Nick Swisher is more important than you think

Take a moment with me, and imagine the following scenario:

It is, say, April 14, 2009. The season is a week old and your baseball team, your beloved New York Yankees have gone to war with an outfield that consists of Johnny Damon, Brett Gardner and Xavier Nady, with Melky Cabrera available off of the bench.

Technically, you do have a fifth outfielder in Hideki Matsui, but his legs can't play in the field until mid-season, and that's if the baseball gods are smiling.

The Yankees have used the extra roster spot for another utility infielder--because Alex Rodriguez is out for another month with the hip injury and Mark Teixeira's wrist has been hurting.

You're watching the Yankees take on the Tampa Bay Rays. It's the middle innings of a game. A Ray, let's say for the sake of story it's Carl Crawford, hits a single to right. Xavier Nady goes to throw it back into the infield and feels a sharp pain in his elbow. He has to take himself out of the game.

That very night he goes for an MRI and word comes back: torn UCL; he needs a second Tommy John surgery.

The Yankee outfield is down to Damon, Cabrera and Gardner. Damon's body can't play every day and together the Yankees can't carry both Cabrera and Gardner's bats while also missing A-Rod and, for all intents and purposes, Mark Teixeira. The top outfield prospect is in his first year at AAA and bringing him up now would kill an option, a year and, more importantly, said prospect is nowhere near ready with his bat.

Your options: take a flier on someone that couldn't make the cut out of spring training, or orchestrate a trade that every other team might see as desperation.

Now what?


******

Remember back to late 2008.

In Yankeeland, there is talk of three big free agents: CC Sabathia, AJ Burnett and Mark Teixeira. Even Derek Lowe creeps in a little bit.

Surely the Yankees are going to sign one, but which?

Then, suddenly, news comes of a trade:

The Yankees have traded Wilson Betemit and minor leaguer Jeffrey Marquez for OF/1B Nick Swisher and RP Kanekoa Texeira.

There is one throught that races through the minds of Yankees' fans: Swisher is a 1B. Does this definitively mean the Yankees will not sign Mark Teixeira?

That answer comes just before Christmas, when the Yankees shock, well, a lot of people by not just signing CC Sabathia and AJ Burnett, but also sign Mark Teixeira as well.

Nick Swisher goes from the presumptive first baseman to an extra outfielder, one that can play corner spots, hit for some power and strike out a ton, but is a clear upgrade over Wilson Betemit. It's not that it'd be hard to find an upgrade over Betemit, but an upgrade that can hit 20 home runs and take 80+ walks? A bit harder.

****

Fast forward to April 2009 as it does happen.

Xavier Nady does, indeed get hurt while Rodriguez is still out and Teixeira has a bum wrist, but no one panics. In the scheme of things, the response is "it stinks, but it's not Sabathia/Burnett/Jeter, etc".

Nick Swisher is making a decent name for himself, too.

In the month of April he hits .312/.430/.714/1.144 with seven home runs. He is virtually carrying the team, and it's not just with his bat, either.

When Chien Ming Wang bombs in his second start, Joe Girardi has to resort to using a position player to pitch in the eighth inning. Not only does Swisher take the ball; he is the only Yankee starter in the game to not surrender a run.

Very quickly, he becomes a fan favorite.


****

By the end of May the luster on Swisher has dulled. His bat has gone ice cold; he's made some stupid base-running blunders and plays in the field...but it's not as though the Yankees are batting him clean up.

He's hitting usually sixth, towards the bottom of the order, although he occasionally hits second to spell Damon or Jeter.

Despite batting all of .150, Swisher walks 19 times, and, more importantly, the Yankees are winning.

****

In a lot of ways, Nick Swisher personifies the 2009 Yankees.

He's quirky, like those walk-off pies, fun to root for and easy to like. He's got a good heart, hitting his first Yankee Stadium home run of the year the same day he gave a fan battling cancer the experience of her life.

He struggles with RISP, and the occasional moment that makes you go "head-meet-desk", but he's also on pace for more than 28 home runs out of the sixth spot in the line up. He doesn't hit for a high average, but he works counts, takes walks and switch-hits.

