Kuzul

Monday’s Spring Training press report didn’t have much to say. Joe Girardi said the platitudes, as did Brian Cashman.

Not much except for this:

“We signed (Derek Jeter) to be our shortstop and we signed him to be our leadoff hitter,” Girardi said. “And he’s got a pretty good track history of what he’s done in the game of baseball. He had a couple of rough months last year. The month of September he was back to being Derek, I thought. I’m not really too concerned about him as our leadoff hitter.”

Okay, one question. Why?

In almost every single way, Brett Gardner is the perfect leadoff man over Derek Jeter.

As for Girardi’s comment about Jeter being back to his old self in September, that’s not entirely true. It is true that Jeter batted .287 in the last month, which is better than he batted in any month since April. But .287 isn’t what you want out of Jeter.

Jeter can’t draw walks like he used to; Gardner can. Jeter can’t run like he used to; Gardner has speed to burn. Take September, Jeter’s best month since April—he had a .375 OBP. In September, with a severely sprained wrist and his worst month of the year, Gardner’s OBP was a .372. In that month—his best OBP month all season—Jeter stole three bases. In his worst month, with a sprained wrist, Gardner stole eight bases.

Look, I get it, Jeter is the captain. The face of the franchise. But would it be such a insult to him to bat second with Teixeira behind him and trying to drive in Gardner with slaps the other way as Gardner creates a hole on the right side of the field? Doesn’t that make more sense?

Gardner was eighth in the league in OBP, third in steals, 10th in walks and ninth in runs scored. All while batting ninth in the lineup. The man is a born leadoff hitter. Jeter, at this point in his carer, isn’t. And it shouldn’t be a slap to the captain. He has batted second more in career than in any other spot, so it’s not a big move.

I admire Girardi’s loyalty. He played with Jeter and has a bunch of respect for the franchise, but batting Jeter first is a mistake

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The news for the Yankees this offseason has been generally negative. Missing out on Cliff Lee, the Derek Jeter contract debacle and Andy Pettitte retiring. Add a peppering of has-been players, and the Yankee Universe isn’t looking as rock-solid as it has in the past.  

There are a few questions, both big and small, for the Yankees heading into spring training. 

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One of the biggest parts of MLB Spring Training is determining who will be the starters. As usual, there are a lot of tough position battles this year.

A lot of high-profile moves were made this offseason. There’s a lot of anticipation to see who will win those battles.

Here are the top 11 players who have the most to lose in their position battles this year.

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In 2010, the Yankees were adamantly clear that it was repeat or bust.
 
The reigning 2009 champion New York Yankees lost in the ALCS, eventually passing the World Series crown to the San Francisco Giants.
 
Most teams would be elated if that was how their last two seasons had panned out, but up in the Bronx expectations run high.
 
Reading the 2011 roaster is not going to provide much comfort, as the Bombers have more holes to fill this season compared to the last two combined.
 
Still, there are positives that weren’t there in 2009 or 2010, in particular the emergence of outfielders Brett Gardner and Curtis Granderson.
 
Gardner and Granderson’s roles are more vital than ever this coming season.
 
The Yankees are confident in this duo’s abilities, so much so that GM Brian Cashman did not go after Carl Crawford or Jayson Werth during the offseason.
 
Why, and how, is this tandem so important in 2011?
 
Let’s look at both guys individually:

 
Curtis Granderson
 
Granderson’s first year in pinstripes did not start on the right foot. After hitting a game-winning home run in Fenway on Opening Day weekend, Granderson started to struggle, which turned into a slump and fans were starting to stamp him as a bad trade.
 
Granderson had only posted seven home runs, 24 RBIs and 51 strikeouts in the first half of the 2010. He also missed the entire month of May due to a pulled hamstring.
 
Things were not looking good, and frustrations were growing on both sides. Had Grandy forgotten his talents in Detroit? At the All-Star break it sure seemed that way.
 
