Fair to critique Cashman, but stop clamoring for Matsui
Tuesday, August 10, 2010 at 9:30 am by SJK
.245/.328/.404, 97 OPS+
That's Hideki Matsui's line for the season.
.179/.218/.348, 64 OPS+
That's Hideki Matsui's line versus LHP this season.
Seriously, stop it. You're dumb if you do it.
***If two players are equivalent offensively, and one is vastly superior to the other defensively, the better defensive player is the better player overall. This isn’t fucking rocket science.***
Hahaha.
i wasnt making a point, just an observation that i thought was interesting.
You said “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, which is implying the turnover was bad. I am simply saying it has been a mixed bag, but the intention was correct.
Do you honestly believe Brett Gardner is as good as Johnny Damon?
Yes! What’s so fucking hard to understand about it? Damon has shown more power than Gardner, but that’s it. Brett’s outclassed him in every other way.
Apologies for the vitriol in that last comment – it was unnecessary and uncalled for.
“Even if Berkman hits .000 for the rest of the season, he’ll still be a success. Makes sense”
no one said it would be a “success” just that it wouldn’t be considered a “colossal failure”.
Am i really a base stealer? I mean how many times have you seen me just standing over at 1st “trying to get a read” and i never go?.
Exactly @Brett Gardner. Even Michael Kay called you out last night which is embarrassing in it of itself.
Gardner has stolen 31 bases in 37 tries, good for an 83.7% success rate.
Yes, he is a basestealer.
Gardner is a good basestealer. That said, he should be stealing more often.
Having the seventh-most steals in the league and being more efficient about it than anybody in front of you doesn’t make you a basestealer? Nobody claimed the dude was the next coming of Rickey Henderson.
He better be a base stealer because he’s not hitting for a good avg, no Rbi’s and no homers. I can’t think of a team that has gotten worse production from their LF.
Again, is this 1987? Batting average and RBI? Gardner most frequently bats in the 9, 1 and 2 spots, which means he’s hitting behind the bottom of the order and Derek Jeter – i.e. the guys who provide the fewest RBI opportunities to the hitters who follow them, because they don’t get on base. Brett, on the other hand, provides tons of RBI opportunities, seeing as he’s 13th in the AL in OBP. He also gets into scoring position quite often, despite his low slugging percentage, because he gets to second off of many of his singles and walks – again, seventh in baseball in SB for that non-basestealer. A-Rod has so many RBI, despite his down season, because Swisher and Gardner are so busy getting on base in front of him. Claiming he doesn’t produce because his triple crown stats aren’t good is willfully ignorant of advances in understanding over the past 20-30 years.
@Kevin S…Again – (I’m not really sure why you keep bringing up 1987, did batting average and rbi’s count more then than they do now?) It is “o.k.” to criticize Yankees when they’re not doing well, especially ones that haven’t really proven themselves yet. You seem to have some sort of fetish with Brett Gardner because you have to justify him being in the lineup. I can understand if he stole 70 bases a year and dare i say it was more of a Jacoby Ellsbury type player, but he’s not. This is his 3rd year and he’s been given every chance to earn his everyday plaing spot and he really hasnt improved.
CT Yank,
Gardner gets on base more often than Damon.
Gardner is a much better fielder than Damon.
Gardner can play CF if necessary, unlike Damon.
Gardner is much faster than Damon, and has 24 more SB than Damon.
Gardner is ten years younger than Damon.
Gardner makes about $7.5 million less than Damon.
So yes, I am saying I would rather have Gardner on the team than Damon.
@CT Yank:
I suggest you read up on some advanced stats (see: my site, anything by Sensitive RAB guy, et al). Until then, kindly shut up
@CT Yank: and sorry for the vitriol in my last comment, too.
Unless you’re the one paying Damon’s salary, what do care? So because Damon Makes 15x what Gardner does, he’s a better player?
If Gardner is so good, why didn’t he play over Damon last year? And what does Gardner being 10 years younger have to do with him being a better player? Gardner’s spent more games on the DL in his career than Damon has.
You don’t need any Bill James stats for that
You guys are fucking idiots to ask for Matsui…you have Nick the walking stick. OBP! I GET ON BASE SO MUCH! I AM THE PERFECT NUMBER TWO HITTER!
Now let me get back to lifting the remote. Hopefully my wrist will hold long enough for me to change the channel.
How you say you peopre are roosers. You argue funny % thing. I pray good whire guy on disaberd rist. At reast I pray. HA HA.
Is it fair to critique Javy Vazquez yet? Or do we still owe him an apology?
There hasn’t been a photoshop bashing myself in a while.
I’m about due for Nomaas to tell me how bad I also suck.
I will play for the yankees free next year to try and earn some cred with nomaas. If I let Cashman fuck me over maybe they’ll like me.
Cash will probably say no to that deal after checking with the genius consultant staff at nomaas.
Gardner, 2-4, SB
Yup, he sucks.
Brett Gardner is better than Damon in almost every facet of baseball. I don’t really see what you’re even trying to argue.
“Unless you’re the one paying Damon’s salary, what do care?”
Because the team can spend the extra $7.5M it would have spent on Damon on other players, while getting a better player in Gardner anyway.
“So because Damon Makes 15x what Gardner does, he’s a better player?”
I think you mixed up your question. Anyway, Damon actually makes 20 times what Gardner makes. Why would you pay Player A 20 times what you pay Player B if Player B is better than Player A? Even if Damon were slightly better than Gardner (and he isn’t), it still wouldn’t justify re-signing Damon at his price (and remember that Damon demanded a lot more than 1 year, $8 million from the Yankees).
