As one mythologized figure gets sent down, another waits for his moment to be embraced. Bloggers and beat writers are chomping at the bit to see a bit of Brett Gardner, who sports a robust OBP at SWB and, as they say, can flat out run.
Having Gardner on the roster wouldn’t be a bad thing. If you can’t grasp the value of a legitimate pinch runner – as opposed to Enrique Wilson – then you didn’t learn one of the more basic lessons from 2004.
Our fear is that at some early point in his Yankee tenure Gardner will win a game with his legs, and in doing so win the ever-lasting adoration of fans, and maybe even Girardi. We’ll all eagerly equate speed with hustle, and if the Yankees do make a wild card push in the second half, his contributions will looked back on as one of the major reasons why. Melky Cabrera, who should not be consigned to the dustbin of failed prospects, at least not yet, will become an understudy in spite of being a superior hitter.
The Yankees might be especially vulnerable to the universal tendency to overvalue speed. We haven’t had a track athlete since Charles Gipson’s 10-at bat tenure in 2003, and the image of Gardner on the basepaths will undoubtedly inspire melodramatic commentary from beat writers and the mindless band of announcers at Yes. Whether or not Girardi will share these views remains to be seen; indeed, if he has any views at all on what kind of traits he admires in a player, he isn’t sharing.
Through some benevolent act of God we’ve avoided a Jason Tyner all these years. It may be that our time has at last come.
No comments:
Post a Comment