State of the Yankees: Center field
Posted by: Chad Jennings - Posted in Misc on Feb 13, 2010 
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The alignment of the Yankees outfield remains undecided. For the sake of this series, we’ll call Curtis Granderson the center fielder and leave Brett Gardner as the front-runner in left, but those roles could switch. Whatever the alignment, the Yankees have a young center fielder with either. A: Terrific power for the position, or B: Terrific speed for any position. And that center fielder is locked up for at least the next four years.
Starter: Curtis Granderson
Backup: Brett Gardner
Veteran insurance: Randy Winn
Almost ready: Colin Curtis, Greg Golson
Low rising: Abraham Almonte, Slade Heathcott
The center field depth chart is more of a flow chart than a 1-2-3 ranking of options. Even if Gardner is the starter in left field, he’ll likely be the No. 2 man in center for days Granderson takes a game off. Randy Winn is the veteran of the group, Jamie Hoffmann might fit into the mix from time to time and both Curtis and Golson — plus minor league free agent Reid Gorecki — are likely be toolsy options waiting in Triple-A. Ultimately, the Yankees have some options for mixing and matching depending on different scenarios, but Granderson and Gardner seem pretty well established at the top. The minor league system’s top center fielders are in the lower levels, headlined by Heathcott, with Eduardo Sosa and Melky Mesa possibly fitting into the conversation somewhere.
Worst-case scenario: Granderson strikes out too much to take advantage of his power. Gardner strikes out too much to take advantage of his speed. Winn has aged far too much to be a reasonable center field option. Hoffmann is an obvious roster cut in spring training. Golson’s potential continues to go untapped. Curtis can’t come close to his Arizona Fall League numbers. Heathcott stumbles out of the gate, gets hurt and looks like an obvious over-draft as a first-round pick. Does that pretty much cover it?
Best-case scenario: Left field or center field, it really doesn’t matter. Gardner continues his trend of improving year-by-year. He falls behind in the count much less, gets on base much more and proves the bunt can be a legitimate weapon. Granderson takes advantage of Yankee Stadium to repeat last year’s home run total, but it comes with a batting average that bounces back close to .300 like it was in 2007 and 2008. Kevin Long fixes a glitch in his swing that help’s Granderson improve against left-handed pitchers. Winn proves 2009 was a fluke, Golson and Curtis finally live up to their tools in Triple-A and Heathcott stays healthy to be the top center fielder in the South-Atlantic League.
The future: Granderson is signed through 2013 – though the Yankees can buyout his last year — and Gardner still has two years before he’s eligible for arbitration. The future in center field can belong to either of them, assuming they produce. If not, Heathcott could be the center fielder of the future now that Austin Jackson is gone. If Heathcott moves one level at a time, he’ll be ready for the big leagues on opening day 2014, exactly the year Granderson’s contract runs out.
An attempt at the complete depth chart
An educated guess, but just a guess
Scranton: Greg Golson
Trenton: Austin Krum
Tampa: Abraham Almonte
Charleston: Slade Heathcott
Extended: Eduardo Sosa
The Wildcard position for the Yankees. Interesting writeup (as usual), Chad.
From what I’ve read, Gardner seems eager to learn LF. And Granderson is open to playing LF. And Girardi’s preference is to have Granderson play one position because Yankee Stadium has its challenges.
All that adds up to Girardi having the edge in GTR.
GTR?
m says:
February 13th, 2010 at 5:59 pm
There’s a fat-finger joke in there somewhere, but I’ll take it easy on GB7.
————————————————————
You have to give me credit, though. I no longer cut myself with the round plastic scissors or eat the paste. I’m improving.
GTR??? I’m assuming it starts Guess The?
Guess the ????
Rotation?
Runner?
Robot?
Regular?
Erica will get it. Acronyms are like catnip for her!
Guess the replacement.
Everything but the correct one!
All that came to my mind was reliever, and I know that’s not right. lol
Getting That Right?
Rationale?
Ritual?
Ha! GB7, my thread has more hot girls than yours!
Bet you can’t handle those Performance Enhancing Scissors A-rod was using!
Gritty Terrain Runner.
Erica is in Atlantic City!!
Erica will get it. Acronyms are like catnip for her…and kryptonite for Doreen…
Great Train Robbery
Roster?
Rooster?
