Mar 30 2009
GARDY WINS JOB, YANKS OUT-HIT PITT
To no surprise of many, speedy Brett Gardner has won the centerfield job to start this 2009 season, beating out Melky (who we all know and love). Listen, Melky had a good spring - he’s got an edge over Gardner as far as experience, being a switch-hitter, and having a big arm, BUT we all know what Melky is. He’s a very good 4th outfielder (which you still need for depth). Gardner already was a favorite of Girardi going into this fight, but he overwhelmingly took the job after hitting the heck out of the ball and playing hard. It’s been said that Gardner has started slow at every level, and then he adjusts and becomes a near .300 hitter. If he can do that in the bigs, he’s going to be around for a very long time. He should be able to run down any ball out there, and won’t really need to adjust to the new stadium since it’s got the same dimensions as the old stadium. It’s gonna be exciting to watch this kid grow, especially as we open the new cathedral and welcome in the future of this franchise.
Yesterday the Yanks had a bit of slug-fest with Pittsburgh, defeating them 9-8. It included a 7-run 4th inning, in which Cano hit his 3rd homer of the spring. It’s good to see Robbie hitting, and even better to see him hitting with some pop. He can literally transform this line-up from very good to great with a big year. On the rubber, Burnett didn’t have that great of a start, which was actually good to get out of the way before we open up the real season. He had been pitching very well, so it’s not a big deal that he was hit around - he’s gonna keep working hard and make sure that he’s ready to go when the bell rings. A positive to take from the outing was that he still threw 53 strikes and only 30 balls, a very good ratio for a power-pitcher.
As we are now only 7 days away from opening in Baltimore, and C.C. throwing that first pitch to Brian Roberts, Andy Pettitte will take the ball this afternoon and face Toronto. I actually drafted Andy late in my fantasy draft yesterday, so I’m hoping he can be a great value-pick, and win us 14-15 games as the number 4 guy.
