He is the man though. He has fun every game. Acts crazy. I think he has loosened up the clubhouse. He is important to the team.
No, because most fans are ridiculous in how they value players. Case in point: Strikeouts. While frustrating to watch, most of the time they are no more detrimental than a ground ball or a fly out. And occasionally, they're even less detrimental (a hard grounder when there's a guy on first that leads to a DP is worse). And if it's the baggage that comes with the additional OBP from a guy who walks a lot, well... that can turn out to be more valuable than a guy like Cano, who makes good contact, doesn't K, but gets on base less often.
Shit. That sucked. The ball was right back at Coke. An inch to his left and the inning ends. And seriously, fireworks to end the game?
I don't mind Ks if the guy can still manage to keep his BA/OBP up. A lot of Ks just means that it's more difficult to keep those stats high. I'd rather have Swisher batting for me with a runner on first and no outs than Cano.
Cano has 21 walks to 33 Ks this years. You can finish the post. Career for Cano: 16/68 18/54 39/85 26/65 21/33
I hate on Swisher's defense more than anything. He looks like a slightly more mobile Manny Ramirez out there. He walks a ton, and I like that in a hitter, and has good pop... but his avg. is terrible and there's a reason why some nights he's the #8 hitter in our lineup. I realize hindsight is 20/20, but Abreu is making $5 million/per, and we'd be laughing if he was in our lineup right now.
Not really. Abreu's defense is worse than Swisher's, easily, overall. And Abreu's OPS+ is 125. Swisher's? 120. This is just further confirmation for what I said before about how ridiculous fans are in the valuations. ETA: Just to talk about defense a bit more. The metrics aren't perfect, but they give a good snapshot of how much a defender helps/hurts. Abreu in 2008 for the Yanks was at -25.3 UZR/150, is at -5.3 for his career, and this year is (surprisingly) at +1.2. Swisher was at +0.9 last year, is at -4.4 for this year, and is at +5.8 for his career in RF. So would Abreu be better in the field this year? According to UZR, yes. (Which is terrifying, and I'm not entirely sure I'd buy it, considering the conditions.) But career-wise? No.