After tweaking his swing with Yankee hitting coach/miracle-man Kevin Long, Granderson starting crushing balls again, and he hasn’t looked back since.
 
In the second-half of 2010, Granderson more then doubled his home runs going from seven to 17. His meager 24 RBIs in the first half raised by 19, as in July, August and September he had 43 RBIs, 71 hits, nine double and four triples.
 
Granderson has been known to strikeout a ton, but in those three months he only bit it 72 times in 282 at-bats, which was a marked improvement.
 
Granderson has always been an elite outfielder and his skills never faltered defensively in 2010, which kept Yankee fans optimistic.
 
What I love about Granderson is that neither clutch situations, nor location faze him. It is as simple as, he is either hitting or he is not.
 
Heading into the 2011 season, Granderson needs to continue being productive at the plate because even just getting him on base is a threat. With his leg all healed, expect Granderson to double his 12 stolen bases from last year.

 
Brett Gardner
 
Unlike his buddy above, Gardner did not struggle much in 2010. Right out of the gate, Gardner produced.
 
Gardner does not have the power bat like Granderson does, but stealing 47 bases and constantly hitting deep into pitch counts with long at-bats surely makes up for it.
 
Gardner is unique because he is a pest that pitcher absolutely dread. When at the plate, Gardner has a superior eye for pitches and draws a lot of walks, 73 in total in 2010.
 
Pitchers don’t want Gardner types to walk all the time because they’re more lethal while on the base. One extra blink, and Gardner will be on the next base.
 
Gardner is as fast as a Tasmanian devil, stealing 47 bases, but only getting caught nine times last season. Gardner’s speed was easily in the top-four in baseball, as he tied with Crawford for third in 2010.
 
Gardner finished the year with a .382 OBP, with 20 doubles, five home-runs, seven triples, 47 RBIs and 102 strikeouts.
 
Like Granderson, Gardner is a stellar defender and, at a ripe 27 years old, he is not even in his prime yet.
 
The Yankees expect big things for Gardner, not only in 2011, but also for years to come. I really like what I have seen of Gardner since he emerged in 2009 and am happy the Yankees GM and ownership did, too.

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When fans, analysts, and experts alike begin to determine a player’s value, defense is often second nature. It doesn’t jump off the back of a baseball card like Albert Pujols’ home run totals, Ryan Howard’s RBI totals, or Jose Reyes’ stolen bases. However, defense is a crucial part of the game of baseball. It makes great offensive players elite, and players who lack the offensive wherewithall a positive outlook on their game.

So, how do you go about ranking the best defensive players in baseball?

It’s no simple task. First, you must take into consideration that not every player plays the same position. A second baseman, for example, must make all the routine plays with ease, and provide good range to both his left and right side, and have the cunning to make up one half of a double play combination. An outfielder, on the other hand, must have a bevy of tools at his disposal, including range, skill with the glove, athleticism, and a strong arm. How do you rate one over the other?

A second challenge is the number of SABRmetric statistics that the baseball world has to offer, or more directly, their inaccuracy. For example, Juan Pierre’s Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR) is one of the best in the game, but the man has no arm and couldn’t throw out a runner if his life depended on it. Combined with any normal statistics, like fielding percentage and errors, and it is hard to get an accurate measure, so those have been taken with a grain of salt.

Finally, the recipient of the Gold Glove Award will have absolutely no measure on a player’s positioning in the rankings. While it shows that a player has earned respect for his defense, the Gold Glove Award is voted on by a number of different players and coaches, and does not provide an accurate measure of a player’s defense. I think Derek Jeter, while a great defensive shortstop, winning the award this year over Elvis Andrus is a perfect example.

So how were the rankings calculated? I took into consideration a number of different things. For the first and maybe last time, stats did not play a large role in my rankings. While I looked at and evaluated things like fielding percentage, UZR, runs saved, and errors, I found that defense is hard to put on the back of a baseball card. One of the things that played a large part in my ranking was longevity. I didn’t exclude any young defensive wizards like Andrus, but veterans got a big thumbs up. I also looked at a player’s “tools,” so arm strength and range were also big factors.

