Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
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 | Injuries | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Here is the CNNSI link:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/baseball/mlb/01/26/boone.acl/index.html

Problem is that while Boone isn't too great, who else is out there? Drew Henson hasn't done SQUAT so far, but this is definitely his chance to shine.

Posted by: Daniel at January 26, 2004 05:34 PM

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.

Posted by: Daniel at January 26, 2004 06:22 PM

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.

Posted by: sabernar at January 26, 2004 07:55 PM

The stupid thing is the contract he signed on 12/1 stipulates the contract becomes non-guaranteed if he injures himself playing basketball. http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/al/yankees/2004-01-26-boone-injury_x.htm. Either he needs to be beaten with an aluminum bat, or he needs to beat his agent with one if he didn't know it was a condition.

Posted by: rsaunders at January 26, 2004 07:56 PM

Sure Pudge won't happen, but a Yankee fan can dream, can't he?
Miguel Cairo, here we come!

Posted by: Daniel at January 26, 2004 09:00 PM

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.

Posted by: rob at January 26, 2004 11:42 PM

How long before Jim Caple writes an "article" about this? Any bets?

Posted by: Rob at January 27, 2004 12:08 AM

I hope the Ziele children haven't made too many new friends in their new neighborhood.

Posted by: Steve at January 27, 2004 10:21 AM

lol@steve. his kids must be the baseball version of army brats. "pack up kids, daddy's been deployed"

Posted by: rob at January 27, 2004 11:15 AM

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.

Posted by: sabernar at January 27, 2004 11:44 AM

just give me a few days to get a few odd-ends in order...

Posted by: joe randa at January 27, 2004 12:36 PM

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.

Posted by: Dom Cento at January 27, 2004 01:34 PM

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.

Posted by: el jefe at January 27, 2004 02:04 PM

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.

Posted by: bob mong at January 28, 2004 01:40 PM

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.

Posted by: bob mong at January 28, 2004 01:43 PM

I find this idea intriguing.

Posted by: Jenn at January 28, 2004 05:52 PM