You can get caught up in the bad streaks, but if you take a step back you realize just how important to the team he is--like (well, nearly) everyone else--and how much worse things could have been otherwise.

At the Deadline, 2009 Looks Like 2008....Sorta...

With the All Star Break fast approaching, teams are beginning to have to make that most-crucial of decisions: buyers or sellers at the trade deadline?

With the Yankees, there isn't much of a question--with the third best record in MLB and first place in the Wild Card race (though no one's looking at this quite yet), it's clear that the Yankees are buyers.

So now the question becomes threefold:

1) What do the Yankees need?

2) Can they solve this problem from within?

3) What price are they willing to pay to solve the problem from the outside?


Strangely, although in many ways this season has felt much different than 2008, the needs in 2009 are strikingly similar at the same point in the season.

This might be attributed to the fact that Xavier Nady and Dámaso Marte have been non-entities this season (although credit should be given to Nady for trying to come back ahead of schedule and avoid a second TJ surgery, though that no longer looks possible).

Thus, the Yankees need, right now, the same sort of thing that they needed last year: an additional bat that can spell some of the outfielders if need be, due to age or slump, and a reliever.

The good news is that the Yankees do not necessarily need a left-handed reliever (although they wouldn't say no, I don't think, if the right one is available); but I'm thinking that the idea here is to have another decent (ie, not Veras/Ramirez/Albaladejo) reliever so that the Yankees have the option of bringing Hughes back to the rotation and not substantially weakening the bullpen.

Or, you know, giving the Yankees the option to not have to pitch Brett Tomko, or Proctor Phil Coke or Alfredo Aceves.


The bat is simple here: you want someone better than Cody Ransom available to come off of the bench if need be. As Ramiro Peña can field well, run well and is not an automatic out, I can't see the Yankees sending him down to AAA, even if that would ultimately benefit him the most, unless they can land a bat that can do these things, also. The cost for that, however, would likely be prohibitively high, and while I can't see the Yankees mortgaging the farm for anyone, they would like something better than what they have.




Could the Yankees solve this issue from within?

For a while it looked like the Yankees would be able to solve the relief pitcher issue from within, with Mark Melancon, but after a short stint in the majors where nerves seem to have gotten to him, he's struggled again in AAA. Some other relievers have performed well, but nothing that is that inspiring--except, perhaps, for the ambidextrous Pat Venditte, and he is only just promoted to High A. Certainly not Major League ready.

As for the suggestion that Austin Jackson should be promoted to the Major League level, the answer is a resolute: No. He is progressing nicely at AAA. He is not blasting through the system a la Chamberlain, but everything seems to be coming in time. He is performing well for his level of competition, but he is not, in no way, shape or form, overmatching it. The worst thing the Yankees could do right now is mess with his development.

John Rodriguez is another name that's been thrown around, but he's recently been placed on the DL with a hamstring injury, and as fun as Shelley Duncan is to root for, he's not really as versatile defensively as the Yankees would probably like--not to mention he strikes out way too often.



It's still pretty early, in terms of the trade deadline, and we're not entirely sure which players are available for the right price.

For the Yankees the price is always going to be high--since every other team out there knows the Yankees can pay it.

Let the speculation begin.

Nady needs surgery; Russo and Jackson pulled from AAA game

As you likely know by now, Xavier Nady will likely need surgery and may miss the rest of the season.

Kevin Russo and Austin Jackson have been pulled from the AAA game; it's worth noting that the Jackson move may not mean anything as he had been HBP in the first.

***

No liveblogging today, I've been feeling under the weather and need to save my strength to do my coursework.

Nady and Damon have assetts frozen in Stanford Scandal

Xavier Nady and Johnny Damon have had their assets frozen as part of the on-going investigation into Allen Stanford.

While neither Nady nor Damon invested directly with Stanford, those that they invested with did.

***

You would have hoped that for athletes that are getting paid more than most people will ever see in their entire lifetimes, that there would at least be some sort of money management program.

I know baseball players are not nearly as notorious for poor money management as football or basketball players, but even so, no one is immune.

