Yankees CF Situation

This year Brett Gardner had a great spring training (even showing some power!!!!) and was given the CF job for the Yankees. Last year Gardner also had a great spring training, but didn't get a spot because Melky had a pretty good regular season the year before. Melky proceeded to suck the entire year going.249/.301/.341 and with average CF defense (having a good arm is not that important in CF, and having a good arm doesn't make one a great fielder, unfortunately). He had 8 HR and 87 RBI with 5 HR and 12 RBI coming in April, so you can tell he really struggled.

Brett Gardner then came up in the 2nd half and he continued to suck as well. Although he sucked for only 141 plate appearances, with better defense and speed, so after a great spring and after Melky being pretty darn awful last year, we were happy to forgive his sucking. He also out WAR'd Melky in far less playing time 1.1 to .3. Well, now he's sucking again and Melky is playing pretty well.

Gardner has a .248 wOBA, Melky a .432. The Melk Man has 4 homers and is slugging .667 but with a career high SLG of .391 I think it's safe to say he's not a power hitter, although in the new Yankee Stadium he may end up seeming like one. Regardless, he's outplaying Gardner. Brett Gardner can track fly balls, he can steal a lot of bases, he can bunt men over, and in the minors he got onbase at a good clip. He also can't hit, in the majors at least, yet.

In the minors in 2008 Garnder had a BB% of 17%, very good especially considering that he's one of the fastest players in the league. However, in 2008 in the majors he had a BB% of 5.9% and this year so far it's 4.8%. He also strikes out a lot, striking out over 20% of your ABs is pretty poor especially when you can't hit for power, at all, and likely never will. Apparently Kevin Long worked to get Gardner's legs more involved for power, and maybe it takes time to work but he slugged .299 last year and this year he's at .271, so I don't see that happening.

In the beginning of the year I was all for giving Gardner the job. The Yankees had to find out what Gardner could do for them in a starting job, but at some point he has to play well enough to keep the job. 65 plate appearances is not enough to make a final judgement on Gardner so I'm still on board with him still playing, but he can only steal, shag, and sacrifice for so long until .220/.254/.271 becomes completely unacceptable.