosis

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Xavier Nady, the Yanks’ shelved right fielder, has been for an MRI and a CT scan. He knows he has some bone damage in his elbow, and he thinks he has some ligament damage there as well. However, the Yanks and Nady are just not sure about the extent of his injury, and they’re not sure what part of the elbow abnormalities are new and what remains as scar tissue. As Bryan Hoch reports today, Nady will soon be undergoing a second MRI in an effort to isolate the damage and attempt a diagnosis. There’s still a chance Nady could rehab the injury and return this year, but right now, I’m not expecting much from number 22.

Report: Nady may need surgery

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There’s no official word yet, but PeteAbe is reporting that Xavier Nady will need surgery on his elbow and be out the rest of the season. Nady hurt himself during last night’s game, saying he felt a sharp pain in his elbow after making a throw. This would obviously be a major blow to Yanks’ offense and depth. More as it comes.

Update by Ben (1:58 p.m.): The beat writers say that Nady just spoke with them, and he’s not saying much. He’s going to talk to doctors in New York tomorrow when the team returns home. Nady however said that the MRI showed a tear that will probably need surgery. How much time he misses is up in the air.

Update by Mike (2:03 p.m.): Pete Caldera is reporting that Nady said he will be placed on the DL. Not sure if this will happen before this afternoon’s game, and who will replace him on the roster.


Update by Mike (2:08 p.m.): Not sure if it means anything, but Austin Jackson was lifted from Triple-A Scranton’s game this afternoon in the third inning. He was hit by a pitch in the second inning, but stayed in the game to run for himself and play another inning in center.

Update by Mike (2:12 p.m.): Kevin Russo was also pulled from the Triple-A game. He might be on his way up to play some third base. If A-Jax is in fact on his way up, he better play every single day.

San Fran likes Nady

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Via MLBTR, Jon Heyman has a tiny little blurb about the Giants being interesting in bringing Xavier Nady back to the Bay Area at some point. It isn’t clear if Heyman means they’re interested in trading for the X-man during the season, or pursuing him when he’s a free agent next winter. Nady, who grew up about two hours south of San Francisco and starred at Cal-Berkeley, fits their need for a power bat that can fill in at first base and the corner outfield spots. Given his contract status, the Yanks shouldn’t expect much for Nady in a mid-season trade, and would probably maximize their return by offering him arbitration after the year and taking the compensation draft pick(s).

Graphing the Yanks’ outfield defense

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Outfield Defense

That graph comes courtesy of Dan Turkenkopf at Beyond the Box Score. Dan took the vector data from Dave Pinto’s database and plotted it to show where each of the Yanks’ starting outfielders excels defensively. Basically what you’re seeing is how good each player is on balls hit to a specific “zone,” with green being good and red being bad. The center fielder is shown above the corner guys just so you can see the overlap, it doesn’t mean that balls hit to corners will go undefended or anything like that. And also don’t worry about the background, the New Stadium will have the same dimensions as the old joint.

The very first thing I noticed was how bad Nady is on balls hit right at him, basically about five outs worse than expected. He’s even weak to his immediate right and left, which tells me that he’s just not very instinctive out there, and is at his best defensively when it’s obvious off the bat that he’ll need some hustle to get to the ball. You know what would be cool? If Mr. Turkenkopf put one of these together with Swisher in right instead of the X-man. (nudge nudge)

Damon is the opposite of Nady, eating up everything hit close to him, which is what you’d expect from a veteran Major League outfielder. He’s also stronger going to his right, which probably has something to do with him not having to reach across his body with his glove to field balls on that side. Gardner’s very strong out there, making plays on everything hit even remotely close to him. He shows the same pattern of struggling to get to balls that would require him to reach across his body with his glove, so my theory might hold a little water. Of course the small sample size police are in full force with Gardy.

Judging from the graph, it looks like the biggest problem areas are the gaps (expected), specifically the left-center field gap. And, you know, the whole Nady in right field thing. Joe and I have mentioned on the podcast several times that the hardest ball to field is the one hit right at you, but it looks like Nady is the only one in the Yanks outfield with this issue.

This is some really interesting stuff. What do you guys think?

Nady has leg up in right field competition

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For much of the winter, at least since the Mark Teixeira signing, there’s been plenty of debate as to who will start in right field for the Yanks. Two able-bodied vets are vying for the job: newly-acquired Nick Swisher and contract-year Xavier Nady. Via Bryan Hoch’s Twitter feed, we learn that Nady is the current favorite. This doesn’t appear based on spring performance, as Nady isn’t exactly lighting it up. Pete Caldera notes that “Nady has more in the bank with Girardi based on last season.” So was it really a competition at all?

Update (11:45 a.m.): Hoch’s Twitter feed just lit up again, letting us know that Kei Igawa has been optioned to AAA. Not huge news, hence no new post.