Here's hoping their problems are resolved and they invest a little more wisely from now on.

Questions to Ask During Spring Training

Now that Spring Training is around the corner, I thought I'd go and list some of the more pressing questions that the Yankees have to address.

Throughout the month of February I'll periodically attempt an answer at some of these questions, and in March, as with last year, I will do a team preview a day which should take us right to the start of baseball season.

So, the questions:

1) What happens if Jorge Posada can't catch?
2) Who will come out of Spring Training as the fifth starter?
3) Will Derek Jeter have a better offensive year or will his decline become more progressed?
4) Who starts in center--Melky or Gardner?
5) Will Andy Pettitte pull an '08 Mussina?
6) How long does General Joe Girardi have before that hot seat starts really heatin' up?
7) What's this year's fist pump/HA/otherwise inane controversy?
8) How much *more* controversy can the New Stadium create?
9) How will the economic collapse of doom affect attendance?
10) Nady or Swisher?

These are just some of the questions the Yankees have; if you've got one you'd like to see me attempt to address, please feel free to leave it in a comment!

Learning to Live With the Designated Hitter

In a poll on ESPN.com today, the question posed is about which change you would most like to see in sports.

The four options are:

BCS
Designated Hitter
NBA travel enforcement
NFL Overtime.

It's perhaps not surprising that the BCS is running away with the lead, with 79% of the very un-scientific vote, but the poll does bring up an interesting point--reminding us that the designated hitter was never embraced by everyone and still has its detractors.

I admit that until last season, I had never really given much thought to the rule.

The idea that one league had it and one league did not made enough sense to me--if I really cared that much, I could go and become a fan of the National League.

Then, on a hot day last June, I saw why the designated hitter could be a good thing. Had the Yankees been playing in an American League ballpark, Chien Ming Wang would have never had to run the bases and while no one can say for sure, it is certainly possible that Wang would have never injured his foot.

In the American League, I thought, this would never happen.

Never mind that my support for the DH rule, no matter how momentary, could cause me to lose all credibility as a baseball purist; a Yankee was hurt because there was no DH and this was a horror of horrors.

It even prompted this quote from Hank Steinbrenner:

"I've got my pitchers running the bases, and one of them gets hurt. He's going to be out. I don't like that, and it's about time they address it. That was a rule from the 1800s."

More than a few months removed from that event, however, it's easier to provide a clearer picture.

The designated hitter was introduced to the MLB in 1973, and it's now used in the majority of the world's professional leagues.

Surely, then, something so widespread couldn't be bad for the game, right?

I asked my friend, Steven Lord, a Mets fan, what he thought, and he offered this take:

I don't like it. I'm an NL person. I feel that if you play the field, you should have to hit. I feel that in the NL, pitchers have to think twice about going after a person because they know that they will have to stand in the box. I like the strategy involved with it: bunting, double switches...hell, even Tony LaRussa has added a new element to it with batting his pitcher 8th....it adds an extra element to the game.

From a sentimental point of view, that argument would hold a lot of weight.

It does make a manager have to think, it does mean that pitchers have to think before (intentionally) beaning someone, and it does mean that hitters need to be able to field, and fielders hit.

However, if you consider the years since the strike, you discover the following: Since 1994, NL teams have won the World Series in 95, 97, 01, 03, 06 and 08...six years out of fourteen, and in those years, they managed to win the World Series in less than six games just twice, in 06 and 08.

Meanwhile, the American League has won World Series in 96, 98, 99, 00, 02, 04, 05 and 07, and failed to do so in a sweep or five games only twice (96 and 02).

If we also consider the results of the All Star games since the strike and the composite results of interleague play (all time results are: 1387–1317, AL), it becomes fairly clear that the American League is the better league.

While the Designated Hitter itself can not be solely responsible for this, some of the consequences of its implementation are.

The most simple way of putting it is that theoretically the DH improves a team's offense, which means the team's opponent needs to adjust and improve its pitching, a backlash response, if you will.