Got That Right
m -
But Erica is in Atlantic City. We can’t wait for her!!!
Guess The Relevance ?
Ooh, fun. I just used the cancel this reply function!
Doreen, you spoiled it. I was hoping you would keep going.
Guess the Roster.
If I said GTYR, would that have been easier?
Gotta Run
Granderson was a decent pickup for the two hole. He can’t hit lefties but he can murder righties. It would be nice if he could get his on base percentage up, but he’s a force from that position. Also, let’s hope his “D” gets back on track. Unfortunately, he’s a big minus where Cashman wants to put him – the five hole. He offers no protection for A-Rod or Teixeira there as you can always pitch around those two and then bring in any schlock lefty to get Granderson out. As far as Gardner, he’s a slap hitter. Pitchers are not afraid to throw a fastball right down the pipe to him because they know the most he can do is get a single. Slap hitters have a hard time drawing walks because no one’s afraid to lay one in there if they have to.
Hey! I take exception to that!!!!
Yellow card.
No.
Center field will solve itself over the month of March. It remains to be seen what Jamie Hoffman does to make a case for staying. With the flexability in CF and the more experienced Marcus Thames around, Hoffman will have little margin of error or be returned to the Dodgers.
Now, see there? With the old format, Doreen would only have to tell me one time that Erica was in AC.
Found this at Ric Reilly’s go fish column under “intramural team name idea” There were some funny ones, but I though this was quite sophisticated. lol.
BOCCE
Bocce Said She Was 18 (–Jack, Denver)
I’m hoping that Julius Matos (hitting coach) can fix that swing of Mesa’s in Tampa this year. He’s a Granderson type of player….outstanding speed, power combined with a very good arm and great glove in all three outfield spots. I’d like to see the Yankees bring Chris Chambliss back as the organizational batting instructor.
Speaking of the minor league players/teams, here’s a link to the Yankees and some of their players.
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/minorle.....p?c_id=nyy
CHAD FREAKIN ROCKS!
Yanks looking at Cuban SS Adeiny Hechevarria:
http://riveraveblues.com/2010/...../#comments
A great interview with Cashman, addressing hot button issues, he speaks Damon/Boras too, in no uncertain terms, in other words he’s frank. Damon isn’t coming back no way betcha!!
http://www.bombersbeat.mlblogs.com
Article: Cashman addresses hot button issues
Disregard the minor league rosters on those sites. The players are from 2009, buth the coaching staffs are correct.
Johnny Damon ancestor identified:
http://tinyurl.com/yjzroo8
“Johnny Damon ancestor identified”
The resemblance is obvious.
you are very fortunate that Erica is in AC
I believed Cashman’s version all along over the snake Boras. He’s a bloodsucker always looking for more money. rey kind of Damon should sue, for malpractice. Boras wanted Abreu type money (2/19M) according to Cashman.
He had an out of context bad year against lefties last year. It was not his career norm. He will be murder hitter in NYS.
Gardner’s defense is a huge plus. He also had an ops of over 800 for a three month stretch before the broke his hand. He can be a valuable piece.
Resemblance?
Nah.
http://dallaspenn.com/pics/alb....._damon.jpg
Some highlights re Hechevarria:
“Adeiny was named the starting shortstop for the Cuban Junior team in 2007 World Junior Championship in Canada. Recent signed shortstop José Iglesias had to play second base for that team.”
“According to a scout, Hechavarria would be a first-round pick in MLB’s amateur draft.”
“his bat is better than Iglesias’,” a scout said.
More better.
replacement?
Melky Mesa who’ll start the year at single A Tampa along with Almonte is a player I’m keeping an eye on. He has speed, & tremendous power for his frame (Like Alfonso Soriano).
He is still very raw, and if can hit off speed pitches better & cut down on strikeouts he’ll move up the ladder faster.
Nice job by Cashman on picking up Golson & Reid Gorecki to bolster up the depth at outfield in AAA/AA.
We’ll find out in Spring Training if Hoffman will stick.
If he doesn’t I guess we traded Bruney for nothing.
I loved it when Cashman asked if Damon instead, of Andy needed for the rotation or Curtis, who is 7 yrs older an allstar centerfielder who steals bases, and hit 30HR at Comerica Park was better than signing Damon moving forward.
