Thursday, January 19, 2023

Two years after trading for Joey Gallo, the Yankees apparently think Estevan Florial strikes out too often to play LF

Often, Yank fans mirror the characters in those Progressive TV ads about kids becoming their parents. We stand around, carping about who will play left field.  You can imagine Dr. Rick shaking his head, then blurting, "NO MORE TALK ABOUT AARON HICKS!"

But, really, how can we not?

If the season launched today, our starter in left - the ancestral grounds for Mel Hall, Luis Polonia and Chad Curtis - would be Aaron "the Wrong Aaron" Hicks, who batted .216 last season and gives us the same feeling House Republicans must have when George Santos trends on Twitter.

The free agent ranks of lefty-hitting leftfielders has dwindled to cigarette butts and bottle deposits, and unless future Hall of Famer Brian Cashman can trade for somebody, another year looms of Hicksy, who - fun fact: is said to be the best golfer in baseball. The mere notion of Hicks - again - conjures George C. Scott in the 1979 movie Hardcore. I want to scream, "Turn it off!"

But I am not here today to turn it off... hope, that is. I'm here to open a can of happy, even if Hicks turns out to be our man. I'd rather we move slowly with trades, especially if the alternative is to further drain our farm system, which already resembles Lake Mead, for somebody who was good five years ago. 

At some point, the Yankees must give youth a chance. Tampa does this, all the time. The Yankees seem to view prospects for their hype value: They spend years touting a kid, then trade him and say he was never in their plans. It's time to give left field to the next generation. The answer to our problem can come - forgive me, here - out of left field.

Here's why Cashman and his AARP should stand pat.

1. The Yankees never have star left fielders. According to Baseball Reference, here's our list of starting LFs in the 1990s, arguably our last great decade: Oscar Azocar, Mel Hall Jr., Dion James, Luis Polonia, Gerald Williams, Tim Raines (age 37), Chad Curtis, Rickie Ledee. Never mind the police rap sheets. This is a list of goober hitters and defensive statues. The Yankee left field G.O.A.T. might just be Roy White, and while we all love Roy... really? The G.O.A.T? Ouch. 

2. We can't do worse than last year. In case you've forgotten, our best months came with Joey Gallo in left. He hit .159 and fanned in nearly half his ABs. We ended the year with Oswaldo Cabrera playing a position he hadn't held since little league. In the meantime, we had Hicks, Tim Locastro and the cast of Glee. Seriously, who cares about left?

3. We do have a lefty-hitting left fielder, right in front of us. His name is Estevan Florial. Yes, he carries the weight of prospect fatigue: The Yankees have hyped him for five years. Our biological clocks think he's pushing 50. But he's 25. Last season at Scranton, he hit .283 with 15 HRs and 39 stolen bases. 

Yes, Florial strikes out. Last year, roughly once every three ABs. That's Josh Donaldson territory. He needs to put balls in play. But let's circle back to those 39 stolen bases. This year, along with the over-shift ban, MLB is enlarging the bases, shrinking slightly the distance between them. I'm not sure this is wise, tampering with the fundamental dimensions of the game. But the owners are geniuses, right? Otherwise, they wouldn't be so rich, right? If Florial stole 39 bases last year, he should be a terror this season - when speed is a premium. 

One other thing: The Yankees have no more options on Florial. If he doesn't make the roster, he must be designated for assignment or traded, or both. 

I believe the Yankees can get by with a solid fielder, a speedster and 15-to-20 HRs. Too many strikeouts? Bat him ninth.  

Most of all, let's not kill our farm for somebody who peaked in 2017. At the least, stand pat. It's just left field.

24 comments:

The Archangel said...

Amen brother, give him a FUUL chance.
LF G.O.A.T. I agree it's Roy White, unless you count Yogi on days he didn't catch.

Jaraxle said...

The last Yankee World Series did have a great left fielder, Hideki Matsui. Almost makes you wonder if the Yanks should’ve made a run at the guy the Red Sox got from Japan

DickAllen said...

Staring Florial in left makes perfect sense.

That’s why it will never happen.

Eddhall69 said...

Let's face it this team is built around guys who make contact, a SO guy would drag it down.

Local Bargain Jerk said...


Not related to LF but related to another NYY sinkhole....

I just got one of those "Suggested for You" popups on Facebook that showed some Yankee talk site.

The question asked was: "What do you expect from Josh Donaldson in 2023?"

My eyes went instantly to the comments and I wasn't disappointed. One of the first ones said:

     "8 bat flips on balls that stay in the park,
     12 thrown out at second, because he's watching the ball hit off the wall,
     52 reminders by boone and cashman that he's playing excellent defense,
     2 controversial comments.


It's not just us....

13bit said...

LBJ, thanks for that report from the field.

It's always reassuring to know, indeed, that we are not the only ones.

I love you all.

Publius said...

Strawberry trotted out to left on occassion. I remember our section down the line had a lot of fun with him one summer day at the Stadium. Darryl was an excellent sport.

Publius said...

Did Rickey play center for Yanks? I seem to recall him in left a lot, but that might only be his post Yankees career. If he spent a good amount of time in left, he's the GOAT.

Doug K. said...

Hideki Matsui by far.

My Dad would say Charlie Keller. "King Kong Keller"

Doug K. said...

Charlie Keller

13 years.
11 with the Yankees

Lifetime Typical Year

.286 BA
.927 OPS
.409 OBP

26 HR
105 RBI

Yeah, we'd take him.

edb said...

