Former Yankees: The Outfield carousel+ former top pitching prospect

The Yankees broke camp with the backup outfield pair of Marcus Thames and Randy Winn. Winn was brought in as security in case Gardner failed to make it as the primary Left Fielder and Thames came in as the primary Lefty smasher. Leaving spring training Thames was crap and most fans thought he would be gone by June at the latest, Winn was very unmemorable, but many thought he would quickly become the Left fielder.

I think that face says it all

Randy Winn was awful in pinstripes, he struck out about 1/4 times contributed just 8 RBI and was released on June 2nd batting just .213. His only contributing moment was his 3-run HR against the orioles in a 4-1 game. Winn signed with the Cardinals and contributed as a backup switch hitting outfielder. Coming into 2011 Winn failed to draw interest before accepting a minor league deal from the Orioles to compete for a backup Outfield job which he lost and after accepting his release he retired. At 36 I had written about how I hoped he would go play in Japan, but he may not have had any offers.

Marcus Thames had a very interesting season with the Yankees. As I said before he had an awful spring and his defense in the Outfield was absolutely abysmal, as a result he did not play much in the field especially not after Austin Kearns was acquired. That being said Thames had some absolutely huge hits for the Yankees, hitting 12 HR in just 212 AB. Biggest was likely his walk off HR against Papelbon on May 17th, but his go-ahead single in the 8th of Game 1 of the ALCS was big as well. Thames signed a 1 year deal with the Dodgers this off-season and they decided to play him regularly in the Outfield for some reason. He had a pair of Home Runs and a Triple(?) before going on the DL, he was only hitting .176 and when he gets back don't be surprised if he gets cut considering the Dodgers financial peril. Don't worry though with a bat like his he wont be unemployed long and at the very least someone like the Nationals would see him as a better pinch hitting option than Matt Stairs.

The Outfield carousel began before Winn was cut when Kevin Russo and Greg Golson both spent time on the Roster due to injuries in June, but these guys as well as later call-up Colin Curtis are still with the Yankees. Chad Huffman was another piece of the carousel of 1st time call-up backup Outfielders and the Houston native was able to get his first hit against the Astros at Yankee stadium. His only real moment if he never lays another inning in the majors was his help in the Yankees comeback in the 9th against the Dodgers with his solid 2 run single in front of the entire nation. That being said he never had another hit after that game and only 3 total and the Yankees released him in September and he was signed by the Indians and taken off the 40 man roster. Best of luck to you Chad.

The last ex-Yankee on the carosel is one that is an espchily bitter pill to swallow by the name of Austin Kearns. The Yankees wanted a backup outfielder and the AAA kids weren't proving to be very reliable, but why Golson didn't get more time i will never understand. Kearns had been hitting .272 with the Indians and the Yankees needed somebody to play against tough lefties, as Grandy was slumping badly, who was not a complete disaster in the outfield. Kearns was traded for a player to be named later and despite starting well he ended the season hitting .235 and did not get a single at bat in the post season. At the end of the season Kearns resigned with the Indians, got a DUI and is actually hitting even worse than with the Yankees.
What makes this trade unbearable for me is that the Player to be named later was none other than the guy who came into the season as the the Yankees top pitching prospect Zach McAllister. At the time McAllister had a 5+ERA in AAA and many scouts thought his stuff just wasn't good enough to compete at the AAA level and when McAllister went to the Indians that looked to be true as his ERA jumped to 6.88. However coming into this year McAllister has bounced back with a 2.42 ERA in 52 innings and overall just great numbers from a pitching prospect. This infuriates me because the Yankees could have given the Indians anything and instead they just gave up on McAllister and traded him to the Indians for a one year rental on a backup outfielder and McAllister had been great every year before last year. At least when we traded Michael Dunn and Arodys Vizcaino for Javy Vazquez we were supposed to get a decent return it just didnt work out. With McAllister there is no excuse as the Indians probably would have accepted Chad Huffman or CASH, hell we payed less for Kerry Wood. How good would you feel if ZMAC was tearing it up in Scranton like this? Such a waste.

Up Next we will feature some 2010 ex Yankee pitchers.