So, without any more of a drawn out explanation, here are the 30 greatest defensive players in the MLB today.

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The New York Yankees have made small signings this year, especially after they missed out on the Cliff Lee Sweepstakes.

Players include Russell Martin, Luis Vizcaino, and Pedro Feliciano.

And if you look at it in a positive way, this is still a similar lineup compared to the 2010 team when they reached the American League Championship Series.

Adding to that, there is money that can be spent on even more signings, which can be critical.

But for now, here is the projected lineup and starting rotation of the New York Yankees, for the 2011 season.

Please read this Joe Girardi. Please.

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For the past two seasons, Derek Jeter has been leading off for the New York Yankees after spending many years in the two-hole.

At the beginning of 2009, Joe Girardi explained that Jeter was a “more pure” lead-off man than Johnny Damon. Speculation has it that it was also because Jeter frequently hits into double-plays.

The move certainly didn’t do any harm to the order as the Yankees posted back to back years of high offensive productivity.

In 2010, however, Jeter was not the reason.

The captain suffered one of the most grueling seasons of his career with a .270 average and a myriad of failures in the clutch.

Although even I feel that it was just an off-year for Jeter, would dropping him back a little in the order be a good idea?

After all, many have entertained the idea of giving Brett Gardner a shot at the lead-off role.

Why not?

Lead-off men are often judged by two things—speed, and the ability to get on base—Both of which Gardy possesses.

Gardner posted a whopping .383 on-base percentage with 79 walks.

As for his speed, anyone who has seen him play knows that it won’t be an issue.

Gardner’s hitting ability is criticized by many to be very sub-par, but Gardy’s .277 average lies.

Well on pace to hit over .300 before being hit on the wrist by a pitch from the Dodger’s Clayton Kershaw in July, Gardner hit .232 in the second half compared to .309 in the first.

It is, of course, impossible to say how much of an impact that the wrist had on Gardner’s performance, but it definitely played a role.

Whatever the case, Gardner is the perfect leadoff man.

Just think—How many times could this happen with him batting first?

Gardner walks, steals second and gets driven in by meat of order—Cano, whom I think should bat No. 2 next year, Teixeira, and Rodriguez—who all had over 100 RBI in 2010.

Imagine how many times we could jump on a team quick like that!

So think about it. How does this lineup sound?

1) Gardner

2) Cano

3) Teixeira

4) Rodriguez

5)  Nick Swisher

6) Jorge Posada—DH

7) Jeter

8) Curtis Granderson

9) Newly acquired Russel Martin

(Jeter and Granderson are interchangeable)

So, again, think about it.

PS—

Merry Christmas and Go Yanks!

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While we were all waiting to see if Cliff Lee would choose to be in Texas or the Bronx in 2011, he went out and LeBron-d us.

Lee will be taking his talents to the city of brotherly love and join Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels, and Roy Oswalt to create one of the, if not the, greatest starting rotations that the world has ever seen.

Lee’s decision hurts three teams in the MLB the most: The New York Yankees, the Texas Rangers, and the Atlanta Braves.

The Yankees should be just fine. All though Lee’s decision may cause them to lose the division to the Red Sox, they have just enough money and prospects to go out and get the next best option and make the postseason.

The Rangers are cooked. Even if they do make it into the playoffs, which they most likely will due to the horrible division that they reside in, they will not make it very far without their former ace. Without Lee, their rotation is just mediocre.

The Braves, however, went from being the favorites to win the National League East to just one of the front runners to win the National League Wild card overnight.

Now how does Atlanta counter Philadelphia‘s move? Sure, Dan Uggla was a step in the right direction for the Braves, but their starting rotation is just average compared to the Phillies’ big four. Atlanta only has about $1 million left to spend, meaning they need to make a couple of trades if they want to contend for the NL East title in 2011.