Duque:
Dr. Rick is great. Dr. Fischman is a clown. That is why The Yankees got Strikeout Gallo. Florial will go up and down from Scranton to NY and visa versa. Dr. Genius, doing and incompetent job and being rewarded for it. We will watch a lot of Barren Hicks this season. Same old shit, different Yankees season.

Local Bargain Jerk said...


Did Rickey play center for Yanks? I seem to recall him in left a lot, but that might only be his post Yankees career. If he spent a good amount of time in left, he's the GOAT.

I'm not sure which was his primary position but Rickey Henderson did play left field for the Yanks. In fact, I was at the Stadium and saw him make one of the greatest plays I've ever seen by an outfielder.

You know when you were a kid and you were running flat out and you lost your balance and started to to fall forward? One of those times when you were running so fast that you had no choice but to sort of dive forward and wipe out with a big chest slide? The same thing happened to Henderson on this play except, because he was Rickey Henderson, he turned it into a killer play.

The Yanks were playing the Blue Jays. Henderson was in left. There was one out with a guy on third. Someone hit a short fly to left and Henderson sprinted in to catch it. He was running full tilt and had to reach far forward to make the catch. After he caught it off his shoe tops, it looked to everyone -- including the runner on third waiting to tag up -- that Henderson was going down. He started to take those comical, flailing long steps you take when you know you're going too fast and you're trying to avoid doing a face plant.

The runner on third saw this, tagged up, and took off for home. Henderson, mostly because he was Rickey Henderson, began running even faster and used his speed and leg strength to sprint himself into an upright position. He then reared back and uncorked a shin-high strike to the plate. His throw nailed the sliding runner by a few feet for the third out.

As the play ended, Henderson had already reached the infield dirt. The inning was over and he continued running right past the shortstop and right into the home dugout without ever breaking stride. The place went bananas.

Rickey had his quirks (e.g., the "snatch catch") but, man, what an athlete.

Publius said...

When in a certain mood, I'll contend that Rickey Henderson is the greatest position player ever. Certainly the best I've ever seen in person. Twice, almost 10 years apart, I saw him reach to lead off an inning (single 1st time, walk second), steal second, steal third and score on an out. Been to hundreds (hope not thousands) of other pro ballgames, majors and minors, plus college games. Never saw anyone else pull that off even once.

Gary Frenay said...

Big yes vote for Florial. Give him a few month to see if he can thrive. Best optionn we have...

BTR999 said...

Florial over Hicks any day, twice on Sunday. If you give him 500 AB’s, he could be a 20/20 player, albeit with 100 K’s.

This won’t happen because Hicks makes too much money. (The Hicks signing alone was reason enough to terminate Cashman, who I seem to remember mumbling something at the time about the the lack of CF-ers in the future. Seriously, WTF?) on a “positive”note, his ineffectiveness, lack of hustle, and inevitable injury will erase him at some point during the year.

JM said...

Eddhall deserves a round of applause for one of the most sarcastic comments of 2023, so far.

ranger_lp said...

@LBJ...and a partridge in a pear tree...

Doug K. said...

The Royals are set to sign left-hander Aroldis Chapman, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. Alfre Alvarez of Con Las Bases Llenas had previously reported that a deal was close. Feinsand adds that Chapman will get $3.75MM on a one-year deal, plus performance bonuses.'

MLBtraderumors.com

BernBabyBern said...

I might just take Roy White over Aaron Hicks in left field. This year. Yes, a 79-year-old Roy White.

Of course, if I listed my Top 5 favorite Yankees of all time, White would make the list.

In other breaking news ... Roy White is 79?!?! Holy shit, I'm feeling a lot older than I did 10 minutes ago, before I looked that up.

Carl J. Weitz said...

@ LBJ...I received the same thing on Facebook but couldn't bring myself to click on it.

@ Doug....Your dad would be right.

Ricky Ledee played all the OF positions including CF but most of his appearances were as a corner OF. When Rickey grew a mustache he looked like Prince's twin.

You know who would be a star by today's standards? Old # 11, Hector (Cocoa) Lopez. He hit .270 life time and somewhere near 150 HR. Steady, but not great, LF. And he played every OF and every IF position except C and P. He'd be making 15-20 million a year on a multi-year contract if he played now.

ranger_lp said...

Rolaids goes to the Royals on one year deal with incentives…

HoraceClarke66 said...

Love me some Roy White. (And love me some Dr. Rick.) But greatest Yankee LF of all time? C'mon, Dr. Duque!

Rickey was indeed incredible—amazingly, even underrated to this day. But in his 4 1/2 years in NY, he played 321 games in CF, 251 in LF.

Matsui also had four excellent years in left. But by 2009, the last Series year, he was a full-time DH, not playing a single game in the field.

Charlie "King Kong" Keller would be in the Hall, save for incredible bad luck. He missed almost two whole years in the war, and suffered a terrible, freak injury early on. He was never the same player after he was 29.

King Kong also got screwed by the Yankees' incredible depth, back in the day. In 1937, he hit .353 for the legendary Newark Bears team, considered by many the best minor-league team ever. The next year...the Yanks sent him back to Newark. He hit .365, and finally made the Bronx, at age 22. When he hit .334.

Then there was Gene Woodling, who played 615 games for the Yanks on those championship, 1949-53 teams. Excellent hitter, good fielder, terrific World Series player. But he still doesn't have the longevity or the power to beat out Roy...

HoraceClarke66 said...

So who WAS the greatest Yankee left fielder of all time???

Keep watching this space! Also...keep watching the skies! Keep watching the skies!

MJH said...

Steve Kemp was solid