Its Official

[Deadrody]

The yankees gave up on Melky Cabrera too soon. Granted, they traded him (and others) for the 7th most valuable pitcher in baseball the previous season, but...

It seemed like Melky was turning a corner last year with KC after putting up a horrid season in Atlanta in 2010. He had 200 hits and his OPS ended up over .800 for the full year.

But now, with San Fran, he is leading the NL in hits, average, and triples. And he's still only 28. With Gardner's unavailability, I wonder if they would take that kind of production in LF ?

Yeah, I'd say. And what's worse, Vazquez was predictably terrible in NY.

 

[speedoo]

As I recall, Yanks also got Boone Lohan in that deal. One of the better lefty relievers in all of baseball.

 

[NHUConnfan]

As I recall, Yanks also got Boone Lohan in that deal. One of the better lefty relievers in all of baseball.

Yeah, because Melky is worth that.

I think Melky is a great baseball player. Had a great night last night defensively too.

 

[Deadrody]

As I recall, Yanks also got Boone Lohan in that deal. One of the better lefty relievers in all of baseball.

I would add one thing to this statement - CURRENTLY. Boone Logan is in the midst of quite a stretch of effectiveness, but when they got him from Atlanta, he certainly hadn't distinguished himself with Chicago in 2007 or 2008, or with Atlanta, or with the Yankees in 2010 or 2011. And it remains to be seen if this stretch will continue or if this is a flash in the pan that you predictably get from almost every reliever at some point in their career.

I don't know (obviously) what the yankees internal scouting said about Melky long term, but he is tearing things up right now, despite what were, legitimately two BAD seasons in 2008 and 2010, sandwiched around a third season that was merely below average. The thing is, if your scouts think a guy is going to pan out long term, you should try not to sell low, which is basically what they did.

What really amazes me is that despite following a couple of Yankee blogs pretty carefully, I hadn't seen how hot Melky has been this year until game 59.

 

[speedoo]

I would add one thing to this statement - CURRENTLY. Boone Logan is in the midst of quite a stretch of effectiveness, but when they got him from Atlanta, he certainly hadn't distinguished himself with Chicago in 2007 or 2008, or with Atlanta, or with the Yankees in 2010 or 2011. And it remains to be seen if this stretch will continue or if this is a flash in the pan that you predictably get from almost every reliever at some point in their career.

I don't know (obviously) what the yankees internal scouting said about Melky long term, but he is tearing things up right now, despite what were, legitimately two BAD seasons in 2008 and 2010, sandwiched around a third season that was merely below average. The thing is, if your scouts think a guy is going to pan out long term, you should try not to sell low, which is basically what they did.

What really amazes me is that despite following a couple of Yankee blogs pretty carefully, I hadn't seen how hot Melky has been this year until game 59.

Could you not also say that CURRENTLY Melky is playing very well? Logan was very good in 2010, 2011, and is very good so far in 2012. Isn't Melky in the same situation, minus having a strong 2010?

Logan has been very good since 2010. He's no flash in the pan.

 

[zyron]

I don't know (obviously) what the yankees internal scouting said about Melky long term, but he is tearing things up right now, despite what were, legitimately two BAD seasons in 2008 and 2010, sandwiched around a third season that was merely below average. The thing is, if your scouts think a guy is going to pan out long term, you should try not to sell low, which is basically what they did.

If I recall, wasn't a part of the trade they wanted to separate him from Cano? I could be wrong but I kind of remember them mentioning that on the broadcast a couple years ago.

 

[doggydaddy]

I believe he is a free agent and so is Swisher. Melky would look good in RF in Yankee Stadium.

 

[speedoo]

I believe he is a free agent and so is Swisher. Melky would look good in RF in Yankee Stadium.

Granderson, Gardner and Melky all in the same outfield? Not bad.

 

[mauconnfan]

I think the only thing "official" is we can begin to wonder whether he suddenly became a better hitter last year than expected or found a miracle substance (it's still going on guys) which has turned his game around. Sorry baseball isn't catching up to everything for sure, watched Uggla vs the Yanks this week and he looks like the Hulk. Melky was not a great player and never will be, although if he continues on his current trend he will have a nice finish to his career.

