Introducing Robinson Cano.

Robinson Cano is 29 years old and has been in the big leagues for 8 years.

He almost won rookie of the year, he almost won MVP a couple of years ago, he had another great year (only hampered by the fact that he was garbage with RISP).

Bill Madden notices that he's the Yankees' best hitter:

"His middle-of-the-order cohorts, Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira, may be earning considerably more than Cano, but that is for past performance."

Of course. You'll be saying the same thing about Cano in 10 years.


"And though Curtis Granderson may have outhomered Cano, 43-33 and driven in 12 more runs (106-94), in terms of fear value, much of that is negated by the outfielder’s ungodly 195 strikeouts."

Yeah.

Jeter and Cano are the only players on the whole team who batted over .300.

Everyone else is all-or-nothing. It's like watching Dave Kingman in an over-50 softball league.


"There is no hotter hitter going into the postseason than Cano, who finished the season with nine straight multi-hit games — longest by a Yankee since Bernie Williams had 10 straight in 2002."

I give you credit for that research. It's a good trivia question.


" 'I’m not taking anything away from their other guys, Teixeira, Rodriguez, Granderson, (Nick) Swisher, who can all hurt you, but if you can contain Cano, your chances of beating the Yankees are immeasurably better,' the same scout said. 'During that slump of his in August, they were a very beatable team, especially with their starting pitching being so uneven.' "

Please don't hesitate to take something away from Teixeira, Rodriguez, Granderson, and Swisher.

The Yankees are a very beatable team, there is simply no denying this. The downside of an "all or nothing" approach is the "nothing."


" ... the window of opportunity is rapidly closing for this Yankee team. Indeed, Cano is the lone homegrown All-Star caliber position player to come out of the Yankee player development department since Jeter in 1996, and while there are some promising outfielders in A-ball, Tyler Austin, Mason Williams and Dante Bichette Jr., they remain years away, and until further notice subject to the popular saying around baseball about Yankee prospects: The closer they get to the big leagues, the less they like them."

Okay, okay, okay. I am crying "uncle."

Cano, Gardner, Hughes, Nova, Pineda, Robertson, Nunez, Granderson ... Teixeira isn't old ...

The "window of opportunity" usually stays open for the Yankees. That's what the big payroll is for.


As for the future, the only future is Sunday night in Baltimore. Win that game before you worry about the future prospects of Dante Bichette Jr.