Whether or not that is actually what happened is up for debate, but what is not is that the DH, when used, can alter the way a game is played. As the traditional narrative goes, if you like bunts, stolen bases and the running game, the National League (or the Anaheim Angels) are for you; if you like big home runs and lots of scoring, the American League is what you want to follow.

So is the DH a good thing?

It remains a question with no clear answer. From the perspective of safety for a pitcher, and for the caliber of hitting, it seems to be yes, but from the perspective of tradition and sentimentality-which, when referring to baseball cannot be understated-the answer is still no.


****

The Yankees have signed Nady to a one year deal which basically doubles his salary from last year.

Odd Man Out: Nick Swisher or Xavier Nady?

Now that the Yankees have signed first baseman Mark Teixeira, who will undoubtedly play first base for the bulk of his eight year contract, the Yankees have a glut of outfielders:

Nick Swisher
Xavier Nady
Johnny Damon
Hideki Matsui
Melky Cabrera
Brett Gardner

You can argue that a likely scenario will involve Damon in left, Matsui DHing and a platoon of Melky/Gardner in center, and then a Swisher/Nady tandem in right.

However, rumor on the street is that the Yankees may look to move one of Swisher or Nady, so the question is, who should go?

The Case for Keeping Xavier Nady

Nady is a true outfielder. As we saw last season, he can play left and right field adequately. He is cost-controlled for another year, meaning that if the Yankees keep him, he will not be a financial drain. His career BA is higher than Swisher.

The Case for Trading Xavier Nady

The Yankees are never one to worry about a financial drain, so that Nady is cost-controlled isn't a great argument for keeping him. More importantly, last year was a career year for Nady, meaning that unless he's simply a late bloomer, his future stats will probably be more in line with his previous seasons. For comparison, last year he hit .305 and his career average is .280. If the Yankees are looking for someone to help protect Alex (and there's a case to be made that they are), Nady is not necessarily the best bet.

The Case for Keeping Nick Swisher

Swisher underperformed last year, which means that his numbers will likely improve this year. You don't generally trade for a guy with Swisher's contract just to sit him on the bench, but in this case, he would make quite a commodity coming off the bench. By many accounts, he's a great clubhouse presence, and he simply may have been a poor fit for Ozzie Guillen's White Sox.

The Case for Trading Nick Swisher

Underperforming is a mild way of putting it-Swisher hit .219 last year, and his career average is almost forty points lower than Nady's! Good clubhouse personalities don't win you games (well, from a SABR point of view, anyway) and Swisher, now blocked at 1B, is not a natural central fielder.



This is, of course, a very basic outline or the pros and cons to trading each one of them.

The truth is, for the right deal the Yankees could easily trade either, or both--heck, if Mark Shapiro comes on the line and offers Matt LaPorta, Nady and Swisher will look that much more tradeable...

As for myself, I see more possibilities with Swisher, if he can stay healthy and the Yankee culture is a better fit for him, but I'd be okay with the Yankees retaining both.

Just an idea...

...but maybe the Yankees could institute a fine every time a batter grounds into a double play?

They could donate the funds to Yankees Universe or some other charity.

What was that, four DPs hit into by the Yankees today? It's a little hard to win games when you do that.

Also, Andy Pettitte has not been Andy Pettitte of late--one hopes he is not pitching hurt.

In a series the Yankees had to take three of four, they will now be lucky to salvage a split. Sidney Ponson pitches tomorrow--have fun watching that, I'm going to Maryland to visit family for the evening.

Sweltering (Postgame Notes 04 August 2008)

There aren't too many nice things liberal New Yorkers like to say about Texas.

After tonight, there are probably even fewer nice things New York Yankees fans will say about Texas.

Last year, Phil Hughes lost most of the season after pulling a hamstring while pitching a no hitter in Arlington. In June, Chien Ming Wang severely injured his foot while rounding the bases in a 13-0 Yankees win in Houston.

Now, add another casualty to the Texas injury list: Joba Chamberlain.

Nevermind that the Yankees lost the game on a bottom of the ninth inning grand slam--and now appear to be as snakebit against Texas as they are against Baltimore.

There is a far more important concern.

