I don't see why that's the case. I mean, I don't see Gardner being an All-Star or anything, but I see no reason why he can't put up reasonably serviceable numbers (league average or close to it). And, honestly, the defensive downgrade from Damon, combined with the likelihood of an offensive regression, has me thinking that the difference in value between Damon and Gardner might not be much at all.
While I don't agree with Boras that Damon was the sole reason why Jeter had a great season, he did contribute. I wouldn't mind having him back.
. It's become less enjoyable to me, certainly. But everything pales in comparison to football. Ah well. Let's do it up Yanks. Sign Damon and let's get the ball rolling.
I'm just the opposite, my first love is the Yankees no doubt I love the Jets but not as much as the yanks
Honestly, if you asked me in October, I said the Yankees were more important than the Jets. Right now? The Jets are all I can really think about. It all depends on who is currently active, and what their success level is, I guess. Anyway, I would really like to bring back Damon. The downgraded defense in left field is negated by the significantly better offense he provides over Gardner. Gardner is a "nice to have" backup, but is not every day quality to me. Personally, I think Nady is the best option left available. He's not as good defensively as Gardner, nor as good offensively as Damon, but he provides a better mix. That said, given his salary demands, if Cashman is going to go overbudget, I'd rather he gave the money to Damon.
I loved Damon on the Yanks, but I don't know why people are so eager to have him back when compared to the other options. He's going to be 36, and I sincerely doubt you get as good of a year out of him offensively as you did last year. In fact, I'd bet almost anything he regresses by a significant amount. (If you want to put a number on it, let's say I'd bet his OPS goes down by at least 30 points, which is still above his career average, and is close to his Yankee career average.) Factor in defense that's almost guaranteed to be worse than last year, and I don't think you can make the argument that Gardner would really be any worse... especially when you factor in that Gardner is entering his age 26 season. If the two are going to be in the same ballpark in terms of value, you should go for the younger guy every time.
But how far from Damon's OPS is Gardner? We're talking about the difference between a guy hitting in the 2 spot against a guy hitting in the 9. Damon's OPS last year was .854. Gardner's was .724. Even if Damon loses 30 points he'll still have a full hundred points on Gardner. No amount of defense in left field is going to make up that difference. If this were a discussion of center field, I might shade a bit more toward your argument, but left field isn't going to suffer that much lack of defense to make up that big a gap in offensive performance. This might be unworthy of further discussion anyway though. From what I understand, Damon has a deadline with the Yankees of this weekend. If something's not worked out, they'll move on without him. Also, Oakland is currently bidding on Ben Sheets, and pending the outcome, if they have money left to do it, they're targeting Damon at his demands. I'll live with whatever happens, but I honestly don't feel like the Yankees' lineup is better than last year when they've replaced Damon, Matsui, and Melky with Granderson, Johnson, and Gardner.
Well, a couple of points. I don't assume that .724 is the ceiling of Gardner's ability, and I think Damon would likely lose at least 30 points of OPS next year. I wouldn't be surprised at all if it were significantly more. In terms of runs created, I wouldn't be surprised at all if Damon were only worth 20 more runs than Gardner (at the plate). Hell, last year Damon created 97 runs to Gardner's 39 runs... but Damon also had more than twice as many plate appearances. (Gardner would have had 86 runs created if he had the same # of PAs as Damon. That's certainly in the same ballpark.) So, yes, I believe that Gardner's defense could easily make up that difference. (Damon was 12 runs below average in LF last year. Gardner was 15 above average in CF last year.) And, again, I'm not saying that Gardner is a better player than Damon... I just think there's a good enough chance that the Yanks will get similar (and hell, possibly more) value out of Gardner next year than they would from 36 year old Damon in LF. If the Nick Johnson deal didn't happen, and it was a question of bringing back Damon for the DH spot, I'd be all over that. But sticking him in LF again? I'll pass.
I hear you. I disagree, but I can see your line of thought. The thing is, we're both guessing what each player's production will increase/decrease, so it's really hard to make a final argument one way or the other.
True. Any projection is a guess to one degree or another. But that's why I said when we're presented with the choice between a 26 year old and a 36 year old, I'll take the 26 year old every time if there's a chance that they'll be reasonably comparable. No one can tell the future... all you can do is to try to manage your risk as best you can. I imagine this is part of why the Yanks haven't seemed to be particularly keen on paying a 36 year old, increasingly broken down player with diminishing defensive skills several millions of dollars. Unless his name is Jeter. OH SNAP!
Now that wasn't right. Besides, let's be honest, if anyone on the Yankees deserves a big contract beyond his youth, it's Jeter. Here's my thing with Damon. I'd bring him back over Gardner solely for the immediate gain. Damon is clearly not a long-term plan. Honestly, as I've said, I'm still stuck on Crawford in LF. Damon is a short-term solution that helps right now. I don't feel Gardner has a future in the Bronx. Not as anything but a 4th outfielder at best. So given that I see neither as a solution much past this year (and if Crawford is going to come north, it'll be this coming November,) I'd like to have Damon back. I doubt I'd give him the money he was looking for though, even if it were in the budget. I'd like to see them hit a middle ground though.
I was just kidding with that one. I understand all of that. But just to be clear, I was not advocating Gardner for the longer term. And what is being questioned here is whether or not it even would be "immediate gain" to have Damon over Gardner, if he actually "helps right now" more than Gardner. I think there's a decent chance that Gardner has more value to the team next year.
