The issue then becomes, would Gardner be effective as a bench player? He’s played everyday his entire career.

That’s a tough change for a young player.

We don’t know if he can play off the bench. Its probably why he’s not in the majors right now.

Nobody has been saying that. Go back and read what DMan or I have been posting all morning. We think he could help this team more than Shelley Duncan. Platoon Gardner and Melky and see if Gardner can help the team. Nobody is saying (except for one or two negative nancies) that we should throw Melky out the window and call up Gardner.

It’s not likely Gardner is going to join the group of Hamilton, Upton and Sizemore.

He very well could be an improvement on Melky. It’s hard to say given his age, numbers and power.

But on the hole its just not going to matter that much whether its Melky or Gardner.

I’m more saying this in terms of reasonable expectations. They need more guys who are driving runs in rather than getting on base and setting the table.

Again at this point it may be worth trying but Gardner just isn’t the kind of hitter who is going to change the way the offense produces.

One other thing – Garndner has struggled a great deal each time he was promoted a level. He struggled to hit for any power at all when he first got to AA and at AAA. It took him around a half season at both to get adjusted before he started to produce.

You ani-Chashmanites are really desperate if you are using the recent difficulties of Wang, Cano and Cabrera to justify your criticisms.

How does Gardner help in that regard? He’s not an RBI threat at the ML level.

As far as Melky being the “same player” he always is, that’s not true. He has driven in more runs than some of the guys on the CF list that are supposed to be “better” than he is. He’s not having a bad year.

That’s with Jose Molina and Chad Moeller hitting in front of him most of the season.

Put Robinson Cano’s numbers and Melky’s numbers side by side and tell me who is having the worse year. Its Cano by a landslide.

Something tells me the Yankees were expecting a lot more production out of Cano than Cabrera this year. If the Yankees are ticked off with either guy, its with Cano.

Melky isn’t the reason the offense is inconsistent. Cano is one of the reasons why the offense isn’t as explosive as last year.

True. But in almost two and a half seasons, he’s the same player. He doesn’t hit for power, he doesn’t get on base a lot, he has little speed.

Maybe his power will one day take off. Someone brought up the point that if the Yankees lineup was hitting like it was supposed to, you could easily absorb Melky’s mediocre production. But it isn’t and they shouldn’t.

And two other points that I’ve seen brought up time and time again in this thread. I don’t think anyone is saying that Gardner would cure all the Yankees ills. But batting him 9th with his ability to get on base and pick up steals I think could give this team a needed sparkplug.

Secondly, I love how some people are ready to put Ellsbury in Cooperstown. He’s a very good player with blazing speed.

But his numbers in the minors just aren’t that different from Gardner’s. Ellsbury has a .784 OPS so far this year and he’s hit 5 doubles in 57 games. Five.

So please. Just because Ellsbury was a more highly touted prospect than Gardner it doesn’t mean that he can’t have a similar impact on a game.

As for the Yanks, this is a big series. You have to figure that the A’s will be in the mix for the wildcard, so hopefully the Yanks can throw a beatin on them.

Grammer???? The irony.

Brett Gardner is not going to be a superstar. Nobody in baseball believes he will and its split as to whether or not he will even be a good ML player.

Minor league stats aren’t the way to evaluate a player. Most fans, and many members of the media, make that mistake all the time.

The stats are skewed because the talent level is so uneven.

Who does a player get his hits against? Can he handle fastballs or is he hitting bad breaking balls for hits hits?

Its the same with pitchers? Are they throwing quality strikes? Can they locate their fastball in any count.

Its much more important to watch prospects in order to determine their value than simply looking at their stats.

Gardner is a nice player. At this point, he’s not a better player than Melky Cabrera. He may be at some point or he may not.

On the list of Yankee issues, Melky isn’t on the short list.