The Melkman Always Rings Twice (?)

Today's topic to be discussed quickly before I am late for neuroscience:

Melky Cabrera.


Melky was not our Opening Day center fielder last year, but most of you will probably agree that he should have been, yet, at the same time, those of you hoping for a Santana deal were ready to throw him in the mix.

What gives?

As Yankees fans, we're kind of spoiled with our center fielders. I mean, DiMaggio, Mantle, etc...

We're used to a lot of talent out there.

Melky's good, but his biggest asset is the one most easily overlooked--his arm in center field.

We've gone from Bernie Williams--a homegrown kid and fan favorite, to be sure--whose arm was a bit of a liability now to Melky, whose arm has saved G-d-knows-how-many runs. I think it was something like sixteen outfield assists? It might actually be more than that, but I do remember that number coming up in discussion.

Will Melky ever hit .300? It's certainly possible. It might take a career year for Melky to reach that goal, but people forget, he is going into his third season. Most people don't have career years their third season in the bigs. It happens, sure, but few are considered a veteran in their third year.

So it's certainly true that we've got some great outfield talent in the minors, and when Damon, Matsui and Abreu come off of the books, this will (hopefully) prove very useful, but don't go overlook Melky Cabrera.

He's a bigger asset to the team than you realize.