becca: “Actually no! No one has actually reached the top deck in this stadium, Damon had a lot of middle row shots but none to the top! For sure he had some bombs but by his own account he said the stadium was giving him HRs.. He said so in several different interviews during the year… I saw countless barley scrape over the wall that wouldn’t have been HRs anywhere else…”I did mean the middle row deck, my bad. And Yankee Stadium gave everyone home runs, Yankees and their opponents alike. Damon’s offense is “completely” reliant upon the Stadium because he has more home runs there? Is Swisher completely reliant on being on the road?
“he didn’t hit in the playoffs at all until the WS.”
He was miserable in the ALDS but quite good in the ALCS IIRC.
I’m not sure why I’m arguing this considering I don’t think Damon is like an essential or anything. I just feel like you’re making unfair assumptions. And I think anyone that signs with the Yankees as a FA is gonna want more than $8M…

You don’t have to keep quoting, you can press reply…

Everyone agrees that Damon’s HRs are completely reliant on Yankee stadium… And actually Nick is hurt by Yankee stadium some because his swing isn’t meant for RF from either side of the plate, he hits most of his HRs to LF or LF Center and that is the hardest part of Yankee stadium to Homer too because of wind and depth…

You still aren’t getting it… Damon only hit his HRs to RF this year, not 1 to CF and not 1 to LF all 24 went to RF… 17 of those 24 went to RF in Yankee stadium even though Damon had a higher BA on the road… He can’t hit HRs as well on the road because they don’t have a short porch.

Cameron isn’t going to command more 8 million from anyone… Why would ask for more than anyone else is offering to be on a winning team? If anything he would take less to be with the defending champs but he won’t have to. He made 10 million this year with the Brewers but they replaced him so his own team won’t be bidding on him and in this economy he won’t make the 10 million he did this year, 8 is perfect and no other teams will be offering anything more than 1 year either so we pretty much have him where we want him.

Think about it, Damon made 12 million this year and the Yankees don’t want to pay him that, baseball players aren’t making the money they once did, 8 million is exactly what Cameron will command to play for a team like the Rangers but he will have the best chance to win with us over the other teams that want him… Plus he likes NY and played for the Mets before.

Not to mention the Yankees have been after Cameron for years because of his D, which as you can see from the numbers below are still great…

I did mean the middle row deck, my bad. And Yankee Stadium gave everyone home runs, Yankees and their opponents alike. Damon’s offense is “completely” reliant upon the Stadium because he has more home runs there? Is Swisher completely reliant on being on the road?

“he didn’t hit in the playoffs at all until the WS.”
He was miserable in the ALDS but quite good in the ALCS IIRC.

I’m not sure why I’m arguing this considering I don’t think Damon is like an essential or anything. I just feel like you’re making unfair assumptions. And I think anyone that signs with the Yankees as a FA is gonna want more than $8M…

Mike Cameron in CF .990 fielding percentage… UZR 10.0, RngR 14.7

Cameron is 14.7 runs above average in RngR while Damon is 3.7 runs below average…

RngR is the the number of runs above or below average a fielder is, determined by how the fielder is able to get to balls hit in his vicinity just in case you weren’t stat people.

In other words he sucks at D and Cameron is actually good at D.

The choice is simple really… There should be no debate with this, we already have a great offense we should be trying to upgrade our D and finding a 4th starter… Cameron upgrades your defense, if anything brings more real power to the team and at half the cost of Damon which will give you more money to find a 4th starter with.

I don’t know how to make it more simple really… No Damon!

Not only should Damon have caught that ball if he hadn’t caught it should have still either been able to throw him out or keep him at 3rd and he couldn’t do any of the 3 and Howard scored!

It’s not even close to the Molina-Posada debate… Posada’s numbers aren’t based upon the stadium and neither one was being chosen for a contract… Cameron will make 5-8 million this year to hit the same amount of HRs and play much better defense! Damon want’s 3-4 years and 12 million+ a year, which is the smarter buy?

That’s not true… Damon’s offense is completely reliant upon the stadium and Cameron’s clearly isn’t…. The Brewers have a much bigger stadium than we do and Mike still had 24 HRs… Damon had 17 Hrs at home and 7 on the road, all 24 of his Hrs this year went to RF… That doesn’t strike you as odd?

Actually no! No one has actually reached the top deck in this stadium, Damon had a lot of middle row shots but none to the top! For sure he had some bombs but by his own account he said the stadium was giving him HRs.. He said so in several different interviews during the year… I saw countless barley scrape over the wall that wouldn’t have been HRs anywhere else…

Cameron is much more reliable than Damon… Damon had 24 HRs this year which tied a career high for him he only had 1 other time in his career, Cameron on the other hand has always been a 20+ HR guy and because of that you can count on his O more than Damon’s. Plus Cameron’s offensive numbers play more for every park which means he actually hits on the road as well…Damon ’s offense always fades towards the end of the year anyway it’s one reason he didn’t hit in the playoffs at all until the WS.

Matsui’s knees could affect his production and it’s one reason I wouldn’t want to re-sign him, but he will be playing DH and will come cheaper than any other DH on the market will so it’s worth the risk. With Damon you are counting on him to once again hit at least his career high and I personally don’t want to take that risk, it’s much better to cut Damon lose a year early instead of signing him to a 2-4 year deal and cutting him lose a 1-3 years to late!

When you are that bad defensively it makes your offense mean less so you have to doubt the production of someone who if a better defender than you.”

Like I said, his defense is at times comically bad, but discounting Damon’s usefulness is silly. In Game 4 of the World Series early on I wanted to strangle him because of his poor defense, but without his approach to that at-bat against Lidge and his baseball smarts (Damon… smarts… whuh? But it’s true.) that let him have that double steal, I seriously doubt we win that game. It’s a little like the Posada/Molina debate, though the difference between Posada and Molina offensively is greater than the difference between Damon and Cameron offensively.

Also, if you’re gonna say there’s no guarantee Damon will repeat his production, I agree, but that’s the case with pretty much everyone (and Cameron). After the decidedly down 2008 Jeter had, I wouldn’t have thought he would have the great 2009 he did. Maybe Matsui’s knees will start affecting his production, too. Who knows.

as far as Damon’s home runs, weren’t a lot of them to the upper deck IIRC? So, not really cheapies.

Cano is a perfect 2 hole hitter and not because Jeter hits double plays but because he fits the spot in the lineup. Cano has power not so much that he should hit in the heart of the order 4-5 where driving in runs is key, instead you give him the chance to succeed to get on in front of the big bats… Cano doesn’t strike out often, he is the definition of a contact hitter who can go to all fields which is exactly what you need in a 2 hole hitter.

Cano has been destined to takes over that spot in the lineup for years but it never came available… Jeter doesn’t hit as many HRs as Cano and grounds into more DPs, Jeter should stay where he was successful and Cano moving up will help him out as well. Just look at the top of the lineup…

Jeter, SS
Cano, 2B
Tex, 1B
Arod, 3B
Posada, C

Damon’s offense isn’t good enough to make up for his O! When you give up 10 runs you have to score 10 just to break even so yes I am based off the fact that Cameron can also give 24+ HRs with better D… and what makes you think he will repeat the same production? Especially if they raise the outfield wall and the park doesn’t play as homer friendly?

When you are that bad defensively it makes your offense mean less so you have to doubt the production of someone who if a better defender than you.