Yankees' Spring Training: Looking at Today's Battles
Today was an important day for some Yankee players. Some made a good impression and some didnโt. Some will remain on the team and some might get released. Let's look at the players battling for spots.
Melky Cabrera
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Heโs battling Brett Gardner for the center field position. He didnโt hurt himself by going 3-for-4 with one run scored. His average for the spring is now .346. I still donโt think he has potential to be great. To me, heโll always be a good defensive center fielder whoโs an average hitter.
Brett Gardner
Just last week we were talking about how Gardner had the starting center field position locked up. After going 0-for-2 with a strikeout, his position isnโt so secured.
Brett Tomko
He pitched three innings of shut-out ball lowering his spring ERA to 1.17. I donโt know how heโs winning this spring training battle between Alfredo Aceves and Dan Giese for the long reliever position. Tomko has been a pretty terrible pitcher his whole career. His numbers speak for themselves this spring, and heโs winning going away.
Dan Giese
He let in three runs, only one of which was earned, however. Still, he was very effective last year, but his EA this spring is 6.89. Thatโs not good for someone whoโs fastball tops out at 87 mph and throws a bunch of off-speed pitches. I like Giese because he was good last year. It would be a shame to see him not make the 40-man roster.
Alfredo Aceves
He gave up an earned run in three innings but has a 4.60 spring ERA. Heโll most likely be sent down to the minors.
We have a good idea that Brett Tomko will win the long reliever role because heโs earned it, but itโs hard to say which way Joe Girardi will go with Gardner and Cabrera.
Iโd like to mention that the YesNetwork is a bad TV station. Today I was watching Matsuiโs grand slam game, and they messed it up. The game froze while Matsui was rounding the bases. Then when the game went back on, they didnโt reshow Matsuiโs home run. Talk about anti-climatic.
Yes, we need the YesNetwork for the Yankees but thatโs all they are good for.
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