In whose universe?

He is a fast kid with no power and is an average OF.

Will he be an all star type of player in the majors? No.

Johnny Damon’s off-year would represent a career year for Brett Gardner.

His off-year negated 2006 in your eyes because it boosts your argument.

However, Damon’s overall body of work should negate a bad first half of 2007 because his numbers in the second half were more representative of his entire career.

He has played 4 halves of baseball in NY and was excellent in 3 of them. That means he, “has to go”? That makes no sense to me.

You don’t giveaway a player for a bad first half of a season.

You are upset he didn’t come into camp in shape last year? Well, be upset with Derek Jeter too because he didn’t come into camp in shape in 2006 and, like Damon, it lingered with him all season.

Guess what? BOTH guys are in better shape this year.

Damon is a clubhouse leader. If he isn’t, then Brian Cashman, Joe Torre, Joe Girardi, Alex Rodriquez, and Derek Jeter must be wrong because ALL of them have called him that in the last year.

Everybody who has ever played the game has had an off-season.

You probably wanted Arod out of town after 2006.

If it was so easy for guys to come up from the minors and be all stars, it would happen more frequently.

Giving away Damon for a guy who projects as a 4th OF, at best, at the ML level makes no sense.

.340 OBP in the #9 slot and great defense in LF from Gardner for $380K or so would be just fine by me. Gardner at leadoff to see what he has OBP and SB wise would be even better.

Damon and cash -say $8M ($4M/yr. so he costs his taker only $18M across 2 years or $9M/yr.) to an N.L. postseason competitive team in need of a veteran leadoff hitter and willing to give up a decent OF prospect who could at least be a #9 hitter in M.L.B. (in a platoon with Gardner or having LF all to himself) would be perfect.

I didn’t turn on Damon - he made me turn on him by showing up to 2007 spring training out of shape and playing like it until there were rumblings of him being traded and after Cabrera took his job in CF. Only after the writing was on the wall that he was to either shape up or ship out did he get his rear in gear.

.270 BA and .351 OBP are not the marks of the “one of the best leadoff hitters in the game”. Any number of decent kids could post the BA and some could post the OBP, and whoever gives you only .325-.340 makes up for 10 points or so with better defense.

His 2007 negated his 2006.

Oh please with his second half last year. That’s the least a guy who showed up to s.t. out of shape and played like it in the first half should do for $13M.

I say get rid of him cuz there is a team stupid enough to take him, it’s just a matter of who.

He should be in “great shape” coming into this year for another $13M…and then another $13M for ‘09.

Clutch player? Since when? He isn’t clubhouse leader. Clubhouse leaders don’t show up to s.t. out of shape and intimate being cool with a trade after his playing time is reduced cuz he played like like he decided to start his season in May.

We don’t need him. Cabrera could lead off, Gardner could bat ninth and post about the same OBP as Damon and even if Damon posted his maximum .360 OBP elsewhere and Gardner posted .340 (so-so), that’s fine considering Gardner would be making the rookie minimum and provide much better defense in LF than Damon. In fact Gardner’s defense makes up for 10 or so points on his OBP. Also, the Yanks have more than enough to get a good #9-hitting OF to share LF with Gardner if it came down to it but get this: THE YANKS COULD GET THAT GUY BY TRADING DAMON.

take a breather

I love how folks turn on players so easily.

Did you even watch Johnny Damon play in his first year with the Yankees? Did he not have a great first year in NY? All, while playing on a broken foot during the last 4 1/2 months of the season.

Johnny Damon’s second half last year was one of the reasons why the Yankees made the playoffs.

He is also one of the few guys who had good AB’s in the post-season.

But, its “get rid of him”, as if he can’t play anymore.

Let’s not let the fact that he is in great shape coming into the season get in the way of the “let’s run him out of town” argument.

If he’s healthy, he is one of the best leadoff guys in the game, a clubhouse leader, and a clutch player.

But, yeah, let’s get rid of him. Its not like we need him.