For financial purposes, trading away veteran starter Derek Lowe would make the most sense, but since Lowe performed so well down the stretch in 2010, that likely won’t happen. 

The Pittsburgh Pirates have been very interested in starter-turned-disappointment Kenshin Kawakami and have stated that a deal involving Paul Maholm is a possibility. Sure, Maholm is not Cliff Lee, but he then gives Atlanta one extra starting pitcher to trade in exchange for the centerfielder that they have been missing since the departure of Andruw Jones.

I wonder….Who is desperate for starting pitching after the Cliff Lee deal and has an expendable centerfielder with the great speed and defense that the Atlanta Braves lack…? 

The New York Yankees.

Brett Gardner, the fastest man in baseball, will likely take a back seat to the rejuvenated Curtis Granderson in 2011 and the fact that the Braves and Yankees both fit each other’s needs makes them a trading match made in heaven.

If Atlanta were to trade one of their starting pitchers, it would be young Jair Jurjens.

Jurjens had somewhat of an off year last year due to injury, but he got it together at the end of the year and in his three previous seasons with the Braves, JJ has shown flashes of brilliance.

Say the Braves trade Jurjens to the Yankees, Kawakami to the Bucs, and acquire Gardner and Maholm. Even though Maholm had an off-year in 2010, his ERA was not much higher than Jurjens and he started twelve more games than JJ. Mahlom has had a couple of good seasons and who knows how good he could be for a team actually in contention. It is obviously still a downgrade from Jurjens, but the acquisition of Gardner and the incredible pitching depth in Atlanta’s farm system would far outweigh that.

With a good hitting coach and more game experience, Gardner has the potential to bat .300 and become the Braves’ true leadoff man that they have lacked for so many years. When the College of Charleston graduate gets on base, he is the biggest distraction in baseball for pitchers and almost a guarantee to steal.

Do not expect the Braves to go out and sign Zack Greinke or Adrian Beltre. They do not have the finances or the trading chips to acquire a superstar-type player like Uggla again and there is no way that Frank Wren can match what the Phillies did.

However, if the GM can give the Braves their key missing components on offense, most importantly center field, they should be in the NL East race the entire year. Philadelphia obviously has the advantage in pitching, but with their loss of star outfielder Jayson Werth and the Braves’ acquisition of slugger Dan Uggla, the Braves should be the better offensive team.

Remember, Atlanta still has one of the best rotations in baseball and all of the Philadelphia starters are human….except Halladay…so this is certainly not the end of the world for the Atlanta Braves.

Don’t stop choppin’, Braves fans and don’t stop dealin’, Frank Wren.

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A year ago, Yankees fans were in an uproar regarding Brian Cashman’s decision to take a pass on free agent outfield slugger Matt Holliday, instead opting to go with the speedy Brett Gardner in left field for the 2010 season. 

The reasoning, so he claimed?  Simple.  Tampa Bay’s Carl Crawford would be a free agent at season’s end, and he was a much better fit for what the Yankees needed in their lineup— an excellent defensive outfielder with a high on-base percentage and average, who provided a viable speed threat on the bases.

So, the Yankees wanted an outfielder with a decent glove who could get on base and wreak havoc with his speed?  Sound familiar?

Brett Gardner did almost exactly in 2010 what the Yankees were looking for Crawford to do for them in 2011.  And even though he arrived at the party that is the Major Leagues five years later in his life than Crawford, Gardner is following the same trends now as Crawford in the early stages of his career.

Crawford broke into the Major Leagues in 2002 at age 20.  In 63 games for the then non-contending Devil Rays, he hit .259 with a .290 on-base percentage and 9 stolen bases.  Gardner made it to the Yankees in 2008 at age 24, playing in 42 games over two stints on a Yankees team fighting for their lives in the American League East (a fight they would eventually lose) against the Red Sox and Rays.  In those 42 games, Gardner hit .228 with a .283 OBP and 13 stolen bases.  So give Crawford the edge in batting average, Gardner the slight edge in steals, and just about a toss-up in OBP in each player’s first taste of the bigs.