A shoulder injury for a pitcher is never good, and any thought that Joba's injury was just a cramp was dismissed when the Yankees stated that he had a "stiff shoulder". While it may not be serious, one should note that the Mets just placed John Maine on the disabled list with a "stiff shoulder".

We won't know the full extent of Joba's injury for a little bit, but it is a huge concern. The loss of Chien Ming Wang was hard enough to take; the loss of Joba for any extended period of time would be absolutely brutal when one considers where the Yankees are in the standings and the upcoming schedule.

As for the good news, shaving the 'stache seemed to work for Giambi; Robinson Canò went upper deck and would have had another hit if not for a Marlon Byrd (@$*@#$*&@#$*) catch, and Xavier Nady continues to make Brian Cashman look real good.

X-Men Cometh (Postgame Notes 03 August 2008)

Down 5-0 in the fourth inning, Yankees fans were just praying the deficit wouldn't get any larger.

Maybe, just maybe the Yankees would be able to chip away and make the game close, and maybe, just maybe, there would be that little glimmer of hope that the Yankees could end the series on a positive note.

When a base-running error with one out in the fourth inning by Bobby Abreu kept the Yankees from scoring on a sacrifice fly from Xavier Nady, you could hear the collective groaning from Yankee fans everywhere: that was our inning, and we missed it.

Guess everyone forgot that 27 outs are a lot of outs.

From the fifth inning on, the Yankees scored at least one run every inning--one in the fifth, three in the sixth, four in the seventh and then six in a wild eighth inning.

Xavier Nady had a career high 6 RBI, including a home run in the seventh to put the Yankees ahead 8-5. As a Yankee he is hitting .385 with three doubles, three home runs, and ten RBI in eight games--and that's despite a very slow start in Boston.

Boston can keep their Jason Bay; the Yankees like the X Man just fine.

In terms of pitching...well, there wasn't much of it unless you count what John Lackey did in the first three innings, and what Dan Giese did in the middle innings.

If anything, Giese made a case for him to start next Friday night against Lackey in Anaheim in place of Darrell Rasner, who did not have a good performance.

Edwar Ramirez was overdue for a couple of baserunners, but the grand slam he gave up to Mark Teixiera was a crushing blow after the Yankees had just taken a three run lead. Had the Angels played something remotely resembling defense in the eighth inning, it would have been a crushing loss for the Yankees.

As luck would have it, however, the ghosts seemed to be out today, and the Yankees, seemingly sparked by Justin Christian's double steal in the eighth, would not lose the game, and battled themselves to a split with the league's best team.

A word of caution: Apparently Mariano Rivera was unavailable to pitch today due to back spasms.

Grading the Trade Deadline

One day removed from the most interesting regular-season day of the year, one can begin to analyze the moves the Yankees have made as buyers at the Trade Deadline.

To recap:

Bought
Dàmaso Marte, LHP, Pirates
Xavier Nady, OF, Pirates
Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez, C, Tigers
Jhonny Nuñez, RHP, Nationals
Matt Cusick, 2B, Astros

Sold
Ross Ohlendorf, RHP
Jose Tàbata, OF
Jeff Karstens, P
Dan McCutchen, P
Kyle Farnsworth, RHP
Alberto Gonzalez, INF
LaTroy Hawkens, RHP


By the above lists alone, once can see that in the trades the Yankees did make, they came away very well, getting an outfielder having a career year, the best left-handed reliever on the market and a hall of fame bound catcher, for what looks like little cost (unless Jose Tàbata's power magically develops ad he becomes the next Vladimir Guerrerro).

The Yankees filled some of their most glaring needs--a right handed bat, a lefty reliever and a catcher to help take the strain off of Jose Molina--but there is one area that they were not successful: they did not get a starting pitcher.

While one can argue that the Yankee rotation as is can suffice, just remember that tonight Sidney Ponson is pitching against the Los Angeles Angels (of Anaheim of the USA of the Milky Way of the Universe...)

Now, just because the Yankees didn't get a strting pitcher at the deadline doesn't mean they're out of option--there's still the waiver deadline later this month, not to mention certain available free agents and Ian Kennedy, Alfredo Aceves, et al, in the minors...

