Well, you can pretty much stop worrying about Mauer. He's a lock to re-sign with the Twins. And I'm not particularly impressed with Crawford. Believe it or not, Gardner is essentially Crawford Lite. Crawford's career OPS is .772 (.798 if you exclude his first two atrocious years), and was .737 in the minors. Gardner's OPS in the minors was .772, and is .677 in the bigs (.724 if you exclude his first horrendous year). And Gardner's OPS is much, much more OBP heavy, which is a huge advantage when you consider that - for both players - their greatest asset is their speed. They don't need to hit triples. They just need to get on base. Please note that I'm not saying Gardner is as good as Crawford now, or that it's likely he will be as good as Crawford (although I could see it being closer than most people think). I'm just saying that they bring practically the same skill set to the table, is two years younger, and while Crawford does most things better than Gardner, the one thing he doesn't do better than him is probably the most important asset for a ridiculously fast player. So it's not like they'd be going from Gardner in LF to, oh, I don't know... Manny Ramirez circa 2000. I'd be happier to go after Cliff Lee (assuming he makes it to free agency, of course).
I definitely want Lee, no question, but I doubt we ever even get a shot at him. I can't stand Gardner, and there's no way I'd take him over Crawford. Period. And I don't think Mauer is the lock you think he is. I'm not saying he won't sign in Minny, but considering that it's still not done after months of negotiation, I'm not sure he's not going to at least test the waters.
I would rather see Granderson in center, Gardner should be platooned, you can't let Grandy play left, then center the next day...
Yes, you don't like Gardner. I get that. And remember, I didn't say you should take him over Crawford, straight up. I explicitly said that Crawford is the better player. What I don't get as much is why you have such dislike for Gardner, but then drool over Crawford. Especially because this is not a zero sum game. My point was that Crawford does not currently have THAT much more value over Gardner. And depending on what you have to pay him and who that prevents you from getting, it's close enough that it could be a net loss for the Yanks. I'll bet you anything he stays in Minny. Anything.
If Mauer tests free agent waters, he's gone. I can't see the Twins matching an astronomical offer from the Yankees/RedSox. I'd be surprised if he doesn't stay in Minny long term, though. They'll get a deal done.
It's definitely in their interests to get it done before free agency, and I think they will, too. But even if they don't and he hits the market, the Twins almost HAVE to match any offer, no matter how astronomical. I think the financial consequences if they lose him would be worse than an additional $5 or even $10 million per year. And they know this. That's why they've been trying to so hard to get a deal done. My understanding was that already have a preliminary agreement in place. Did that change? I know they backed off the report that a contract had been agreed to, and that nothing is done until it's signed and all... but I thought all signs were still pointing toward Mauer re-signing. Not sure why people are even considering it.
I'll take Crawford's arm over Gardner's any day. I'll take Crawford's bat in the upper part of the lineup over Gardner's forever-the-ninth-man any day. Gardner isn't even close to the same value as Crawford. Gardner's career OPS+ is 80 while Crawford's is 103. That's a pretty sizeable difference. Gardner's stats (.325 .352 .677) don't even come close to Crawford's (.335 .437 .772) The only one that is even remotely close is on-base %. (I will give you that in 2008-where he played a comparable # of games to Gardner's last year {109-108 respectively}-Crawford's numbers are very similar. But that's simply cherry-picking a bad year out of a good career.) According to http://www.i-yankees.com/?p=14081, Crawford's WAR last year was 5.5, Gardner was 2.1. FTR: Alex Rodriguez is listed at 4.6. I find any argument in favor of Brett Gardner unfathomable. If you told me we had the choice between Crawford or Lee, or Crawford or Mauer, I'd say "Okay, I'll deal with Gardner another year until we can put someone else out there." But to entertain thoughts of Gardner over Crawford for any reason short of bringing in a blockbuster player, no freaking way.
Right. You just repeated the same stats I posted yesterday. I'm not unaware of the difference between their performance. Crawford had two horrible first years in the bigs. Gardner had a bad first year and adjusted well last year... enough that you could probably toss out Gardner's first stint with the club in 2008, the same as you could toss out Crawford's first two years with the Rays. And OBP weights heavier than SLG, especially with two guys who are that fast. If you judged Crawford at a similar point in his career, you would have said he's a bum. Gardner has shown solid OBP skills at all levels, once he adjusts. He won't hit you 20 HRs, but all you want is for someone like him to get on base. And he's reasonably good at doing that. That's misleading. Plate appearances are a factor of WAR. A-Rod was only at 4.6 because he missed the first month of the season. Gardner is listed that far below Crawford because he only played in 108 games and had less than half as many PA as Crawford. If Gardner continued to perform at the same level last year, but got the same number of PAs as Crawford, his WAR would have been 4.5. I think that supports my case very nicely. That's fine, but it's also quite a straw man. I never made an argument in favor of Gardner. My argument is that Crawford, while clearly a better player, is not THAT much better. Gardner is Crawford Lite, and much cheaper. It's not just next year, though. I don't want to sign Crawford to a five or six year deal and have him roaming around out there at age 36.
Well at least Mauer won't be going to Boston and I like the Yankees prospects at catcher a hell of a lot more than Boston's.
And today's Mauer extension is Exhibit A why I never believe anything he says. Yeah, Buster, it's not as close as people think. It's even closer.
And Hughes proves again why he has no business being a starter. Put him and Chamberlain in the bullpen where they belong and let any of the other three be the 5th starter.
What the hell are you talking about?! Did you even read the write up on the game? Are you really giving that much weight to the results of one ST start? If so, why are you discounting all the others? Honestly, Don... I'm almost convinced you're not a Yankee fan and post here to troll. Because I have a hard time believing that a sane person could truly think the things you think. ETA: Here's a write up of the game, and yet another example of why results don't mean shit in spring training:
^Agreed. Don was actually upset after the NYY won the World Series. If there was any time to actually be content with the team......
Dude, I like Don. I know he's a fan of the Jets and Yankees. It's just the wild shit he writes sometimes makes me hmy: I get it though. I know a lot of fans like him. I blame the media. The papers are especially ridiculous. They're written like blogs now. I mean, literally like blogs, full of opinions and anonymous quotes. There's zero journalism left in them. But people read them and formulate opinions. It's sad, and a little bit scary.
Lol, seriously. I know I've straight-up called Don a troll in this thread (maybe a bit harsh, I'll admit), and Alio has defended him. But you gotta admit, if he's not a troll, he certainly says some "trollish" things....things that someone can't possibly believe to be intelligent or logical.
