That's how miserable our 2B situation has become. A walk = big night.
Watching Drew - uniform dirty, teeth perpetually gritted - you could see his contents under pressure. He's 32 and hasn't hit since 30. When he bats, the Yankiverse taps its toes. The 24-second clock has run out. Unless he - say - starts regularly hiting for the cycle, he'll soon disappear. He's like a pitcher who's given up 10 runs, but Skip won't pull him. It's nearly an impossible situation. You feel sorry for the guy, almost as much as you want him to go away.
Then, when you look at a Scranton box score, you feel the anger building - like a fracking well that's about to blow. Last night, secondbaseman Rob Refsnyder homered - again - second game in a row. It was his fourth two-hit game over the last 10. He has made one error since June 9 - only two since May 22. (Drew has made three at 2B all season, his last on May 15.) Refsnyder is hitting .286 and rising. (OBP: .384.) He has cut the strikeouts. Good grief, what else must the guy do? Should he wash the dishes in the clubhouse buffet?
It's sooooo time to see what Refsnyder can do. This "wait-another-week" mentality isn't helping Drew. (By the way, I don't think the Yankees should release Drew. He's insurance at SS and 2B.) And when the Yankees lose a 10-inning horror fest like last night, how can you justify a guy batting under .200 for the last calendar year? How long do you ride a horse that is clearly struggling?
Year after year, the Yankees - rooted in self-generated pageantry (though "mired" might be the better word) - have problems pulling the plug on players. Considering the number of oldsters they burn through, you'd think they'd develop an easy protocol. Last year, they stuck with Alfonso Soriano until the season was in jeopardy - waited way too long. And they abruptly cut ties with 2B Brian Roberts, just to save a few dimes. It's as if they fear giving up on a player before the last ounce of testosterone has been wrung out. Boston, on the other hand, seems to have no problems exiling players, cold-bloodedly, when the right deal comes about.
Speaking of Boston, we play them Friday. Someone might argue that Rob Refsnyder shouldn't start his career in such a cauldron. Hell with that. We need a base hit. A big night being a walk? That won't cut it.
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4 comments:
Drew is "insurance"? You must mean the kind of insurance that was being sold by AIG right before the crash. Here is something to consider: if the Yankees were to release Drew (as they obviously should), no one else would pick him up. His defense is good, not great--he's not Roberto Alomar or Bill Mazeroski around the bag. Merely good defense cannot compensate for the black hole of his offense. Seems you've contracted a temporary case of Cashmanitis.
Girardi said he is very unlucky at the plate , per the YES guys. Batting .180 for over 700 at bats is unlucky??????
Yes--he's unlucky in having lost his hitting skills, permanently. End of story. And the Yankees are unlucky to have Girardi as a manager and Cashman as a general manager.
It is definitely time for Refsnyder to be given his opportunity in the bigs.
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