That's mostly fair enough, but Gardner's defense is only thanks to his speed, not because he's a smart outfielder, so I'd stop short of calling him sensational. He gets on base, sure, but he's a toolbox. As I've said before, he's a fourth outfielder and should not be a starter, especially on the Yankees. That said, you're right that he's not as craptacular as Cervelli. You're really going to compare Eduardo Nunez to Derek Jeter? Really? EDIT: This will improve the mood on the Jeter topic: Ramiro Pena has been spotted at the ballpark! So now we have Nunez and Pena to play shortstop! Maybe I'll take a couple of weeks off from watching games...
Depends on what you mean by that. Do I think Nunez has played better than Jeter so far? Of course not. But do I think it will really be that hard to reproduce Jeter's performance this year? Also no. And even if that doesn't happen, is it really that much of a drop in performance? Again, no. Bye.
So do you think there are only 6 LFers in baseball who are capable starters? Because there are 23 starting LFers who have a lower SLG than Gardner. That's not even factoring in his ability to get on base or his defense or his speed. I'm not happy with Gardner's mistakes either. He needs to stop being so indecisive on the bases, stop taking such big leads and just trust his elite speed. All of that is fair criticism. But the idea he's just a fourth outfielder, even on the Yankees, is a myth.
I don't even know how to respond to this except to say it's utterly ridiculous. You really think that Nunez's impact on the Yankees will reproduce what Derek Jeter's would be? Even if we talk solely about plate performance, Jeter was really heating up the past couple of weeks. I'll be shocked if Nunez hits as well as Jeter has recently. Does Gardner have pretty stats? Sure he does. Does he blow innings and create outs on the bases due to stupidity that are never reflected in stats? Also yes. Statistics are great. They can give you a lot of information. But they're not the whole story.
I was just responding to the ridiculous claim that he's a fourth outfielder. Unless you want to trade the entire farm system for a Braun or CarGo, or wanted to give $160M+ to a slightly better player in Crawford.
Jeter was placed on the 15 day DL today. As for Gardner, I think he'd be a starting OF on most teams.
You misunderstand... I'm not equating the two in terms of performance. And even if I were, it's not from the point of view of Nunez being so good. It's from the point of view of Jeter being so shitty. Here is Jeter's line for the season: .260/.324/.324/.649. Do I think Nunez could match that line? Yes. I don't know if he's likely to... but it certainly wouldn't shock me. And if he didn't, he's not likely to be much worse. As for Nunez hitting as well as Jeter has recently... here is Jeter's line from the past 30 games: .248/.327/.310/.637 The past 15 games: .279/.375/.344/.719 The past 10 games: .238/.304/.286/.590 The past 5 games: .238/.304/.286/.590 (That's not an error... he has the exact same line for the past five and ten games.) I'm not sure where the "heating up" part is coming from. And even if Jeter was hitting better... well, frankly, I'm not confident that he would continue to do so. Actually, there are plenty of stats in which that would be reflected. (Run Scoring %, Outs on Base, Runs Created, TB/TO, etc.) I know we've been over this, but the problem isn't with the statistics themselves. The problem is with the people who try to use the statistics when they don't know what they're doing with them or how to properly account for their meaning. If all you're doing is looking at batting average... or OBP, or whatever, of course that doesn't tell you the whole story. But all a statistic is is a numerical representation that can quantify something that did actually happen on the field. If you want to know the entire story, use all of the statistics at your disposal.
