3 or 4 isn’t enough when you consider he’ll score and drive in about 30-40 runs less than a guy like Matsui or Giambi, when those two are given a full healthy season.

He had an awful OBP, awful slugging, was terrible with RISP. Look up the numbers. Obviously the Yankees can “hide” a guy like that in their linup, but that’s the best “excuse” you can have for having him in the lineup every day.

And as good as his arm is, he’s just about average if not worse in every other defensive aspect. He’s not fast, he gets poor jumps, and he doesn’t track the ball well at ALL going back. He made one amazing (lucky?) catch against Manny Ramirez and suddenly everyone thought he was a gold glover. Watch him out there every day and you’ll see he’s often times lost in CF. If you negate the good arm, he’s no better than a healthy Damon in CF, who when he’s right is faster, tracks better, and gets better jumps than Melky.

And for all of Matsui’s defecits in LF, he does a good job of getting to the ball and getting it in quickly. When he’s healthy, he’s absolutely not killing you out there, and when the occasional play comes that he gets burned on it, you sacrifice that, becuase he’s driving in about 40 more runs than Melky, getting on base more often, and hitting more extra base hits.

sequitur: Don’t be so sure that the people running the team disagree with me. Joe “faithful to a fault” Torre isn’t with the team any more. Girardi might be smart enough to play the actual best player at each position, not the guy that he’s somehow got a hunch about like Torre *cough* Enrique Wilson starting against Pedro Martinez in the playoffs *cough*

Fortunately for us, the people in charge disagrees with you.

Easily replaceable; high value now; somebody would love to have him at his ‘cheap’ price.

Does throw well though.

If (and I understand this is a fairly big if), but if Damon and Matsui are both capable of playing the OF, Melky should be on the bench or traded for anything you can get for him. The upgraded offense a healthy Matsui and Damon would provide would far, far make up for the small defensive downgrade. Melky is way overrated defensively.

Additionally that opens up the DH slot for Giambi. Unless Melky shows some miraculous coming of age and demonstrates he can actually hit, he should be the 4th OF and it’s everyone else’s job to lose.

http://mlbfleecefactor.com/200.....-woodward/

His career OPS against lefties is .756. My mistake.

I agree that having an .678 OPS guy against lefties is very problematic.

The overall point still stands. My only point is this – Abreu’s career OPS against lefties is .766 it’s not .678.

Abreu’s been an everyday player since 1998. Over the past 10 year period he’s had a sub .700 OPS against lefties twice – in 2000 and last year. After 2000 he rebounded to put up a .731 OPS in 2001 and a .818 OPS against lefties in 2002.

For most of his career he’s been between a .730 – .850 OPS guy against lefties. In 2006 he put up an .840 OPS against lefties.

There’s no evidence over his career that “he can’t hit lefties.” None. One bad season does not mean he’s been bad over the course of his career.

Sure, he’s not as good against lefties but that’s true of nearly all left handed hitters – Ryan Howard, Jim Thome, etc.

IMO its much too early too write off Abreu as an everyday player given his past career performance against lefties. Sure he had a terrible year against lefties last year but that’s one year.

It’s a matter of trade offs. A guy like Mench is very, very, very limited as a ball player and IMO not worth carrying if the idea were to be he’d platoon with Abreu.

There’s high probability Abreu will regress to his mean career performance against lefties and he’ll be fine. He pulled his oblique in spring training and I think that screwed up his mechanics.

Abreu is not Curtis Granderson against lefties. The yankees have a 1000 run offense this year. They can afford a .700 OPS against lefties by their right fielder, especially one that walks that much.

They do need to get more overall right handed hitting this year, but I really feel that they are going to have to platoon at first base this year to do that. That’s the spot that will need the most platoon attention because Betemit,Duncan, Ensberg are limited players.

They can’t platoon first base and right field. That would severely deplete their bench flexibility because the right handed bats they’d carry in the platoons – a mench and ensberg, for example – will be completely useless on the roster for the vast majority of games because they can’t hit right handers at all. They’ll just sit there.

You can afford to carry one guy like that, maybe. But definitely not two. Given that I would go into the season with Abreu as the everday player. I don’t think he’ll put up a .678 OPS against lefties again. Just look at his career production.

First base is the attention position for a platoon, IMO.

I hope shelley can handle it because he gives them more flexibility than either ensberg or mench do because he can play first and two outfield positions.

This idea is nothing personal against Abreu.
And yes, it (obviously) only applies if Mench is on the team.
What others players, teams, etc do is not pertainent to this specific conversation.

But it’s true, it probably boils down to Shelly or Mench.
We need Betemin as a BUIF
We need Molina
That leaves 2 spots?
For Lane/Ensberg/Shelly/Mench?
Who else is in the mix?

Cano’s ops against lefties last year is what? Oh here it is .864 and Abreu .678.

I think Abreu should be a platoon player unless he proves he can hit lefties again. Matsui is better against them as well. My point is there should not be a .678 ops batter hitting 3rd in our lineup ever whether it’s against lefties or righties.

Because if Abreu does perform back to his expected career numbers against lefties having mench on the roster would be an inefficient use of a roster spot (unless you think he can also play first and don’t want to keep Duncan on the team).

Again, Abreu’s career OPS against lefties is .766. That is a good OPS for a lefty hitter against a left pitcher. Cano’s OPS against lefties last year was .756 – should the yankees platoon him?

Most lefties have significant drop offs when facing lefty pitching. You can make a decent argument to platoon all of them with a guy like mench. Mench has a career OPS of .924 against lefty pitching.

Very, very few lefty hitters in all of baseball have an .924 OPS against lefties – Ken Griffey Jr. OPS against lefties is .858, so if you platooned him with Mench you’d get considerably more production. Ryan Howard’s career OPS against lefties is .805 – again, mench’s .924 is much better.

You can’t platoon for a lefty hitter who has a good chance to have a .750 or greater OPS against lefty pitching.

If you did you’d be platooning the vast majority of lefty hitters.

It’s something you have to live with given that there aren’t that many lefty pitchers.

I’m not against Mench but he’s a very, very limited player. He does one thing well – hit left handed pitching. He’s terrible against righties (.564 OPS against righties last year, Career .730). He’s not a great defensive player and doesn’t run well.

If don’t expect Abreu to have an OPS against lefties of less than .700 again. I could perhaps buy mench at first or as a general outfield backup maybe but I wouldn’t commit him to a platoon for abreu. Abreu had one of the 2-3 worst years of his career against lefties last year. He’ll rebound.

I’d much rather use the roster spot for a faster outfielder or another infielder than to burn a spot just to platoon Abreu. Just my opinion.