Take it for what it’s worth but…
Leyland said yesterday he buried Granderson last year because he needed him in the game even though they faced an unusual number of tough lefties so he skewed his numbers even though he didn;t do it on purpose.
They were not going to tender him a contract anyway so even getting a look at Hoffman is better than nothing.
If we weren’t going to pay the money to sign him it was better to get Hoffman than an outright release. Hoffman may still prove himself onto the bench. Winn may have the contract but he doesn’t inspire me much since he hits lighter than Gardner & Gardner didn’t hit to full potential when he broke a thumb last year.
Despite all the free agent drama on this site, The Yankees are high on Gardner & with good reason. He will shine in 2010 and win over a lot of fans.
Just wondering but why all the animosity on this board towards
(1) Damon
(2) Boras
I’m hoping it turns out to be more than a look.
Yeah me too. Just saying in the worst case scenario even that look is better than the nothing they would have gotten when they released Bruney.
Glad to hear he is working on his bunting. It can only help.
Melky Mesa = Arm, Power, Speed, Glove/Range
He has the most tools in the Yankees system above A ball. Unfortunetly, the 1 tool he’s missing = hit/contact
Spot on, must be a cousin, Damon has a huge jaw and head!!
Personally, I thought they should have kept Bruney.
Melky Mesa = Arm, Power, Speed, Glove/Range
He has the most tools in the Yankees system above A ball. Unfortunetly, the 1 tool he’s missing = hit/contact
May I ask why?
I liked his arm. And when he was at his best, I thought he was an effective weapon. I still thought he might get back to form. Apparently, the Yankees did not agree on his value.
Saw this quote from Cashman yesterday, but it’s worth posting, I think.
On how the Yankees’ budget looks for 2010 —
“If you ask everyone in the room if they would rather not have Curtis Granderson because he costs X amount of dollars and Andy Pettitte because he costs X amount, that gives you more money to sign the left fielder who is dear to your heart in Johnny Damon,” Cashman said. “If you ask most people right now, what would you rather have moving forward, I think they would say they need Andy Pettitte for the rotation and Curtis Granderson because he’s an all-star center fielder who hit 30 homers at Comerica Park last year, who steals bases and is (7) years younger. You can’t have everything.”
Because Damon said all year he/wife loved NY, and he wanted to stay on the team. A franchise he said was the best he’d been on. When postseason came Boras slapped him back to Borasville, diminished Damon’s market value, and lied about Cashman’s offer! Johnny went from a wanted type A FA, to bargain status, all the while with Boras being stupid!
Yeah, But I think in the overall big picture it will be worth it to invest time/money/energy to teach him to relax, shorten/level his swing a bit for more contact and also teach him more base running techniques and tracks for fly balls.
You can’t teach natural speed & tremendous HR power. He has plenty of both.
His form however is more likely a bad reliever than the form that you are thinking of. The vast majority of his career he has been a below average/bad pitcher. He has only been good for more than 25 innings one time in his career. Basically every pitcher in baseball goes on really good 20 inning stretches once in a while in their career. Not to mention he is injured all the time.
Bruney is a guy who most of the time is a bad pitcher, has extremely brief flashes of being great, and is injured the rest of the time. Paying 2.5-3 million for that is a ton of money.
And his presence takes away innings from younger more cost effective guys.
if he pans out, he probably doesn’t see MLB until 2013. But it’s nice to know we have home grown talent in the pipeline.
Like I said the Yankees didn’t agree with my view of Bruney so it’s a moot point. He’s gone.
Hey Grrrl
Link supplied above at 6:48 pm at,
http://www. bombersbeat.mlblogs.com
Yes, that’s where I copied it from. But as Hoch himself said, he was a little late with the info.
Actually it was titled, “Cashman addresses hot button issues.”
I agree with Cashman if Damon wanted to stay he would’ve accepted his more than fair offer. Boras wanted Abrey money.
some interesting questions and answers from Brian Hoch’s column with comments by Pettitte and about Cashman’s off-season dealings.
Pettitte:
“For me, I couldn’t have written a script any better than last year ended,” Pettitte said. “What else is there to do? Why would you even continue to play? But I want to make sure I’m done. I want to make sure I fully exhaust myself, and I don’t want to regret not playing. I want to come back and help this organization win another one.”
