Yankees’ roster almost set
The Yankees must decide soon if they will take Angel Berroa or Ramiro Pena on the Opening Day roster, in what essentially amounts to figuring out who the 25th man will be. There are 27 players still in camp with the Yankees on this, the final day in Florida, and one of those is technically in Vail, Colorado.
So Alex Rodriguez will begin the season on the DL, and either Berroa or Pena will come north (maybe both for the exhibition games at the new Yankee Stadium). But consider that the role of backup utility infielder is probably only a six-week job anyway, since A-Rod will reclaim third base around May 15 and Cody Ransom would move to the bench.
Anyway, here’s what the Opening Day roster should look like:
STARTING ROTATION
CC Sabathia
Chien-Ming Wang
A.J. Burnett
Andy Pettitte
Joba Chamberlain
CLOSER
Mariano Rivera
SETUP
Brian Bruney
Damaso Marte
RELIEF
Jonathan Albaladejo
Phil Coke
Jose Veras
Edwar Ramirez
STARTING LINEUP
C – Jorge Posada
1B – Mark Teixeira
2B – Robinson Cano
3B – Cody Ransom
SS – Derek Jeter
LF – Johnny Damon
CF – Brett Gardner
RF – Xavier Nady
DH – Hideki Matsui
BENCH
Melky Cabrera
Jose Molina
Nick Swisher
Angel Berroa / Ramiro Pena
Bryan Hoch
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/9403602/Imagining-one-crazy-summer-in-New-York?MSNHPHMA
With A-Rod’s return date now expected to be May 15th, doesn’t this enable his being placed on the 60 day DL retroactive to March 15th? That opens a spot on the 40Man roster for Berroa (or someone like Lamb or McPherson.)
I think we’re gonna sign Lamb again and Ransom will move to Utility guy unless Pena gets it. Sign Sheff and dump Cabrera (or Swisher) to the White Sox.
Player - OBP - SLG - AVG - AB/R - AB/RBI - AB/SO
Ransom - 0.348 - 0.432 - 0.251 - 4.46 - 7.63 - 3.16
Berroa - 0.305 - 0.378 - 0.260 - 7.92 - 10.06 - 5.64
Lamb - 0.333 - 0.417 - 0.277 - 7.02 - 7.73 - 6.62
McPherson - 0.298 - 0.458 - 0.245 - 7.00 - 8.24 - 2.94
I’d rather have Sheff on my bench at the league minimum than Ransom, Swisher or Cabrera.
Robert, we know Lamb isn’t much of a hitter, he is not know for his offense.
Offseason In Review: New York Yankees
By Tim Dierkes
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2009/03/offseason-in-review-new-york-yankees.html
Sheffield has dropped off drastically the last two years!
I like the balance two bench switch-hitters give us!
NEW THREAD
This has to be one of the dumbest things you’ve typed, “Sign Sheff and dump Cabrera (or Swisher) to the White Sox.” Put a fork in Cheff. Why would the Whitesox take Swisher Sweets back? Come on guy.
I guess I am higher on Gardner than everyone else. I would rather have a power pinch hitter like Sierra on the bench than defensive replacements. Sheff won’t come back but someone will get a steal.
Sheff is no Bonds, he can still hit and he’s a good teammate but it won’t happen.
Sheffield has been a very productive power hitter (499 HR) in his career, no doubt (his dabbling with Bonds at the BALCO store notwithstanding). And, yes he had great bat speed, and played hard, etc.
Consider, however, while experienced old pros Manager Leyland and GM Dumbrowski would pay him $14 Million to just go away…..
Perhaps because he also has a proven track record of being a “head case” and a “cancer in the Clubhouse” when he is “unhappy.” (The pre-Manny role model.)
And, if he is feeling healthy, and not getting as many At Bats as he thinks he deserves he WILL BE unhappy.
As one wag noted when Sheffield was a Yank, “he chose double I (11) as a number, just so everyone would be doublely certain what part of TEAM was most important” to I, err him.
Sheff won’t be coming back but he is willing to accept a part time role and for the record, he is no cancer, he is very well liked by former teammates not named Alex Rodriguez.
It seems like given the level of interest in Sheff, he will have no trouble finding a job. His skills have declined but not like Bonds. Florida, Philadelphia, Tampa, Cincinati, Atlanta are among the teams interested in him and 4 of those 5 don’t have a DH position.
I see everyone point about having depth at position but man it was nice having Ruben Sierra to pinch hit. Sierra was feared, so is Sheff. I miss having a guy like that on the bench, Swisher is not that guy and I am not sure he is all that good defensively. Nady and Cabrera make a better case for depth than Swisher does.
One thing I notice here is that people value our players more than other GMs doing. Even when Cabrera starter most GMs didn’t want him and saw him as no more than a 4th OF which is what he is now at best. Some might argue that Swisher and Sui are ahead of him. Sui will play OF this year and once he is ready, I would almost bet Cabrera (or Swisher) is no longer with the team.
Texiera has more power than all of them.
I would rather have Damon in center and Nady in RF than Swisher in either spot.
I see the point your making now, disregard the Tex comment. Nady and Damon pocess some power.
I guess I have to see Swisher to know what we have.
Damon in CF? No thanks. Been there, done that. The Yanks are better off w/ Gardner or Cabrera than noodle arm. Leave Capt Caveman in LF. Don’t worry about Swisher Sweets. He can play. If we see Godzilla in the OF, we’re in trouble
Did you read my post? I said defensively, I prefer Damon and Nady over Swisher not Swisher over Gardner. Meaning Swisher is a liability.
On Matsui, we said he will play OF by July.
So you’d rather have noodle arm in CF over Swisher Sweets?
Your right about his arm but he is great defensively, he makes spectacular catches and he covers alot of ground, he is also good at climbing the wall/crashing into it. So Yes and this proven defense is why the Yankees gave him the contract they did. Swisher needs to show me what he can do, he is not playing 1B and Nady has beat him out in RF. Damon is proven.
To be completely honest, I don’t really see what Swisher’s value to this team is, other a trading chip.
I understand people’s comments about depth but how many OFs/DH types do we really need?
Some compare Swisher to Giambi but Giambi was a starter, Swisher may start some games at DH or OF but he is an extremely expensive bench player who has yet to show me anything.
Sorry for the negative review but I don’t know how long Swisher will be here.
Like I said, I need to see what Swisher can do, until then he’s alittle spendy for the bench. From what I’ve read, he’s terrible in OF
So why did he lose out to Nady and why did he not get a shot at either rf or cf?
i thought Nady was in RF for his defense. If Swisher that good defensively, i’m sending Gardner to Scranton immediately.