Andruw Jones signed with the Yankess for 1-year/ $2 million with $1.2 Million in incentives possible and he was brought in to face tough Lefties for either Gardner or Granderson which in the offseason was necessary due to both of their poor numbers against LHP and while he did not mash LHP as much as Marcus Thames he did have the ability to play the field which Thames did not. Then Granderson decided to mess everybody up and he is currently hitting LHP better than RHP this year but still has absolutely great numbers against both and Gardner is also hitting decently against LHP with a .250 BA against lefties. In fact Gardner is hitting better than Jones's .245 BA against lefties and Jones is 2-16 against RHP, with all of his HR and RBI's coming against Lefties. The only category that Jones is better than Gardner in is Slugging in which Gardner has a very poor .286 against Lefties while Jones has a .531 slugging rate.
Benching Granderson or Gardner last year for Thames made sense because Thames was mashing Lefties, but this year benching Gardner or Granderson for Jones hasn't worked out, however having a veteran right handed bat on the bench can be very useful, especially when you have two left handed bats in the outfield. However if I were the Yankees I would be wondering how useful keeping Jones would really be as he isn't hitting well and he's not good enough anymore to be a defensive replacement. The Yankees could easily give his spot to Greg Golson who is great defensively and has a rocket arm, he could be the Yankees right handed bat. However as we do play in the American Leagee we sometimes do not appreciate how useful having a solid bat off the bench can be and a bench bat with some real offensive possibility is a real plus. Greg Golson is a .264 career hitter in the minors and only got his first hit last year with the Yankees, but all of his 6 of his hits came against Lefties and he also some speed on the base paths. That being said the Yankees do not likely view Golson as a leftie smasher and the conundrum of what to do with Jones continues. Next year the Yankees will not bring Jorge Posada back and they may go the road of not having a single DH as they could decide to platoon their Veterans with Jesus Montero who will likely be the backup catcher next year behind Russel Martin. In that situation the bench will likely have Eric Chavez, Eduardo Nunez and a backup outfielder like Greg Golson, Colin Curtis, Justin Maxwell or Chris Dickerson. That would leave the Yankees wanting a veteran outfielder who has the potential for some offense as he would likely take some AB as the DH as well. I think the Yankees would like someone like Andruw Jones to fill that role, but his offensive production this year has been poor and it has been declining for years and I don't know if the Yankees would choose to get someone else next year. That being said if Jones can pick up his offensive production I think the Yankees would likely tender him a new contract for 2012 as long as he stays around the $2-3 Million range. As of right now though its completely up in the air.
Okay...we're judging his performance on how many at bats??? Maybe 60...I said it hundreds of times and I'll say it again: They aren't playing him. That's the problem. Andruw has never been a platoon player - even back in his days with Atlanta. Back in 98 when he started out 0 for like 40, Bobby Cox kept him in the line-up anyway and batted him 8th...something like what Girardi has done for Swisher. Swisher sucked for 2 months, and he still stayed in the line-up. Posada was doing almost nothing until two weeks ago, but he stays in the line up. Andruw Jones is not a pinch hitter. He has to play through his slumps. The Yankees are not giving him that opportunity. And, he's not better or worse against righties than he is against lefties. How well can you perform being in the line-up once a week? The Yankees really ought to just trade him. I don't know who came up with the idiotic idea of only playing him against lefties.
ReplyDeletewell i guess that turned out alright
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