perhaps we'll DL someone and bring a fuckin player up tomorrow or shall we play with three dead roster spots?
Say what you want about Thames, but the dude was signed to a minor league contract with the hope that he would mash against lefties, and he's done that and then some. Everyone knew his glove was a liability; we just weren't expecting him to have to play the field every day. He was going to be a pinch hitter, maybe spell some guys against tough lefties. The same goes for Winn's fairly anemic bat. He was going to be a defensive replacement/pinch runner who could spell some guys if needed. Cervelli's bat has been a very pleasant surprise as a backup catcher (one I don't expect to last at this level), but the others are doing pretty much what was expected of them. The injuries are just exposing their flaws a little more than the Yanks had hoped. So for those complaining about the current Yankee roster and the recent performance of some players, I suggest taking a look at the injury list: Granderson Posada (hairline fracture in his foot now... out 3-4 weeks) Johnson Swisher Now Thames, too. And Jeter's been playing hurt since he got hit in the finger last week. That's half of the opening day lineup, plus one of the backups. The injuries to Aceves and Park have exposed the bullpen a bit more than they'd like, too, I'm sure. Shit happens. Backup players tend to play like backups. Doesn't mean they're not serviceable.
In the immediate future, the success of the Yankees is on the pitchers. The injuries screw up a lot more than the lineup. It's difficult to give players off days right now.
One would assume Posada is going on the DL now, finally. The problem is, who do we call up? We need another outfielder. Even if Thames is okay and only out for a few days, we need someone else in the outfield. The sad thing is, if we had a healthy Swisher, Thames would be a hero filling in for Nick Johnson at DH right now. The guy is hitting. He's just an abomination with a glove on his hand. So do we recall Golson? That would help the outfield. What about catcher though? That would leave us with Pena as Cervelli's only backup. That's not good. The problem is, Montero is hitting like crap and was even benched last week for not running a ball out. I wasn't in favor of the Granderson trade from the start, and now we're really seeing the downside of it. Beyond that, our shitty replacement players are hurting us badly. Meanwhile Eric Hinske is beating the snot out of the ball. Sometimes I really don't understand Cashman. When it comes to pitching, he's a genius GM. When it comes to backup players though, he brings in some real clowns. Every year. Granted, they're only backup players, but the Yankees can afford anyone. Why not get decent players (and keep the ones who work out, like Hinske?) It's time for Brian to get on the phone with Dye and see if he's kept himself in shape. Word is, Bernie is still hopeful he could play again too. Honestly, if he can still hit, I'd bring him back to DH for now. Unfortunately, I think we're going to wind up suffering for a month through guys who shouldn't be in the majors. It's either that, or trade potential for stop-gaps. So we have Posada out a month. Granderson out at least two more weeks. Johnson out until at least the All-Star break. Swisher and Thames are both listed as day-to-day right now. Aceves is out for I don't know how long. This is going to be an awful weekend. Mets fans are going to be insufferable on Monday when their MiLB team beats up on ours.
I'm pretty sure they're going to call up a catcher and an outfielder, and send one of the pitchers back down. (They're carrying thirteen right now.) As for the other stuff, simmer down. You're really not going to say "we're seeing the downside" of the Granderson trade now, are you? Just because he's hurt? It's not like they traded for an oft-injured 35 year old here. If Kennedy gets hurt or has a few shitty starts, will we suddenly be seeing the upside of the trade? And backup players are backup players. Erick Hinske? You're really pining for him? Here's the line he put up for the Yanks last year: .226/.316/.512/.828. Good SLG, but hardly got on base. Here's Thames, who's filling the same role of power off the bench: .357/.465/.536/1.001. And before you start talking about their defense, Hinske's is pretty awful, too. By the way, AJax's last ten games? .205/.262/.231/.493. Welcome back to earth, Mr. Jackson. Hope you enjoy the normalized BABIP. Oh, and Montero is starting to hit recently. But I sincerely doubt they call up either him or Romine to be a backup. They want those guys getting regular playing time. It's going to be someone like Moeller. ETA: LoHud blogs backing me up here. Link
I agree, injury shouldn't be factored into the downside of a trade. It's ironic though, the 2009 "older" Yankee team was more healthy than the 2010 "younger" team at this point. ------------------------ Get Flash out of the booth.
When you trade a young player who projects to be the same type of player as the older one you traded for, you factor in injuries. Would you rather have had AJax the past couple weeks, or Granderson sitting on the bench unable to contribute. Youth usually implies less injury risk. Plus, there's always the factor that Coke was part of the deal, and considering that Marte and Logan couldn't strike me out, I'd say we lost a lefty we would have used a lot already. I agree with you about Flaherty. As if Kay weren't bad enough, he gets Flaherty. Though Flash is improving. Singleton has grown on me. I just wish Leiter would do more games. And where's O'Neill?
Usually, perhaps. But you know that's not true across the board. It depends on the actual ages involved. If you're talking about the difference in injury risk between a 32 year old and a 38 year old, okay... older is more injury prone. If you're talking about a 23 year old and a 29 year old, though, you're not going to see more injury risk in the older player. Not when you're talking about professional athletes. In fact, the younger player could be more likely to be considered injury prone because physical maturity isn't attained until around 25 or so, and the inexperience of playing through a full season creates more of a question mark than the older player (in his prime) who had a history of being durable (which Granderson most certainly had).
