Thursday, May 31, 2012

Melky Cabrera tries hard.

"In the time since he left the Yankees, Melky Cabrera has gotten out of shape, been non-tendered, gotten into shape, played with three teams in three years and, oh yeah, become an NL MVP candidate.

It is hard to find many baseball officials who believe Cabrera has sustainability as an elite player. Nevertheless, nearly one-third into this season, he is in the MVP discussion, taking over as the Giants’ No. 3 hitter when Pablo Sandoval was injured earlier this month and carrying the team."



I wonder how many baseball officials he canvassed.


"Which leads to two questions, one looking back and one forward: Why did the Yankees move him? And is Melky Cabrera — yeah, that Melky Cabrera — about to score big in free agency?"


Maybe the Yankees moved him because he has no sustainability as an elite player.

That kind of hindsight is bogus. Lots of bad players have good seasons or good half-seasons. Ian Kennedy is back to being mediocre and nobody is paying attention.


"With the Braves, Cabrera’s excess weight curtailed his mobility and led to a .255 season and a non-tender. The Yankees actually offered Cabrera a minor league deal, but the Royals gave him a guaranteed $1.25 million and sure playing time. That offseason Cabrera worked out with Alex Rodriguez (as he has continued to do) and got into peak shape and became more serious about his game, which are the reasons most cited by scouts for his turnaround."

I really wonder why so many Yankee minor leaguers are not ready to play the game properly when they arrive in the big leagues.

The Yankees couldn't get this guy into shape and get him to try hard?

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