In fact scouts make the same criticism of him that they do of Melky - doesn’t take good routes to the ball.

If people think Melky is a good outfielder because of his arm others assume Brett Gardner is a good defensive outfielder because of this speed.

And Gardner does have a poor arm.

I’m very aware of the age difference, but Melky is still not a good outfielder if you take away his arm. I’d rather have an outfielder with a good bot not spectacular arm who runs down more fly balls towards the gap in spacious Yankee Stadium. Melky has never been great in tracking the ball.

And please don’t compare Melky to Clemente and Bernie Williams. That’s an insult. I don’t care what his career numbers are at this stage in his career because he was promoted early to the big club out of desperation as a result of the injuries to Matsui and Sheffield.

Melky’s ceiling and raw talent isn’t even in the same stratosphere.

I think people would view Melky much differently if he didn’t have such a great arm. I’m not trying to take that part of his game away from him, but if you peel that part away, he’s not an especially good outfielder.

I’m not trying to make the case that Gardner is going to be the next great Yankee because I don’t think he’s much more than a fourth outfielder either.

Melky is just extremely overvalued by Yankee fans.

But what team has an ideal bench?

Reserve players are reserves for a reason - they have flaws. All teams have to deal with that. You are always going to give up something when putting together a bench. The bench is about trade offs.

You carry an Alex Cora type like the red sox are you’re giving up all offense from that position. You carry a Wilson Betemit and you’re giving up defense.

So clearly the yannkee bench has flaws - there are two major ones: up the middle defense and speed.

It would have been nice if there was one player they could put on the bench who had those two qualities and could also hit. But they don’t have any player like that who is ready to be in the big leagues.

But in fact a player who can hit decently, play good up the middle defense and can run is not going to be a reserve - he’s going to be a starter somewhere.

This year’s bench is much, much better than last years. It has three players on it that would be starting for many teams in the league - how many other teams have that kind of talent/ depth on the bench?

Brett Gardner does not fit on this team for the regular season for many reasons. First, he is not ready to play in the big leagues yet. He was terrible in AAA last year - while his batting average was .260 his OBP was only .343 and his OPS an even worse .674.

Any player whose game is built entirely on speed cannot have a .343 OBP in AAA over 181 at bats and be expected to be a contributor in the major leagues. Doesn’t matter what he did in the Arizona league. He needs to get more experience getting on base against better pitching than he saw in AA.

And the yankees don’t need yet another outfielder. They already have 4 solid outfielders and Shelley. How many outfielders does the team need?

Gardner would be a much more useful player to this team if he were a middle infielder. But he’s not.

If there’s an injury to Cano or Jeter they have Alberto Gonzalez waiting at AAA. He’s the player who next year could be a terrific 25th man.

A bench of Molin, Duncan, Ensberg, and Betemit will be one of the best in baseball in terms of talent. If they wanted to they will be able to trade Ensberg and get value back for him given how reasonable his contract is.

That said - this is not going to be the post season roster. A speed player like Gardner becomes much more valuable in the post season where games become much closer. I expect that he’ll be on the post season roster.

For right now the bench though flawed is very talented (for a bench), a huge upgrade over last year’s and arguably one of the best benches in all of baseball.

Let’s remember Melky is even younger than Gardner, and his pre-age 22 stats look a lot like those of Roberto Clemente and Harry Heilmann (and better than Bernie’s).

http://www.baseball-reference.com/friv/scomp.cgi?I=cabreme01:Melky+Cabrera&st=age&age=22&compage=22

Melky’s already an average AL hitter with a superior arm. I hope Gardner becomes Lou Brock, but let’s give him a chance to show he’s above average at AAA first.