 

[Deadrody]

Could you not also say that CURRENTLY Melky is playing very well? Logan was very good in 2010, 2011, and is very good so far in 2012. Isn't Melky in the same situation, minus having a strong 2010?

Logan has been very good since 2010. He's no flash in the pan.

Nonsense. He is a league average reliever. Period. He is better than that so far in 2012, which you can literally say about some period in every reliever's career in the history of baseball.

 

[Deadrody]

I think the only thing "official" is we can begin to wonder whether he suddenly became a better hitter last year than expected or found a miracle substance (it's still going on guys) which has turned his game around. Sorry baseball isn't catching up to everything for sure, watched Uggla vs the Yanks this week and he looks like the Hulk. Melky was not a great player and never will be, although if he continues on his current trend he will have a nice finish to his career.

Eh, he looks like the same player to me.

 

[mauconnfan]

Eh, he looks like the same player to me.

You could be right Dead....just never saw that potential in him and the lateness of the sudden ability for bat speed is questionable, but mostly because of what baseball has become and that's sad. I hope he just finally "got it" and worked harder to be the player with good potential.

 

[speedoo]

Nonsense. He is a league average reliever. Period. He is better than that so far in 2012, which you can literally say about some period in every reliever's career in the history of baseball.

"nonsense... Period"?
You talk as though there is some legitimate measure of this average relief pitcher you speak of. Kindly provide a link that will give me some numbers for an average relief pitcher so that I can compare Logan's 2010-12 numbers to see whether or not your assertion has any merit.

 

[Cheddie]

The yankees gave up on Melky Cabrera too soon.

If you could have predicted he'd raise his BA 100 points in two seasons, you'd have teams knocking on your door for advice. Atlanta is a pretty solid organization and they flat out cut him after NY. He had a rep for being out of shape, a guy who liked to party every night, and in NY he was thought to be a bad influence on Cano.

I have to give the Melkman a lot of credit for maturing and working on his game. And according to the NY Times, ARod deserves credit for taking Melky under his wing.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

If I recall, wasn't a part of the trade they wanted to separate him from Cano? I could be wrong but I kind of remember them mentioning that on the broadcast a couple years ago.

That was an enormous part of the deal (and why the Yanks did not sign Melky after the Braves released him & both Robby & Melky begged the Yanks to resign him). The Yankee brass viewed Melky as a less than positive influence on Cano.

 

[speedoo]

Nonsense. He is a league average reliever. Period. He is better than that so far in 2012, which you can literally say about some period in every reliever's career in the history of baseball.

Well, it looks like you don't know what you are talking about when you say Boone Logan is a "league average reliever".

Since he has been with the Yanks, from 2010 until now, he has posted ERA's of 2.93, 3.46 and 2.31 so far in 2012. Weighted average for that 2.5 year period is 3.02, which looks pretty good to me.

Meanwhile I asked you to provide some measure of exactly what kind of number the "average reliever" puts up. Having heard nothing from you on that, I did some research on my own. What I found was a listing of the 30 era's for all major league bullpens. #15, Cubs is 3.81, and #16, Giants is 3.98. Which implies a median bullpen ERA of 3.9 for all of major league bullpens. Logan is at 3.02 for the last 2.5 years, far better than average.

You were wrong, I was right.

 

[Deadrody]

If you could have predicted he'd raise his BA 100 points in two seasons, you'd have teams knocking on your door for advice. Atlanta is a pretty solid organization and they flat out cut him after NY. He had a rep for being out of shape, a guy who liked to party every night, and in NY he was thought to be a bad influence on Cano.

I have to give the Melkman a lot of credit for maturing and working on his game. And according to the NY Times, ARod deserves credit for taking Melky under his wing.

Apparently the story is that being cut in Atlanta after being the worst player in the game was his wake up call. He was a chubby entitled player in Atlanta with a $3.1M arbitration ruling.

When I originally said he looked like the same player, actually in Atlanta he was pudgy. Now, he's lost that weight and is applying his talent.