Now we’ll move on to their first full seasons in the majors.  That would be 2003 for Crawford and, due to an injury followed by split playing time with Melky Cabrera in 2009, 2010 for Gardner.  In 151 games for the Devil Rays in ’03, Crawford hit .281 with a .309 OBP and 55 stolen bases.  In 150 games for the Yankees in 2010, Gardner hit .277 with a .383 OBP and 47 stolen bases. 

So, in their first full seasons of play, Crawford and Gardner are just about equal in batting average, with Crawford taking a slight edge in steals.  However, notice the difference in each of their on-base percentages.  Gardner’s was significantly higher than Crawford’s at the same point in his career.  In fact, Crawford has not once eclipsed Gardner’s 2010 OBP in his 9-year career.

Having arrived to the 2010-11 offseason, Yankees fans were ready to finally swipe the left fielder of their dreams from the division-rival Rays.  But Cashman has different plans for this offseason.  Instead of paying Carl Crawford $16-$18 million a year to man left field for the Yanks, he is going to pay Brett Gardner just over the league minimum to do the same thing, just at a slightly lower level.  This way, the Yankees have more money to throw at the man that they actually need to sign this offseason, left-handed ace Cliff Lee. 

Carl Crawford is already a proven elite player, all but guaranteed to hit north of .300 every year while swiping at least 40 bags.  Gardner is still an up-and-coming player, and although he is close in age to Crawford, his career has only just begun.  He still has much more room to grow as a hitter, and he has the potential to eventually grow into the same kind of player that Crawford is today, if not better.

With the right training and coaching, Gardner very well could be a .300 hitter someday.  He already has the speed that Crawford does.  In fact, Gardner and Crawford had an equal amount of stolen bases this past season, with 47 apiece. 

The plus side is that Gardner is already very far ahead of Crawford in some areas.  His on-base percentage is already superior to Crawford’s.  This is because he has much more plate discipline, leading all of baseball with 4.61 P/PA (pitches per plate appearance). 

As a result of seeing so many pitches, Gardner also edges Crawford in one of baseball’s most underrated statistics; the walk.  Last season, Gardner walked 79 times, while Crawford only managed 46 free passes.  Ever heard that age-old phrase “a walk is as good as a hit?”  Well if that’s true, then last year Crawford got 230 “hits” (184 H, 46 BB), and Brett Gardner got 211 (132 H, 79 BB).  Not such a huge difference, is it?

What will be a huge difference, however, is the amount of money these players will be earning next year.  Crawford could be making around $17 million more than Gardner in 2011, while only providing a minimal upgrade over a player like him.  So, while another team spends the big money to acquire Carl Crawford’s services for their team, the Yankees will fly under the radar and stick with their own home-grown talent, Brett Gardner.

And who said the Yankees buy all of their players?

On a side note, if the Yankees decide to move Gardner to the leadoff spot in the lineup, which makes the most logical sense anyway, we very well could see increases in some of his major stats due to an increase in plate appearances. He would make for a dynamic leadoff hitter with his excellent combination of high on-base percentage and speed.  Assuming Derek Jeter re-signs with the Yankees (which seems harder and harder to accomplish lately), Gardner would bump Jeter to the second spot in the order. 

Now, as much as Joe Girardi refuses to admit it, he switched Jeter and Johnny Damon back in 2009 because Jeter tends to hit into double-plays.  With Gardner, this isn’t much of an issue thanks to his speed.  If Gardner singles and steals second in front of Jeter, that turns Jeter’s would-be groundball double-play into moving the runner to third with less than two outs.  It just makes sense to make Gardner the leadoff man.

