Friday, October 19, 2012

Yankees' lazy Cano one of MLB's most over-rated players

There was plenty of blame to go around in the Yankees' losses in the 2012 American League Championship Series against the Detroit Tigers. No one really hit well so it's unfair to get on any one guy such as Alex Rodriguez. Of course, we must recognize that the Yankees did win 95 games in the regular season and 26 other teams in baseball wish they were in the Yanks' shoes. Plus, the Tigers are hardly slouches.

Still, Robinson Cano is one player who gets a lot of accolades from some members of the media (well maybe just the Yanks' TV and radio announcers) but doesn't really deserve them. Yes he's a good hitter most of the time and provides solid defense in the field.  But he's not the kind of player who can carry a team and doesn't always hit in the clutch during the regular season. He hasn't done much in any of the Yankees' post-seasons, batting .222 with a .267 on-base percentage in 203 at-bats. The 2009 world series was won without any help from Cano, as he went 3 for 22 with one RBI.

He's been defended as appearing lazy when he's really just making plays look easy; that may be true, but it’s also true he doesn't always run out ground balls.

Cano can be included among the fifty greatest Yankees of all time because of his numbers, but let's not get his plaque ready for Cooperstown just yet. He still has a ways to go to be included among the game's greatest second basemen of all time.

No comments:

Post a Comment