Friday, January 8, 2016

Regarding Gardy: One look at the Yankee batting order, and you sense Brian Cashman isn't done

Let's go to the lineup card. On Opening Day, barring asteroid strike or earthquake - (looking at you, rolling hills of Oklahoma) - here's a likely 2016 Yankee batting order:

CF Jacoby Ellsbury (great when healthy, too pricy to bench when not)
2B Starlin Castro (need a RH bat, fingers crossed he'll hit)
1B Mark Teixeira (no-brainer)
DH Alex Rodriguez (could flip-flop with Tex)
RF Carlos Beltran (human equivalent of Lehman Brothers in 2008)
C   Brian McCann (let's hope he hits .250.)
3B Chase Headley (needs a comeback to justify contract)
SS Didi Gregorius (if hits like 2nd half of '15, bravo!)
LF Brett Gardner (wait... wtf is HE doing down here?)

Clearly, the Yankee 2016 wild card is Gardy, our half-season all-star. He should be up top, although two LH leadoff hitters, stuck together like refrigerator magnets, seems a bad strategy. There's always that moment in the eighth inning when the opposing team brings in its LOOGY, and all is lost. We need a RH bat high in the order.

Of course, Aaron Hicks, the switch hitting OF from the Twins, will take more ABs from Gardner. He could platoon against lefties, and due to - uhm, financial obligations - it won't be Ellsbury. One other issue: Slade Heathcott and Mason Williams - both speedy outfielders and LH bats - wait in the wings. The sum of all these situations leaves Gardy with no sure place in the lineup.

Finally, Gards is the one Yankee who might fetch something in a deal (especially if packaged with Ivan Nova and maybe the patron saint of lost Yankees, Rob Refsnyder - or even, aughh, Andrew Miller?)

One thing I never do is predict Cashman trades. As sure as Lena Dunham and Taylor Swift are true BFFs - (I read this somewhere; isn't the Internet great?) - Cashman lives to confound bloggers who speculate on his next move.

Injuries will decimate the '16 Yankees, just as they do any team with a median age pushing 35. The above lineup might not make it out of spring training. But no matter how you slice it, Gardner looks like the odd man out. And I cannot help but think that every time Cashman's phone rings, he opens his binder to the page that says, "Gardy: What we can get." One look at the lineup card tells you Cash hasn't not yet cashed out.

7 comments:

Local Bargain Jerk said...


On an equally pressing note, what's up with the new version of the John Cusack photo? It's been varying in size all week and now the hues are different.

A.k.a., How many days until pitches and catchers report?

el duque said...

I accidentally deleted the "Say Anything" photo and had to reload it, which is why it is smaller. The other issue is that I've been having to use the laptop, which has a different photo in it.

This is information that was going into the HBO series, "THE MAKING OF IT IS HIGH," but I thought it can be shared, sort of as a teaser. There's just so much that goes on behind the scenes...

Beana27 said...

41 days. :)

Anonymous said...

I AM WISHING WE KEEP THE 3 HEADED MONSTER INTACT IN OUR BULLPEN, BUT KNOWING CASHMAN'S THINKING, I JUST CAN'T SEE THEM KEEPING ALL 3 OF THEM....I FEEL A DEAL COMING FOR ANDREW MILLER, AND IT BETTER BE A PHENOMENAL ONE, BECAUSE FOR THE RIGHT TEAM HE CAN HELP SOMEONE WIN A DIVISION, A PENNANT, AND/OR A WORLD SERIES....IF MILLER GOES, WE BETTER NOT SEE ANY "LUIS CESSA" TYPES COMING OUR WAY....IT STILL MADE NO SENSE TO GET RID OF JUSTIN WILSON FOR THOSE 2 MARGINAL MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS....WE COULD HAVE HAD 4 STUDS IN THE PEN INSTEAD OF 3!....THE MORE THE MERRIER, RIGHT???

JDEN821 said...

I TOTALLY AGREE WITH ANONYMOUS, THE YANKEES SHOULD KEEP THE 3 HEADED MONSTER (EXCELLENT 7,8,9 INNING COMBO) AND THEY DID MAKE A MISTAKE WHEN THEY TRADED JUSTIN WILSON, HE DID A GREAT JOB FOR US AND WAS DEFINATELY WORTH MORE! IF GEORGE STEINBRENNER WAS STILL ALIVE HE WOULD HAVE SIGNED ONE OF THE BIG NAME STARTERS THAT WERE AVAILABLE IN THE BEGINNING!

Rogerb said...

Why wouldn't you think the Yankees would once again go 1-2 with Ellsbury and Gardener?They did it all last year, and they will keep doing it, just like they kept playing Stephen Drew. They will do it until one or both pull up lame, and only then will they not do it, but they will only not do it for a little while, and then, healthy or not, they will do it some more, except with Ellsbury, who they will not do it with, until Ellsbury thinks he is healthy, which may mean an extra 20-30 days of not doing it.

You don't mess with one game play in play off success. This is why they signed Donovan Solano, to replace the empty at bats of Drew.

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