On Cashman: Something that needs to be addressed based on a lot of the other e-mail messages we’ve been getting — the Yankees will still have the highest payroll in the game in 2010, so it’s not like they’re suddenly transforming into a bargain-basement operation. It just so happens that there has been a little more reshuffling of the deck than many anticipated this offseason.
To get back to your question, in retrospect, we should have had a clue during the World Series, when Cashman said the clock essentially stopped on Oct. 3 — no matter what players did in the postseason, the club couldn’t allow sentimentality to influence its decisions. If you based everything on October and November, the Yankees might have had to open the bank accounts for Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui.
More on everyone from Nick Johnson, Robinson Cano to Humberto Sanchez.
http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com.....8;c_id=nyy
I think this is the money quote, at least as it relates to some of the imaginative Cashman Whisperers on this board:
“I told (Damon and Boras), ‘I don’t know if Hal (Steinbrenner, the team’s part owner) would approve it, but I’m not going to fight for it unless we know you will do it,’” Cashman said. “Scott Boras said, ‘Bobby Abreu’s (new) contract is $9 million a year right now on the table so why would we do that? So I expect to see a Bobby Abreu contract.’ … I hope he does not sign for something less than our offer. That means he should have been a Yankee and that’s not our fault.”
New youtube yankees video, “2009 New York Yankees.”
Guess who hanging out regularly at RAB, Rebecca!
Jilted lover syndrome.
That’s why I knew Cashman had his marching orders from the winter meeting with the braintrust in Tampa. He didn’t blink once at Boras or Damons’ nonsense. I’ve never seen Cashman so focused. The fact that he started working on the Granderson trade, once he turned in the postseason roster, showed the Yankees weren’t taking any mess from Boras. This was a contract year and Damon was performing.
I’m not into men, you have at it!!
That was good show by Apolo Ohno.
Makes Boras look stupid doesn’t it? Damon should’ve fired him before he cost him 10M, and now BARGAIN STATUS.
Feb. 13th, and we’re still talking Damon! He sure has captured the hearts of some Yankee fans.
Feb. 17th, P&C will report and Girardi will have his camp opening conference.
Not my heart! When he and the demon seed (aka Boras) started talking crazy, I was ovah Damon.
Derek’s contract is a referendum on his relationship with Alex? Some storylines dies hard.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02.....jeter.html
m says:
February 13th, 2010 at 8:47 pm
Feb. 13th, and we’re still talking Damon! He sure has captured the hearts of some Yankee fans.
Feb. 17th, P&C will report and Girardi will have his camp opening conference.
————————————————————
As boring as it may be with the Damon saga, it beats the Hell out of reading about Kobe Bryant and the Lakers.
I felt that one!
id rather have matsui over nick johnson cashman.. I STILL DONT UNDERSTAND THIS.. THEY MAKE ROUGHLY THE SAME… NICK JOHNSON IS MORE INJURY PRONE THAN MASTUI so you cant use the age argument…
if the yankees didn’t wait around for damon, is it not true that matsui would be here right now?
RAB has youtube footage of Cuban SS Adeiny Hechevarria in action.
Matsui signed faster than Cashman got around to him. He was a low priority and slipped away fast. Granderson was the big deal at the time, Yankees loss for sure.
Yankees got better defensively and younger this offseason, that’s a plus!
You did not answer above but I really am curios as to why you dislike Boras so much.
Or alternatively, Cashman did not want Matsui back.
His tactics are responsible for people hating teh Yankees, and not being able to afford going to games.
He’s motivated by his greed.
What he did a couple of years trying to upstage the WS, as if all of baseball cared if Alex opted out.
He got Bernie Williams caught up in the Sanford Financial scheme through one of his financial divisions in his corporation, et al, who had to pay back any profits made.
He’s a demon seed! imo, take like a grain of salt, worthless.
I did love Cashmans’ out dealing him, because he thinks he’s invincible. n/t
Boras is bad for baseball, not the Yankees.
This sick loser Cris Collinsworth just compared Apollo Anton Ohno to Tom Brady.
What a sick sick man.
What does Ohno have in common with Brady?
Did Ohno abandon his first son?
Did Ohno benefit from illegal videotapes of other skaters?
Ohno he didn’t!! heehehe…
Well that was certainly enlightening.
That was the first time I have ever heard that Scott Boras is the reason people hate the Yankees and cannot afford to go to Yankee games.