So tell me, would it have been worth going after Carl Crawford with a guy like Brett Gardner already in the fold?  I don’t believe so, and I think the Yankees will start seeing some payoff for their trust in Gardner real soon.  This kid’s got the talent to make it in the majors, and I have a feeling he’s going to prove it in 2011.

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The national media’s love affair with the New York Yankees knows no bounds. They get the headlines, they get the national broadcasts, and they get the end-of-season awards.

This last handout is most topical the day after the announcement of the American League Gold Gloves. The gilded webbing is notorious for being based more on reputation and sheer name recognition than actual defensive skill—how else could Torii Hunter and Matt Kemp have been honored last year while Franklin Gutierrez and Nyjer Morgan’s mantles remained unadorned?

But I digress. Due to baseball’s sycophantic infatuation with everyone who suits up in pinstripes and (probably) a general apathy among the voters, three Yankees were named among the Junior Circuit’s top fielders—and none of them deserved them.

The first, Mark Teixeira, has parlayed one great defensive season, when he posted 15.3 UZR (Ultimate Zone Rating—a measure of how many runs a player saves with his fielding) in 2008 into a reputation as a master glovesman. Since then, he has been average at best; he posted just a 0.6 UZR in 2009, and that dropped to -2.9 last year.

Why that’s worthy of two consecutive Gold Gloves over, say, Oakland’s Daric Barton (12.1 UZR) is beyond me. Do you think Tex would have had a prayer if he was still with the Rangers?

The second, Robinson Cano, was almost as bad of a choice. His defense was worth -0.6 UZR, thanks to the worst range (-7.5 Range Runs) of any second baseman in the game. The Gold Glove would have fit the A’s’ Mark Ellis or the Twins‘ Orlando Hudson much better.

But by far the most undeserving winner was the Captain himself. For the fifth time in his career, Derek Jeter was named the AL’s best defensive shortstop. And for the fifth time, he didn’t deserve it.

Jeter’s -4.7 UZR wasn’t anywhere near the top—in fact, it was third-worst among AL shortstops. That’s a full 15.5 runs—the equivalent of nearly two wins—behind the rightful Gold Glove winner, the White Sox‘ Alexei Ramirez.

Yes, Jeter’s .989 fielding percentage was the best of all Major League shortstops. But that number is misleading, as it reflects only the balls he got to, and the biggest flaw in Jeter’s game is his abysmal range. A brick wall will stop any ball that’s hit right to it, but it wouldn’t be an effective fielder because it couldn’t get to anything else (also because brick walls can’t throw).

Jeter committed only six errors, compared to Ramirez’s 20. But for every extra error Ramirez made, he also completed five more putouts and got 10 more assists. The plays Ramirez flubbed may have been more obvious than the mistakes Jeter made, but the fact of the matter is that Ramirez was a more effective defender.

Jeter’s -11.8 Range Runs ranked second-worst in the league. Keep in mind that he’s a shortstop, meaning his primary job is to cover a lot of ground. How can a fielder win a Gold Glove when he’s one of the worst in the business at getting to the ball?

You could try to argue that Jeter was unlucky in terms of balls hit near him. But even if you don’t accept that those things tend to even out over 162 games, this isn’t a new trend.

Only twice since tracking began in 2002 has Jeter posted a positive UZR; over that time, he’s been worth -42.5 runs on defense—and that’s being generous. Total Zone has him at -60 runs over that stretch and an absolutely awful -131 runs in his career.

This isn’t just anti-Yankee bias—I think one snubbed Bomber, Brett Gardner, actually deserved a Gold Glove. I’m not complaining because they’re Yankees. I’m complaining because they’re inferior defenders.

Teixeira, Cano and Jeter didn’t deserve their honors, and if they were on any other team, they wouldn’t have had a chance. Any defense of these choices would make Jeter’s glove look good by comparison.

For more from Lewie, visit WahooBlues.com.

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