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Melky Held Out Of Winter Ball?
Peter Abraham noted yesterday that Melky Cabrera was set to play winter ball. However, it seems that the Yankees have changed their mind and won't let Cabrera play this year.
There is a "fatigue clause," where if a player played a certain amount during the regular season the player cannot participate in winter ball. It seems that typically teams lift this clause and allow players to join the winter leagues, but this year they refused to lift the clause for Cabrera. The implication is that Cabrera is a trade candidate, perhaps in a Johan Santana deal.
More info on this extreme fatigue clause can be found here. Thanks to Carlos S. for the links and translation and to Keith Law for translation.
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Can't blame the Yankees for not allowing him to play. The last thing they need to do is work out a deal for Santana in principle only to have Melky blow his knee out two days later playing winter ball.
Posted by: Jay C. | December 18, 2007 at 10:11 AM
oh noes, here comes about 50 posts about how bad Melky suck. *grabs popcorn*
Posted by: zs190 | December 18, 2007 at 10:17 AM
The other implication is that Melky played like crap in Spetember, and the Yankees think it's because he wore down. It makes all the sense in the world to tell him to rest for the next couple of months in the hope that he'll show a bit more stamina down the stretch in 2008. But of course, that's not nearly as much fun as more baseless Santana speculation.
Posted by: mac_1103 | December 18, 2007 at 10:34 AM
Man, Melky sucks soooo bad! *eats popcorn*
Posted by: Chillin | December 18, 2007 at 11:02 AM
Of course they did. They don't want the Twins to find out that he sucks in the field.
Posted by: terry180 | December 18, 2007 at 11:03 AM
MmmMMmm, Yankees haven't done anything major recently, I think Hank is getting restless...Can anyone see Hughes, Cabrera and Kennedy in Twins uniforms :D.
Posted by: MillerTime | December 18, 2007 at 11:51 AM
Melky is good but not great. I'd say he's a little above average, unless he mysteriously gets some HR pop out of his bat. That's why the Twins insist on Hughes - ACE potential and Kennedy - Mid rotation potential. I honestly think this is a fair trade for both teams.
Hughes has ACE potential which is not equal to the best pitcher in baseball. That's why the Twins want both Hughes and Kennedy.
Posted by: MillerTime | December 18, 2007 at 11:54 AM
A lot of the 'Melky sucks' contingent forget that Cabrera just turned 23 in August. Only a select few players are going to put up huge numbers at that age.
I remind others about another Yankees center-fielder that was almost traded when he was Cabrera's age because he didn't look like he was going to make much of an impact and had similar 'average' numbers until 1996 when he finally busted out and became a star at the age of 28. That was Bernie Williams.
Posted by: Jay C. | December 18, 2007 at 12:23 PM
very true jay c. at age 23, very few players can be seen for their full potential...it's still pretty much a shot in the dark. "projections" don't mean anything b/c i've seen many players excel above & beyond them....but on the flipside i've seen just as many fall well short.
Posted by: Nj_Intimidator | December 18, 2007 at 12:30 PM
Why does everybody insist that Melky has no offense and plays crap in the field, he ran center better than Damon, and his biggest problems were with being forced into a lead-off spot in the order which he clearly doesn't fit into.
His hitting was extremely better when he was lower in the order and that was something the yankees failed to realize or admit throughout the year, and thusly is cost Melky in terms of his numbers.
I admit he will not likely ever have ARod or Ortiz number but he is far from an offensive liability in center.
As for his defense, has anybody bothered to check how many assists he had with his arm throwing to home?
Posted by: cantus21 | December 18, 2007 at 12:57 PM
Cabrera's OPS by batting order slot:
1 .735 (140 ABs)
2 .712 (81)
6 .364 (11)
7 .779 (49)
8 .553 (70)
9 .770 (194)
Doesn't look like there's much evidence that he hit better when he was batted lower in the order. His real problem was that he sucked in April and September. From May through August, he was a perfectly acceptable everyday CF. Unfortunately, those other two months also count.
Posted by: mac_1103 | December 18, 2007 at 01:56 PM
"As for his defense, has anybody bothered to check how many assists he had with his arm throwing to home?"
For future reference, I would reccomend not mentioning assists when defending a players defensive abilities. Melky isnt terrible in the field, I agree with you on that, but often times worse outfielders or converted position players have the most assists because their are are unrpoven. In this case he had assists cuz people were testing his army cuz they knew little about it. They were hoping it would be something like Damon's arm where a single is a triple.
Posted by: themfightnwords | December 18, 2007 at 02:27 PM
Yes, Melky still is only 23...he's made tremendous strides since he first arrived at The Stadium! In addition, he and Cano keep each other competitive. If/When Melky's gone, who plays center? Damon? Nobody else is available...
Posted by: Greenrose | December 18, 2007 at 05:36 PM
While I agree that assists alone are a poor way to measure defensive abilities, Melky had 12 assists in '06, and followed that up with 16 more in '07.
To say that they didn't know about his arm last year is a bit of a stretch considering what he did in '06.
Posted by: dproc0219 | December 18, 2007 at 06:10 PM
I can't imagine what would happen if Cabrera got hurt. That would kill any deal. It's not like you can just replace a guy like Cabrera with any other player. Oops - turns out you can.
And as far as the comparison to Bernie Williams ... sure he might compare. Or he might compare to the THOUSANDS of ML prospects who have come up to the majors, posted an OPS just north of 700, an never turn out to be anything decent. I'll bet on the latter, rather than the former.
Posted by: bjsguess | December 18, 2007 at 07:50 PM
Melky top 5 comps: Rick Manning, Carlos Beltran, Roberto Alomar, Richie Ashburn, Pete Rose.
Your opinion may be right, or it may be wrong. But between you and djskil-whatever, I'm about half tired of reading your opinion of Melky. If you hate the Yankees and/or Melky, just move along. No need to post it for the 10,000th time this year.
Posted by: dproc0219 | December 18, 2007 at 09:29 PM