Written by Greg Fertel
|
25 May 2008
Don't work 14 hours a day and expect to have free time.
If anyone lives in the New Jersey 5th district, shoot me an email and I'd be happy to convince you to vote for
Dennis Shulman.
Controversy about Dellin Betances
I wrote, "Its now kosher to hit the panic button on Betances" during a recap this week. A lot of interpretation went on about what I meant. What I meant was that something is wrong with Dellin Betances that needs correcting. Mike A. chimed in and mentioned that a big guy like Dellin Betances might require patience until he is 24 or 25 years old while he figures things out. While I don't disagree with Mike's statement, I do disagree with its impact. If Betances does not positively impact the major league New York Yankees until 2013, we should not be happy. "Panic" doesn't mean that we should all cut bait on Betances, but it does mean that we should worry that he'll have lasting control problems. Daniel Cabrera is exactly the type of pitcher that we don't want.
Austin Jackson is turning the power back on.
Jackson is 12 for his last 32 with 3 home runs, 3 doubles, a triple, and 7 walks or .375/.487/.813. Jackson proves yet again that if you follow strong peripherals, you'll often find a breakout. He is now hitting .283/.377/.433 in the harsh hitting environment of early spring Trenton, and is poised for a power surge with the weather warming up. Even if he starts belting home runs like he did down in Tampa last year, Jackson probably isn't going to be involved in internal discussions to replace a potentially slumping Melky Cabrera, even if the Cabrera slump lasts all season. Brett Gardner will take that spot.
Ryan Pope is a strange pitcher.
Pope has made 5 starts in May. He has pitched 28 innings, allowed 7 earned runs (2.25 ERA), struck out 14 batters (4.50 per 9), and has not walked a single batter. All season, he has only issued 2 walks to a right handed batter. I'm not too sure when I want to start making the comparison, but Pope is looking more and more like Carlos Silva every day. Silva, for all his faults, has been an above-average innings eater at the major leagues for most of his career.
Brett Gardner, batting cleanup?
We're seeing the true evolution of Brett Gardner as a player this season. Gardner spent a big portion of the 2006 and 2007 seasons barely ever hitting for an extra base. He's now hitting .280/.392/.452 at the age of 24 in Triple-A. There is now little doubt in my mind that Gardner has what it takes to be a full time center fielder in the major leagues, and will be ready as soon as we need him. Melky Cabrera's strong April gives reason to be patient with his anemic May, but another bad month for Melky may signal the start of the Brett Gardner era in New York
