Poor Mike Cervenak

I was perusing mlbtraderumors.com this evening and I noticed a blurb stating that Yankees GM Brian Cashman just told the NY Daily News that there’s a chance that Juan Miranda will be the Yankees DH in 2010.  That’s just pure BS, a statement made solely for the purpose of convincing Johnny Damon or Hideki Matsui or their agents to take a few dollars less.

Juan Miranda has a better chance than I do of being the Yankees DH in 50 or more games in 2010 only if about five guys get horribly injured.  Miranda is a Cuban defector, who at age 26 in 2009 had the 11th best OPS in the International League.  He might be the good enough to be the low-rent A’s DH for 50 games in 2010, but the Yankees?  Come on!

Anyway, while I was checking Miranda’s 2009 stats to confirm my hunch that Cashman was talking out of his ass, I noticed that one of my old minor league favorites Mike Cervenak had yet another fine minor league season.  At age 32, he had the 8th best batting average in the AAA International League (.305) and the 20th best OPS (.797) in a 14-team circuit (the International League is a pitchers’ league).

I remember Cervenak from his days at the Giants’ AA affiliate Norwich Navigators’ (now the Connecticut Defendants — same franchise, new name).  Mike played four years at Norwich, two years when it was the Yankees’ AA franchise, and two years as the Giants’.  He hit well there year after year (and it’s never been a good place to hit), but he couldn’t get a promotion to AAA.  His defense was probably terrible (I don’t really know) and he developed late as hitter, but he hit too well, year after year, for a guy relegated to being a career minor leaguer.

Cervenak now has a career .815 OPS in an astounding 4,782 minor league at-bats, almost all at the AA and AAA levels.  All he has to show for it in the record book (at least the one that counts) is a 2-for-13 stint with the Phillies in 2008.

Because he’s had only the briefest major league cup of coffee, he hasn’t even gotten the chance to try his luck in Japan.  It’s just not fair.  Cervenak is a good player, but no one will ever hear of him.

The only bit of luck that Cervenak has had in his professional life is that he’s gotten to play baseball for all these years.  Now that he’s played a few games at the major league level, he can’t be paid less than $65,000 a season.  I wish someone would pay me $65,000 a year to play baseball.