Rodriguez 1.608
Abreu 1.117
Cano 1.080
Gardner 1.071

Batting 9/22 plus 6 SBs in 6 attempts — not a bad SP for the kid!

Looks like another 50-100 games in AAA could help.

For the first three (or two if suspension is reduced after appeal hearing), Yanks can not take chance of not having a serviceable OF backup. They will not play with 23 players, whatever Girardi says now.

So, I think, they will leave Duncan behind for the first three games and take either Gardner of Lane to North. After Melky completes his suspension, they will bring Duncan to majors by sending Gardner to minors.

I am truely amazed that no one in the building was killed. i read it was the construction workers who died.

Pete even if you present it as a joke (so you don’t look like an idiot, if that is how you’d feel), PLEASE bring Derek’s message about the ray-bans. Look, I say any port in a storm. Imagine if the ray-bans ARE the difference maker??? When you see a guy pitch the way he did against the Sox and then pitch the way he did when they combined for that no hitter, and then you see him fall apart another time, you owe it to Yankee life in general to do everything possible to figure it out and get him right, if at all possible. Why? Because the guy has shown he has FILTHY stuff and CAN pitch his brains out. Obviously it’s much better for us if someone can get him straightened out. Anyway, interesting catch Derek.

Catch you all later.

I asked about this the other day. If the player goes to the minors, he’d serve his suspension upon his return to MLB.

Also, the minor league season starts later, I’m pretty sure…so they couldn’t really send melky/shelley down there to get three days of playing time before the suspension. I guess they could leave a guy in tampa at minor league camp and then call him up after the first guy’s suspension is done…but they don’t seem to be talking about that.

As for Gardner, I think it’d REALLY be a disservice to him to stick him on the bench in the majors. He’s not going to see much playing time up here. Pinch running late in games just really doesn’t happen that often in AL games. Brett needs to play every day to continue developing. I mean, he could be an MLB regular if he proves he can keep his OBP up against more mature pitching. He’d lose the opportunity to show that if he’s in the majors sitting on the bench waiting until Giambi needs a pinch runner in the 7th.

What Yanks will do will really depend on that. In the case of first scenario, I can see Suncan starting in the minors (assuming Ensberg makes it) and an outfielder added to the roster for the first few days. They may still do the same in the second scenario, just carrying six pitchers in the bullpen for the first three games.

Since Soriano left, the Yankees have missed a guy who can wreak havoc on the bases and who can pinch-run in a late-inning game, steal second to move into scoring position circa Dave Roberts in 2004.

Gardner has an 84%– yes, EIGHTY-FOUR PERCENT– stolen base percentage in the minors. They might not translate into as high a percentage in the majors of course. But still, I’m awed.