Yankees GM Brian Cashman hinted Thursday that Brett Gardner will remain an everyday player in 2011 and beyond. The Yanks have been intrigued by the possibility of signing Carl Crawford for years, but they may have to pass on the Tampa speedster this offseason. Barring a drastic change, Gardner will open the 2011 season as New York's starting left fielder, Curtis Granderson will open in center and Nick Swisher will open in right. "We always projected [Gardner] to be an everyday player in New York," Cashman said Thursday. "A lot of people doubted that was real. We never did. It turns out it is real. It turns out we were right."
Brett is a little old (27) to be finally scoring a full time job but he was the 25th outfielder on the player rater this year. If he can improve on that .252 mark vs. LHP he should be solid next year. It seemed he spent alot of time batting 9th last year but he still scored 97 runs, and the Yanks seem to like him in the 1st or 2nd spot in the order vs. RHP on occasion. Projections for next year?
A very interesting insight into the future of the Yankees organizational plans.
There's no question Gardner is a good fantasy option. Anywhere in that lineup he'll have a good shot at 100R and 35+SB.
I find it kind of interesting that this is coming out now though. To me, this seems like Cashman slowly and gently tempering Yankees fans for the coming off-season. While they're all foaming at the mouth about signing Crawford, Lee, or any other big name free agent out there, I think he's a smart guy who sees what's coming in the near future. He's going to have to sign Jeter to big money (and long term again), and he knows he's only a year or so away from paying $30+M to a nearly crippled ARod that's going to become a bigger liability every year. The Yankees' payroll commitments in their infield are going to be pretty ugly through the rest of that contract, and I think they're going to have to settle for limiting themselves to signing and resigning "role" players like Gardner until they can clear the books again. Cashman can't top the $300M mark, can he? At some point he's going to have to start reigning the spending back just a little...
Anyway, that's just conjecture. Honestly the only person this is really impacting right now is Crawford's agent, who can't be too happy about this announcement right now.
Does make me wonder what the Yanks are planning on doing against Lefties in the future. They can't really tolerate two everyday players (Garder and Granderson) who can't hit over .250 against lefties, can they?
It's still possible that they could sign Crawford and move Swisher to DH. But they would need to figure out their payroll because they have 144 committed next year and Jeter, Rivera and Pettitte in FA. That could be 40M right there if they all come back. And it seems that they could instead use DH for Montero/Posada/Arod and sign a veteran bench bat to play there some next year. So I'm guessing that unless there is a trade (Granderson or Montero) they won't go after Crawford very hard. But everyone thought that about Teixeira also.
kab21 wrote:It's still possible that they could sign Crawford and move Swisher to DH. But they would need to figure out their payroll because they have 144 committed next year and Jeter, Rivera and Pettitte in FA. That could be 40M right there if they all come back. And it seems that they could instead use DH for Montero/Posada/Arod and sign a veteran bench bat to play there some next year. So I'm guessing that unless there is a trade (Granderson or Montero) they won't go after Crawford very hard. But everyone thought that about Teixeira also.
I agree. I think they go hard for Cliff Lee but don't do anything too substantial to change their offense for next year.
StlSluggers wrote:I think this guy should never start until he can adequately explain the physics of why running through first base is faster than diving to it.
Unless, of course, he's aiming for 'Fist Pump' points from Derek. Then, diving makes sense...
In the play he beat out in the post season, I think he might have been able to be tagged out if he was standing up running so that might have helped him then. He has also said before that if his stride is such that he would have to take a half step or something to hit the front edge of first base that that is another reason he dives.
KCollins1304 wrote:In the play he beat out in the post season, I think he might have been able to be tagged out if he was standing up running so that might have helped him then.
That thought occurred to me when I saw that replay, too, but there's no way he could have known where the toss/glove would have ended up.
KCollins1304 wrote:In the play he beat out in the post season, I think he might have been able to be tagged out if he was standing up running so that might have helped him then.
That thought occurred to me when I saw that replay, too, but there's no way he could have known where the toss/glove would have ended up.
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by West » Fri Oct 15, 2010 9:35 am 
