Afternoon Baseball

Some good comments from Mike, who does not like my sticking a continual fork in Bernie. He's right; I may go on too much about him. He downplays Andy Phillips and strikes an optimistic tone about Bernie in this comment, correctly pointing out Bernie's vastly underrated OBP-potential as his best remaining strength. Among other great thoughts from someone who's seen well over 100 of Bernie's career games.

Here's my thing. I don't think Andy Phillips is a savior -- although I'm solidly on the Bronx Banter thinking when it comes to Phillips and Bernie (Banter sponsors Phillips's Baseball-Reference page, by the way). However, even if Phillips has no ability to hit the curveball, let's find out. That's how we found out last year that Bubba Crosby is a fan favorite without the ability to back it up -- playing time.
The Yankees, since 2004, have played Bernie as if they've explored every other option. They haven't. In 2004, you could argue that Lofton was terrible, and Bernie should be there instead. Good enough -- he actually had, as I've mentioned, an underrated productive 2004 season (which I mistakenly dismissed in that post). In 2005, they basically DID try every other option (Melky Cabrera, sheesh), and going back to Bernie (with Bubba being a higher-profile 4th OF) made sense again.

But in 2006, center field is solved. Forget whether Damon is much of a defensive upgrade, he's not getting benched for Williams. You're looking at a DH situation with Bernie, and the Yanks have not tried everything. That's my thing. It's true I don't have a fantastic option. But I'm saying, let's play Phillips for April, maybe May. See what he's got. THEN, fall back to Bernie if Phillips falls on his face. Let's not do that off the bat, so to speak. Besides, it remains to be seen if Bernie, always a slow-starting player, can be a pinch-hit, play 2-3 times a week guy, and hit any better than his '05 numbers.
And, sorry to say, there's no reason to think he'll hit .260 or draw enough walks to offset that. In 2005, his on-base was .321. He slugged .367. His OPS against the league was 81 (100 being average). Not that Crosby was better (OPS+ of 67 in 98 at-bats).

Also, I should have clarified my characterization of the Yankees' prospects as old. The AAA guys are, as Mike points out, but not so much the rest of the system. It's just that many of those guys are not ready to help the Yanks in '06 (nor should they be expected to), and that article I linked to was focused more on roster possibilites for this season.

P.S. Mike, that girl was wasted (she had her own pitcher of beer). Clearly, she has no clue about me.