The Yankees were much more active this year at the trade deadline than they were last year, and on the surface it looks as though they pulled off a coup, but all of their needs have not been solved yet.

It's up to the Yankees now to make something happen with the pieces they've gotten.

Diabolic (Postgame Notes 31 July 2008)

One could have argued that tonight was one of the most important games of the year for the Yankees to win. They had Andy Pettitte on the mound in the most favorable pitching match up of the Angels series...

So, like clockwork, the Yankees get blown out of the water.

Andy Pettitte has one of his worst starts of the season and it could not have come against a worse (for the Yankees) opponent.

He struggled in the first and second inning before giving up a pair of three-run home runs in the third--nine of the Angels runs were scored on three run home runs--a poor performance in a place where Andy usually succeeds.

The offense wasn't good at the beginning of the game, but picked it up in the later innings--problem is, when you're down by nine runs in the ninth, there's not a whole lot that an offense can do.

There was an absolutely HORRENDOUS call in the seventh inning, when Ivan Rodriguez was clearly safe at home plate--on the replay his hand is touching the base and Mathis hadn't even made the tag.

There's no shame in losing to a good team. The shame comes when you get completley blown out at home, with a pitcher who's built his reputation as a 'stopper' on the mound.

The Yankees haven't just lost four of their last five, but they've gotten blownn out in three of those games.

The pitching that had been so good straight out of the break seems to, with the exception of Joba, collapsed completley, and despite the excellent trade deadline, the Yankees still have issues that they need to deal with--and quickly if this run is to be for real.

An Act of Piracy?

Was it pure piracy?

We won't know for sure for a couple of years, when Jose Tàbata should be major league ready, but for now, it sure looks it.

Who the Yankees got:

Xavier Nady: Corner outfielder with pop in his bat.
Dàmaso Marte: Left-handed relief pitcher who was more or less the most sought-after relief pitcher this season.

Who the Yankees gave up:

Ross Ohlendorf: You've seen him before. Hard throwing pitcher who could turn into a starter or a reliever.
Jose Tàbata: Last year, he hit .305 with a broken bone in his wrist. This year, the youngest player at the AA level, he has had some red flags go up with his attittude when dealing with a tougher level of competition.
Phil Coke: AA pitcher who has looked stronger recently, but is already 26 years old.
George Kontos: Potential servicable #5 starter.


EDIT:

Coke and Kontos have been replaced in the deal with Jeff Karstens and Dan McCutcheon.

Jeff Karstens: Marginal starter.
Dan McCutcheon: Could turn into a very reliable bullpen arm.


So, what does this do for the Yankees?

Well, going into the trade deadline, the Yankees had three needs, viz:

1) A right handed bat, preferably one that could play the outfield corners--left field this year, while Damon's shoulder is still not 100%, and potentially right field next year, if the Yankees decline to bring back Bobby Abreu.

2) A starting pitcher to spell Darrell Rasner or Sidney Ponson.

3) A left-handed reliever.

They have now, pending physicals, filled numbers one and three on their list, and done so without giving up anyone on their twenty-five man roster, without giving up Austin Jackson, Jesus Montero or Mark Melancon, and done so while the combined cost of Nady and Marte is under $11 million.


It's hard to know exactly how everything will play out, but right now, the Yankees could be heading into the latter part of the year with a starting line up of:

Johnny Damon DH
Derek Jeter SS
Bobby Abreu RF
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Jason Giambi 1B
Robinson Canò 2B
Xavier Nady LF
Melky Cabrera CF
Jose Molina C

Sound a bit longer than the line up currently in place? Thought so.

Now think about what the bullpen might look like:

Mariano Rivera
Kyle Farnsworth
Jose Veras
Edwar Ramirez
David Robertson
Dàmaso Marte
Dan Giese (okay, so Hawkins will probably still be here, but that's not the point).

That is a formiddable bullpen.

For all of the talk of this being a rebuilding year, Brian Cashman and company have made a move that will do that much more to help this team well now.