“If Gardner is so good, why didn’t he play over Damon last year?”
Because Damon had a good year at the plate last year (although not in the field) and Gardner was not ready for a starting job yet. Also last year Damon made over 30 times what Gardner made and it would not have gone over well if the veteran Damon were benched for Gardner.
“And what does Gardner being 10 years younger have to do with him being a better player?”
I think you understand all this and are trolling but I find myself replying anyway. Gardner is improving with age. Damon is declining with age. This year, Gardner improved and Damon declined to the point where Gardner is the better player. This sort of thing happens when two players are ten years apart in age.
“Gardner’s spent more games on the DL in his career than Damon has.”
Damon should have spent more time on the DL than he actually did, as there were some awful patches where he played through injuries. But really, who cares? Gardner looks pretty durable this year.
Could you imagine how bad the OF Defense would be if Johnny Damon was still out there instead of Gardner? I do not know why anybody is contemplating whether Matsui or Damon should still be Yanks they were relative no brainer decisions. You had 2 guys at the end of their careers who were asking for more money then what they were worth. Neither is having a good year and neither is missed. I just wonder if Cashman would rather have AJax, Coke, Kennedy back and maybe hold onto them for a better deal…Cause Granderson like his numbers have suggested over the past few years is nowhere’s near an elite player. I dont know how you trade your top position prospect for a guy who is now being platooned…at least Melky got us BOONE…If you told me at the end of last year that we were going to trade our starting CF’er from our World Series Champion team, a valuable Lefty reliever from our World Series Champion team, our top position prospect, our top pitching prospect, and a former 1st round pick: I would have said, at least we got Roy Halladay (not two players as mediocre at best as Javy and Granderson
And yet, despite the way you described each of those players, only A-Jax is any good (and even he needs to work some stuff out if he doesn’t want to get eaten alive).
@RichMahogony – I still don’t understand your money aspect to the Damon thing. There’s no salary cap in baseball and I’m sure they could have a found a few extra million under Hank’s mattress considering they dished out half a billion the year before.
“Gardner was not ready for the starting job last year” What did he do over the past off season to earn the job?
“Also last year Damon made over 30 times what Gardner made and it would not have gone over well if the veteran Damon were benched for Gardner.”
So if they were paid the same amount last year, Gardner would have started over Damon?
“Gardner looks pretty durable this year.”
He just said this – “Early in the season I was getting on base a lot and running a lot, and my legs just got a little tired …” Really? Tired?
There’s a reason Damon gets paid what he does and the Scott Podsednik types get paid what they do.
I’m not saying Gardner shouldnt be on this team, but he shouldnt have been considered an every day player going in to this season. Theres no way you can convince me that this years lineup going into the postseason is better than last years, and part of that reason is Damon in/Gardner out.
The Yankees weren’t re-acquiring 2009 Damon – they would have been getting the 2010 version. The 2010 version of Johnny Damon is not as good as the 2009 version of Johhny Damon. Brian Cashman understands that player ability is not static. You do not.
@CTyank You’re only responding to things that you think you have adequate responses for…GARDNER IS BETTER THAN DAMON, THEREFORE HE SHOULD BE PLAYING INSTEAD OF DAMON. Respond to that.
CTYank: True of False, Brett Gardner is a better baseball player than Johnny Damon.
CT Yank already responded to the “Gardner is better” argument. He said Damon is better because he has a higher batting average, more RBI and hits more home runs, and because Gardner struggled in the past.
Gardner over Damon is a no-brainer, despite one person’s protestations.
If you want to make a case for re-signing Damon, it’s that you could have re-signed him to be the DH. He was a better choice than Nick Johnson from the start. But with Berkman in the fold we have essentially the same player now anyway.
The critique of Cashman is as simple as what Tom stated above. He overpaid for two mediocre players in Granderson and Javy. And it doesn’t matter, Kevin S, how good the players we gave up are. What matters is the value they had in the offseason, and what Cashman spent that value on.
The bench construction is another critique, but frankly I think Cashman intentionally guts his bench every year and builds it back up at the deadline so he only has to pay bench components for half the year. Ultimately, it’s smart and effective.
CTYank is better at head than either Brett Gardner or Johnny Damon. Johnny has a hairy sack that tickles my chin, though. I like that…
Mike K, I don’t think they did have very much value. Phil Coke is a dime-a-dozen reliever, Ian Kennedy was seen as not having the stuff to pitch in the AL, and Melky Cabrera is a 4th outfielder. That’s how they were valued in the offseason. We haven’t learned anything new about them.
I get more distance when I masturbate than Johnny Damon does when he throws a baseball…. and he also can’t hit or field anymore.
I dont know how you trade your top position prospect for a guy who is now being platooned
Is catcher not a position now??
Melky Cabrera will be non-tendered this winter. Guaranteed. If the Yankees want him back, he’ll be available.
The fact that he was the “starting CFer on a World Series team” means absolutely nothing. You can make the same argument about the worst player in the lineup for any WS Champ.
Pedro Feliz was the starting 3Bman on a World Championship team.
I dont know what non-tendered means and I dont care! Melky has a ring!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was convinced CTYank was for real until that last comment.
Arodys Vizcaino had a good amount of value at the beginning of the year. Now, with him having labrum surgery, he has very little value at all.
The Vazquez trade (which also included Boone Logan), so far, has been an unmitigated success.
CTYANK is a handjob!!!!!!!!!!!!!!