More Infielders!

All right, grading the rest of the infield.  This is where the class has really shined in the first semester.

Infield II

D.J. LeMahieu: A+

I think this is the first A+ in the history of these grades—hey, no grade inflation at IIHIIFIIC!—but it's well-deserved.

I have to admit:  I was wrong, and Brian Cashman was right.  I thought The General was a declining, overrated product of Rocky Mountain High.  Nope.  A league-leading, .336 average, 35 extra-base hits, incredibly clutch base knocks, and the ability to play any place they put him well:  people talk about him being the Yanks' first-half MVP.  Hell, he's close to being the AL MVP.  Can't complain in the least—and for me, that's saying a lot.

Gleyber Torres: A

El Conquistador looks to be rounding into very much the superstar he was forecast to be.  His second-half fall-off last year had me a mite worried, but he's looked great thus far in 2019.

Some people grouse about how much of his production has come against the pathetic Orioles.  Hey, bad Birds have to be put down, too, and he's done plenty against other teams as well.  In the field, he's adjusted well, moving to short and then back to second with no complaints and plenty of double-plays to his credit.

Didi Gregorius: Inc, A pending

Unlike so many Yankees coming off the EL, Sir Didi has bounced back with alacrity.  He has been en fuego in the field, where his great stabs at EuroFenway kept those games from really getting out of hand.  At this rate, he will present us with a very good dilemma to have, come free agent time.

Gio Urshela: A+

What can one say?  Gio—who bears an uncanny resemblance to the fabled "Bat Boy" of tabloid cover fame—has more than exceeded expectations.  Even his sudden little spates of errors—he has 12 on the season already—seemed to come at the least troubling times, and just how many great throws can a guy make while sitting on his butt?

(Of course, despite the infallibility of fielding statistics, his "defensive WAR" is -0.2, because...why, exactly?  Two dozen Brooks Robinsons have lined up to take his place in the minors?)

His clutch bat has really been something, too.  Will he revert to the mean in the second half?  Quite possibly.  But in any case, he's given us 72 terrific games.

Thairo Estrada: A

The feel-good story of the year...which is why Cashman promptly buried it back in Scranton.  C'mon: the guy is playing with a bullet in his body.  The man has done everything possible, including playing outfield positions he never played at any level of baseball (and played them better than a certain ginger individual who will go unnamed).

More than likely, he is gone in the next Coops Quest for a Pitcher trade, which by now has Ahab's search beat all to pieces.  (With any luck, an enormous ungulate will vent its fury sometime on Mr. Cashman, too.)  Also, I still have 6,000, as-yet-unsold "Thairo the Pharaoh" headdresses in the warehouse.

I still remember how the Yanks threw Homer Bush (another, all-time great baseball name) into the Clemens deal.  Sure, he'd hit .380 off the bench in 1998, but limited sample.  In Toronto the next year, he hit .320, with 32 stolen bases.  Expect something even better from the Pharaoh, if he goes.

Tyler Wade: C—

Poor Tyler Too.  What can you say about this guy?

Well, for starters, that he couldn't hit a piñata if you took the blindfold off him.  Nearly 200 plate appearances now, and a .173 average, .484 OPS.  That's spread out over three seasons, I know, but as Alphonso says, rookies gotta flash.  At least some year.

It's a pity, too, for Tyler does a lot of things right:  steals bases, plays well in the field, plays well with others, is clean and polite, and pays attention in class.  There are just too many guys ahead of him to make keeping him worthwhile.  For all our sakes, let's hope that somehow Coops is able to pawn him off on some other team, instead of the Pharaoh.

Miguel Andujar: Inc.

El Matador has a long, hard road back—one that at least probably will keep him from being traded.  There is not a better hitter on the club, and if the Yanks have a grain of sense they will give him an outfielder's glove next spring and have him learn left field, where his strong arm will do the most good.

Having no sense, they are more likely to put him at first or have him DH.  But their real craziness is thinking that The Man of Glass can play left for any length of time.  If and when they deal Clint, they are going to have to have Andujar out there to take over.

Breyvic Valera: Inc.

It's difficult to know what to say about Valera.  A dedicated patriot, though born in New York to a father who was a Basque artist, "The Tall Fella," as he was called, always displayed considerable physical courage.  But as a leader, he was too often self-centered and divisive.  His insistence on waging the civil war that killed Michael Collins—over what proved to be an issue of no consequence—and later his refusal to entertain Churchill's offer to reunite Ireland at the nadir of England's wartime desperation, both count as unequaled tragedies and lost opportunities in the history of the modern Irish state.  Add in Valera's backward, romantic agrarianism, and you have a leader sadly unequipped to take Ireland into the modern world.

Wait, not that Valera?  Oh.  Well, good luck to him.


Next up:  Outfielders!