Boras and the Yankees both are actually quite good for baseball by the way
Your Boras answer is at 9:27 pm
Matsui moved too fast for Cashman, his agent didn’t want to play the Boras’ stupid drawn out wait game!
Funny stuff.
Not to just the Yankees games.
Yankees are great for baseball.
They are well run.
Profitable and fork up corporate welfare money, to other owners.(to pocket)
Give to many charities.
Treat their players great.
Boras is the bad one!!
Bob Costas after the softball interview of MacGwire, has lost my respect as an interviewer. His light is dim now!
From A on down, the Yanks have a ridiculous number of guys who can play CF.
Since when is it a General Manager’s job to hold grudges? His job is to try, within the best of whatever ability he has, to put the best team on the field. Damon, Matsui and Abreu got old and, if adequate replacements were obtained, as a Yankee fan, you’d have no problem in going with younger guys. The problem is that Johnson, Swisher and Gardner is a huge downgrade at three positions. The one upgrade has been Granderson (in the two hole only) over Cabrera. Cashman is already well on his way to digging his next big hole that will require another huge transfusion of cash to fix.
Someone mentioned earlier that Granderson’s splits last year were an abberation. Great comment, last yr he hit .180 vs leftys but we should be relieved that lifetime he’s at .210, please know your stats. Granderson also is a lousy 2 hole hitter, his obp is low and if he takes extra strikes he’ll strike out too much. He’s going to bat 6th or 7th. Would have fit in the 9 hole between 2 rightys Swisher and Jeter is Cashman and Hal had the brains to sign Damon put him in the 2 hole, Johnson in the 6 hole and Granderson 9th. Now we have too many lower of the order hitters that are vulnerable to late inning leftys. Plus our bench stinks. Who’s gping to pinch hit, Cervelli, Pena, Winn, Thames, Hoffman, killrs.
The Yankees are projected to win 100 games, Damon sheeple. Kai yai, Kai yai.
I was giving Granderson the benefit of the doubt in the two hole. At least he doesn’t hurt others in the lineup as he would at #5. Also, he does have some speed which is something you could use at the top of the order. Anyway, Cashman has continually demonstrated that he doesn’t have a clue as how to put a lineup together that will be at least equal to the sum of its parts. What’s obvious to baseball people just seems to whiz right by him. A few years ago, he traded Sheffield, which was OK if he had a replacement. Instead, for almost two full seasons, until the Yankees got Nady, the Yankees had a huge righty hole in the lineup that made them incredibly vulnerable to any schlock lefthander. The Chamberlain thing is a joke. Here you had the next Goose Gossage (a Hall of Famer, by the way) in the bullpen and he’s succeeded in turning him into Sidney Ponson. In fact, even the Chamberlain / Hughes thing is ridiculous. It’s not like he hadn’t just failed miserably with trying to force Hughes and Kennedy into the rotation. He doesn’t learn. And what’s with Wang? How do let your ace of a season and a half ago, who went 54-20 for you, just walk away for peanuts? And why not go after Bedard, a top of the rotation guy, who you could have taken a chance on – on the cheap? With the resources the Yankees have, one title in the last nine years is a horrendous track record. Before this team turns into a turd, this guy needs to go.
Can’t agree with you on your view of Joba as a starter. He has always been a starter, in HS and 2 years of college and his accelerated 2007 season. He was even projected (w/Hughes) to be the top of the rotation in the future. His 2009 season was not his best – those dang Joba Rules. He won’t have those this year so just let him loose and see what he really do.
It is too early in their careers to send Joba or Phil to the pen to replace Moe. Starters have more value than bp’ers, as I have said for when the Joba to the pen agruments arise, no MLB pitcher aspires to the BP. I notices someone used my “quote” the other day.
ortforshort
you clearly have s#!+ for brains. it’s not even worth responding to the idiocy of each of your “points” regarding the job that Cash has done with this team, but I just felt if you weren’t already aware of it someone should be nice enough to tell you.
champ809 says:
February 14th, 2010 at 3:44 pm
ortforshort
you clearly have s#!+ for brains. it’s not even worth responding to the idiocy of each of your “points” regarding the job that Cash has done with this team, but I just felt if you weren’t already aware of it someone should be nice enough to tell you.