January 26, 2004
Boone Bust
Bronx Banter is reporting that Aaron Boone injured his knee playing basketball last week and may miss the entire season.
Offensively, this doesn't hurt the Yankees too much. You can replace Boone's bat. Defensively, it is a problem. Can Drew Henson step up and finally realize his potential? Or will the Yankees take this as an opportunity to move Jeter to third and find someone who can really play shortstop? Who can they trade for A-Rod?
Update: An intriguing solution would be to sign Ivan Rodriguez and move him to third base. Peter Gammons did a piece on Pudge's footwork a few years ago in which it was noted that he moved like a second baseman. Pudge could have easily been in fielder. He has the arm for third base, he has a great bat for third base, and no one else seems to want him. Why not give it a try?
Posted by David Pinto at
05:30 PM
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Re, update: Alternatively, Posada came up as an infielder as well. You can platoon the two of them between third and catcher and even get the benefit of Pudge's defense for a large part of the season.
I don't see that this will ever happen. Maybe a trade, maybe Drew if he has a good preseason, or maybe Cairo, but not IRod and never Posada.
Sure Pudge won't happen, but a Yankee fan can dream, can't he?
Miguel Cairo, here we come!
word is that henson is looking for a way to break his contract, so he's out of the picture too. i smell joe randa.
How long before Jim Caple writes an "article" about this? Any bets?
I hope the Ziele children haven't made too many new friends in their new neighborhood.
lol@steve. his kids must be the baseball version of army brats. "pack up kids, daddy's been deployed"
I'm thinking maybe Mike Bordick at 3B for the Yanks next year. Almonte can't field, Henson is going to be playing QB, and there really isn't much left out there. Bordick is a slick fielder who doesn't have a bad stick for a slick fielder fill-in kinda guy. Bat him 9th and no one will even notice. It's not the end of the world if the Yankees only have 8 good hitters on their team. At least give us a gloveman.
just give me a few days to get a few odd-ends in order...
Why not Sheff at the hot corner? He has done it before, not the greatest glove but the offense production from the position rivals the best. Move Bernie over in the outfield, improving the defense there, and grab the best available bat. Pudge would be good and he could alternate with Jorge behind the plate and DH so neither would be worn out.
I thought Chris Mortensen published a rumor on espn.com that Henson is going to play NFL next fall. I don't remember the specifics of it ... but I wonder if that plays into this.
The Yankees do have a fringe-prospect 3B who kicked azz and took names at double-A last year: Brian Myrow (http://www.sports-wired.com/players/profile.asp?ID=6394).
He put up a .306/.447/.525 line last year in the Eastern League. Ok, sure, he was 27 years old and it was double-A. And, sure, he has never hit with that kind of power before. But still, the guy has consistently hit .300 and is a walking machine: 107 walks in 137 games last year, 83 walks in 122 games (split between A and AA) in 2002, etc. He has a career minor league OBP of .487. I mean, damn!
Dan Szymborski projects him to hit .274/.374/.438 next year with his ZiPS projection system. (http://www.baseballprimer.com/bodies/szymborski/ZiPS04BAT.htm)
The Yankees will never give a 27-year old non-star rookie a chance, but he just might be their best option.
Oops, I erred when I said his career minor-league OBP is .487. That's his career minor-league SLG. I dunno his career minor-league OBP, but it is well over .400, just from eye-balling it.
I find this idea intriguing.