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Winn Must Improve

Posted by Matt Imbrogno at 11:00 am 7 Responses »
May 112010

Perhaps this is unfair to him because I’m writing this right after Winn’s infield fly ball in the 8th inning was the biggest WPA swing of the game, but Winn needs to step it up. Quickly.

With the injury to Curtis Granderson, Winn is going to be seeing a lot more playing time. As of right now, his line sits at .190/.250/.308. If this doesn’t start trending upwards in a timely manner, left field will become a black hole for the Bombers. Granted, they have the offense to make up for a bad bat.

Of course, it’s worth noting that Winn’s BABIP sits at .222 right now, and his career mark is .100 points higher than that. So, we should expect a correction soon. I should also mention that Randy’s line drive percentage is at a solid 21.1%, so maybe the hits will begin to fall. He is hitting a lot of balls on the ground at this point (57.9%), so that could show us that maybe he’s not hitting the ball as hard as his LD% suggests. Still, the low BABIP and good LD% shows us that something could be coming for Winn. However, if Winn doesn’t start to experience a correction soon, it may be time to let him go and call up someone else.

So, whom could the Yankees elect to bring up if Winn doesn’t get better and they need someone to fill in?

The first option is Greg Golson because he’s on the 40 man roster and has been up. I’m not a big believer in his bat (.667 OPS at SWB in ’10), but if he could add some defense from his ridiculous speed, it’d be more than what we’ve seen of Winn.

The second option, and only other outfield option on the 40 man is Chad Huffman. He’s OPSing .727 at Scranton right now (.300/.427).

If the Yankees do grow weary of Winn, it’s likely that they’ll eat his salary and designate him for assignment, thus opening a spot on the 40 man for an outfielder. First in that line would be Colin Curtis. After being left unprotected for the Rule V Draft, Curtis has hit well. He tore up the Arizona Fall League and played well in Spring Training and is currently raking in Scranton to the tune of an .875 OPS. Next would be David Winfree, who’s hitting well, too. His AAA OPS sits at .837. These two are already knocking on the door and the moer Winn struggles, the louder those knocks will be.

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A Look at Chad Huffman

Posted by Matt Imbrogno at 11:00 am No Responses »
Apr 092010

Earlier this week, the Yankees claimed San Diego outfielder Chad Huffman off of waivers. The outfielder will play for AAA Scranton-Wilkes Barre. I’d never heard of Huffman before, so I thought I’d take a closer look at his numbers and see what the Yanks are getting.

A second round pick in 2006, the right-handed Huffman’s had a successful minor league career; his career minor league OPS sits at .859 (.385/.474). According to Paul DePodesta of the Padres, Huffman can control the strike-zone well and could be a good Major League hitter (h/t RAB). Via the River Ave. Blues post on the waiver claim, Huffman can hit fastballs well, but has trouble with the breaking ball. This may make us think of Huffman as being a possible Shelley Duncan part two. I disagree.

Though they have similar walk rates–11.41 for Huffman, 10.89 for Duncan–Huffman’s struck out less–17.72%–than Duncan, who struck out in 21.33% of his Minor League PAs. So, it would seem that even if the breaking ball gives him a little trouble, Huffman does an okay job at avoiding strikeouts, considering his seemingly good batting eye (aforementioned OBP/BB%), good contact skills (non-alarming K-rate, MiL BA of .289), and solid power (.474 SLG, .185 IsoP).

In the minors, Huffman has shown more prowess against lefty pitching (.915 OPS) but hasn’t struggled against right handed pitching (.840 OPS) and in 2009, he actually had a reverse platoon split. He OPSed just .639 vs. lefties, while crushing right handed pitchers to a .903 OPS.

Is it likely we see Huffman in the Bronx any time soon? Not really, no. However, I could definitely see him getting a shot if he continues his solid hitting in the International League and Marcus Thames ends up struggling.

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