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Beware the Lure of Montero

Posted by Matt Imbrogno at 3:00 pm 17 Responses »
Jul 222010

Since being almost traded for Cliff Lee, Jesus Montero has been on a tear. From July 10th to the 21st, Montero’s got 14 hits in 28 ABs (including 2-2 as I write this on the night of the 21st) to go along with four walks, four home runs, and three doubles.

After scuffling in April (.309 wOBA) and May (.269wOBA), Montero has turned it on in the summer (.353 June wOBA, .489 July wOBA). It seems that the super-young Jesus just needed a bit of adjustment time to the International League before he unleashed his vengeance upon it.

If the Yankees’ current platoon DH situation does not work over the next few weeks, I know there will be a lot of calls for Montero to be called up, especially if the hot streak he’s on continues. The Yankees should not even think of doing this.

Like most of the time I write something declarative, I’m relatively certain I’m preaching to the choir. While Montero’s bat is surely advanced, there’s no need to a) speed up his arbitration clock by calling him up when he doesn’t need to be called up b) take him out of catching every day, which is what he needs to be doing since that’s where he needs the most improvement c) throw a relatively unprepared hitter into the middle of a playoff race and finally d) calling up Montero would be a Mets move.

We all want to see Montero in the Bronx as soon as possible, but as soon as possible should be next spring at the absolute earliest. Even then, I’m not sure he should break camp with the team. A little extra time in AAA never hurt anyone and the longer he can develop his catching skills in a relatively stress free environment the better.

So, please, Jesus, keep hitting the ball. Yankee Front Office: do the smart thing and keep exercising patience with Mr. Montero. This guy’s likely got a big future and shouldn’t be handled like just any prospect.

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Nick Swisher's New Approach

Posted by Moshe Mandel at 1:08 pm No Responses »
Jul 222010

As of this morning, Nick Swisher was tied with Ben Zobrist for the lead in Fangraphs WAR among AL right fielders, at 3.0 wins above replacement. A legitimate argument can be made that Swisher has been the best right fielder in the AL thus far in 2010. Joe over at RAB made an interesting observation last night that I thought touched upon the source of Swisher’s success:

If I didn’t know better I’d think that Nick Swisher has a chance to hit .300 this year. It looks like he can hit anything up there. He looked especially good in the third when he waited back on a curveball and served it back into center for a base hit.

Swisher has looked more comfortable at the plate in 2010 than he did in 2009, no longer simply waiting out pitchers hoping for a mistake. He is swinging more frequently than in the past at pitches both inside and outside the zone, but has not seen an increase in his swinging strike percentage. Rather, he is simply making more and better contact, with an elevated LD% to show for it. Furthermore, as Joe noted, he is showing a better ability to deal with breaking pitches, as evidenced by his greatly improved numbers against sliders, cutters, and curves. He has been a quite a bit worse against changeups, but that might be expected for someone who is being a lot more aggressive than in the past.

It is important to note that Swisher’s BABIP is sky high and even with his increased LD%, he is due for a regression. However, his new approach has already paid handsome dividends, and unless he collapses entirely he will finish the year with very strong numbers. He is definitely one of the better right fielders in the American League. What’s Wilson Betemit up to?

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Park and Gaudin Need to Go

Posted by Matt Imbrogno at 11:00 am 6 Responses »
Jul 222010

In Tuesday night’s ugly 10-2 loss to the Angels, there were some bright spots. Well, they were dim at the time, but looking back, they’re bright.

Those spots were the poor performances of Chad Gaudin and Chan Ho Park. Yes, that’s oxymoronic, but indulge me for a second.

Tuesday night, they combined for 2.1 innings, giving up 3 runs on 3 hits (1 HR), and 2 walks. Why is this good? Because it should signal the end for these two. They’ve shown nothing special at all in 2010 and there are at least two other guys who need to be on the Major League roster in the stead of these two. I’ve talked about them a lot recently, but Romulo Sanchez and Ivan Nova need to get their extended shots.

Both pitchers could provide depth out of the Yankee bullpen and the latter could take over should (when?) Sergio Mitre falter in replacing Pettitte. But, back to Park and Gaudin…

Gaudin was let go after Spring Training, much to my chagrin. And I was glad when the Yankees brought him back earlier this year. Park was a low-risk, medium reward bullpen move about which I was pretty ambivalent. Neither move has worked out and it’s time for the Yankees to cut and run like they did with Randy Winn earlier in the year.

While it’s true that neither one is going to get important innings, there’s no reason to keep them around as dead weight. It’s also easy for me to say this since it’s not my money being eaten if these guys let go, but the salary hits are ones the Yankees should be able to take with ease.

If nothing else, Sanchez and Nova have some upside left and if they screw up badly, they can be easily replaced due to their options and their very low salaries. Bottom line: I hope that these guys aren’t on the Yankees much longer.

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