1st post & thoughts on Yankee Spring Training

So, I know nobody is going to read this, but what the hey? I really enjoy talking about the Yankees so i figured maybe, possibly, one person will read this and enjoy it. I highly doubt that will happen, but any feedback would be greatly appreciated. I wont be talking about my life too much, maybe a little now and again, but for the most part, this will be about baseball, and more specifically, The New York Yankess.

Well, its only about 2 weeks until Opening Day and the Yankee Pitching Rotation is set w/Sabathia, Wang, Burnett, Pettitte and Joba, with Hughes in AAA ready to come up when necessary.

The line-up on the other-hand is not so set. Seven positions are set, but CF and RF are not. This is when the ever-so-important Spring Training Battles come into play. In the CF battle, we have Brett Gardner and Melky Cabrera, and for RF, we have Xavier Nady and Nick Swisher.

Lets get this off the bat right away, outside of establishing more bullpen pitchers in one year than Joe Torre did in 12, Joe Girardi has an abysmal year last year. Constant changing of line-ups, didn't get the respect of his players, didn't handle the media well, and, of course, no playoff appearance. If his comments about the Spring Training battles so far are any indication, this year isn't going to be much more successful.

Lets start with the more difficult decision, Right Field. Xavier Nady is a 30 year old Career Bench Player who has career rates of .280/.335/.458 ( for those who don't know, that is Batting Average/On-Base %/ and Slugging %). Out of nowhere though, last year he had a season where he hit well above his career averages in all categories with stats of .305/.357/.510. Now, this is what we call a fluke. Xavier Nady is in no way a bad player, but he is not the player he was last year and the odds of him suddenly breaking out at age 30 are improbable at best. Nick Swisher on the other hand, had a poor season last year hitting .219/.333./.410, well below his career rates of .251/.361/.464. So for those who are following, Xavier Nady= 2008 Career Year and Nick Swisher= 2008 Down Year. The odds of either player repeating what they did last year is minimal. It must be noted that even in a career year, Xavier Nady's On-Base % was only .24% higher even tho his batting average was almost 100 points higher! When it comes down to it, if both players play to their exact career averages, Nick Swisher will have the better year, except for batting average, which is the stat based most on luck and fluctuates the most from year to year. While I keep rambling, it must also be noted that Nick Swisher is a switch hitter, so while batting lefty, he will benefit greatly from the Yankee Stadium right field fence. Even though it would seem that Swisher is the clear front runner for the Job, lets get to the Spring Training battle since this organization is so clearly blind.

Nady in ST- .244/.262/.488
Swisher in ST- .265/.409/.424

In this time, Nady has drawn zero walks. That's not a type-o, ZERO. Swisher on the other hand has walked 14 times! So clearly, after the career rates as well as the Spring Training, Nick Swisher is the front runner, right?

Not so fast. Joe Girardi said is the season Opened today, the starting RF would be...... Xavier Nady, adding "Nady did a lot of good things last year," Girardi said. "He had somewhat of the upper hand coming in. Swish gives us a lot of flexibility"

Ok, this blog is already very long, but this quote is what inspired me to write today. So lets get this straight, a major league manager, who is very intelligent and highly respected is basing his decision off of what 99% of people who follow baseball know was a career year and will not be repeated? What about every year before that? What about Spring Training? What about the fact that Xavier Nady walks less than Pudge and swings at more pitches than Vlad?And, finally for this topic, even in a career year, after his trade to the Yankees, Nady hit .268/.320/.474 . nothing special. nothing great. nothing Nick Swisher couldn't do with his eyes closed. That gives me an idea, maybe Nady should bat with his eyes closed! He would def. draw more walks.

Now onto the CF job. This one is much simpler and more to the point to detail Girardi's insanity.

Gardner in ST- .405/.468/.714
Melky in ST- .295/.380/.409

Enter Joe Girardi: "In this game, things aren't always going to go the way you want that day or the next day -- or maybe for a week -- but Melky didn't panic," Joe Girardi said. "He just kept doing his thing, which is a sign of maturity."[snip]"I'm happy with the way Melky is playing; he's really started to swing the bat," Girardi said. "They've both played at a very high level. Gardy started a little quicker, but to me, they're both playing at a very high level right now. It's been a fun competition to watch."

They aren't both playing at a very high level. Brett Gardner is playing at a very high level, Melky is playing well. The fact that Gardner hasn't already been told to report to CF at the new Yankee Stadium is astounding. Melky has been in this league 3 years. Never, in any of those years has he developed any new skills and he wont now. He will hit .250 with few walks and little power, but a great arm. Brett Gardner has the capability to hit .300, be a suitable lead-off man in the future and play well above average defense with the speed of the road runner.

What it comes down to is the Yankee Organization has openly admitted these two battles are taking place. Girardi continues to support Melky and Nady as the starters when you don't even have to be a baseball fan to understand which numbers are lower. Joe Girardi is the manager of the New York Yankees, he can do whatever he wants, its hit job. But why are we calling these competitions when it is so clear that the results mean very little? As said before, numbers are numbers and it isn't hard to decipher which ones are best. There is still plenty of time for Girardi to change his mind, lets just hope that he does.

SO, that's it for me for now. If anyone reads this, i would appreciate all comments and I am 100% open to any disagreements and discussions. I had fun doing this so I will prob. post again soon and I promise it wont be this long. Again, feel free to comment.

Joolz, I Love You :)