The best Left Fielders in New York Yankee history

The Yankees have had a number of good outfielders in franchise history, with many playing more than one spot. But who are the best left fielders? I took a look at who played the most games at the position, and put up good offensive as well as defensive numbers. Contribution to championship teams was also taken into consideration when ranking the players. Here are the top five Yankee Left Fielders of all time:

5) Lou Piniella: Playing in over 450 games in left field during his eleven seasons from 1974-1984, Piniella was a decent fielder with a strong arm. He was a .295 hitter during his time with the Yankees and produced a number of key hits in crucial games while contributing to World Series titles in 1977 and 1978.

4) Hideki Matsui: Matsui manned left field in over 550 games for New York from 2003-2009. He was steady defensively, and averaged .284 while driving in over 100 runs in four seasons during his seven years with the Yanks. Matsui was named the MVP of the 2009 World Series.

3) Bob Meusel: Playing 626 games in left field from 1920 to 1929 (he also played right field and third base for a total of 1,294 games in his Yankee career), Meusel contributed to three World Series titles. He ranks eighth all time on the Yankees with a .311 batting average; is tenth with 338 doubles; and twelfth 1,005 RBI.

2) Charlie Keller: Keller played in 870 games in left field during eleven seasons with the Yankees, from 1939-1949. His on-base percentage of .410 ranks fourth in team history, behind only Ruth, Gehrig, and Mantle. He is also eighth in slugging percentage with a .518 average, and his .982 fielding percentage in left is higher than the league average of .974 at the time. Keller also drove in 18 runs in 19 World Series games, contributing to three titles.

1) Roy White: Appearing in 1,521 games in left field during his fifteen years with the team from 1965-1979, White delivered a number of key hits throughout his career and was an important contributor to the Yankees' championship teams of 1976, 1977, and 1978. While he didn't have a great arm his .987 fielding percentage was higher than the American League left fielders average of .978 at the time. On the all-time records' lists for the Yankees White ranks seventh in games played with 1,881, eighth in walks with 934, fifth in stolen bases with 233, second in sacrifice flies with 69, and fourth in the power-speed category with a number of 189.7, behind only Jeter, Mantle, and Williams. White's steady play makes him the best Left Fielder in Yankees history.

Votes for the Baseball Hall of Fame

With major league baseball's hall of fame voting for 2015 due out soon, there's a few first time nominees who are likely to earn enough votes to get inducted – such as pitcher Randy Johnson - three other former players also deserve to be enshrined - Alan Trammell, Lee Smith, and Tim Raines.

Shortstop Alan Trammell played 20 years with the Detroit Tigers, and the six time all-star’s offensive and defensive numbers match up well with Larkin's. In 20 years Trammell hit .285 with 185 home runs, 1,003 RBI's, 236 stolen bases, and had a .977 fielding percentage. He also batted .333 in postseason games. Larkin played 19 years with the Reds, compiling a .295 batting average, 198 home runs, 960 RBI's, 379 stolen bases, and a .975 fielding percentage while hitting .338 in the postseason.

Relief pitcher Lee Smith, a seven time All Star, ranks third in major league history with 478 saves, behind only legends Trevor Hoffman and Mariano Rivera. Smith led the National League in saves in four seasons, and his career ERA of 3.03 compares well with Hall of Fame relievers Bruce Sutter's 2.83 and Rollie Fingers' 2.90.

Outfielder Tim Raines, also a seven time All Star selection, ranks fifth in baseball history with 808 stolen bases, but he also had a career batting average of .294 and an on base percentage of .385. He was a player who set the table for his teams, which included the Expos, White Sox, and Yankees, among others.

Major League Baseball's Hall of Fame is certain to be getting a lot of attention in the upcoming months and years. A number of outstanding former players will be listed on voters' ballots; some will certainly be inducted in their first year of eligibility.

An intriguing storyline involves four former players who all almost certainly would have been inducted in their first year - if they hadn't been implicated in the steroid investigation. For Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds, and Roger Clemens, it doesn't look good at this point.

Yankees ought to just release Alex Rodriguez

The Alex Rodriguez saga is dreadfully boring. Here's a guy who had tremendous talent, yet still decided to use steroids and whatever else to try and get an edge that he really did not need. Now there's suspensions, arbitration, lawsuits, stupid quotes by lawyers and baseball officials...who cares. This is more boring than a reality show.

The Yankees ought to just release Rodriguez and pay him whatever millions of dollars that he's owed. If another team picks him up, fine. I wouldn't worry about it. He's not a good player anymore, and the Yankees don't need all the nonsense. Just sign Mark Reynolds to play third base. They'd basically end up giving the team the same production on offense and their defense wouldn't be much different.

Giving Rodriguez a 10 year contract was dumb, a move that George Steinbrenner would have made if he had been lucid at the time, although he didn't have to be, since his dumb son Hank made the deal anyway.

Can we please move on from this craziness and get back to just playing baseball?

Yanks' 24-14 record proves you don't need stars to win games

The Yankees have one the best records in the major leagues at the moment, with a 24-14 won/loss record. this with many of their highly paid "stars" on the disabled list - Kevin Youklis, Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, Mark Texiera, and Curtis Granderson. Yet with all the millions those guys are getting for doing rehabilitation exercises, the current team has been winning games with journeymen and cast-offs from other teams.  How? Clutch hitting. Infielder Jayson Nix has been steady defensively and while he has only 7 RBI's, they have come at important times. Same for first baseman Lyle Overbay, who has been reliable in the field and has driven in 22 runs, most at crucial spots in games. Outfielder Vernon Wells has also provided a number of clutch hits.

The Yankees' pitching has also been steady. Hiroki Kuroda has dominated in his starts, and the young pitchers have showed that it's been worth it to give them a chance. Adam Warren has been lights-out as a reliever, and David Phelps, Vidal Nuno, and Preston Claiborne have also baffled opposing hitters.

It will be interesting to see what happens when the Yankees' high priced beef returns. Nix will be relegated to the bench, and Overbay will probably be designated for assignment, while Wells will see his at-bats shrink. But will the team keep winning?

Yanks' Gardner not making a difference in centerfield so far

Baseball's sabermatricians often talk about range factor, zone fielding, and runs saved when calculating defensive statistics. I'm not sure if any of it actually translates into wins on the field for a team, but if it does matter, it doesn't seem like the Yankees made the right decision about moving Brett Gardner to centerfield and shifting Curtis Granderson to left field this season.

While it's somewhat of moot point being that Granderson has missed the first month of the season due to a broken arm and Gardner has had to play centerfield, since the Yanks have no one else who could really do it everyday, taking a look at Gardner's defensive stats seem to show that he hasn't made much of a difference.

In 19 games and 172 innings to date Gardner has been minus 6 in runs above or below average that a fielder is worth based on the number of plays made. Over the course of a 162 game season that means he would cost the Yankees 40 runs.  Hardly the type of stat that you would want from your regular centerfielder. His current range factor is 2.30, only slightly above the league average of 2.26.

While it's obvious Gardner's speed allows him to cover a lot of ground and get to balls that other fielders would not, at the moment the statistics don't support the idea that he is an outstanding defensive centerfielder.  On the other hand, it could mean that sabermetrics don't mean all that much. As long as the fielder doesn't make any obvious errors on fly balls or throws, perhaps the .04 percentage difference in range factor isn't going to translate into a championship for a baseball team.

New baseball book available online

Here’s a new baseball book, available for 99 cents, at Smashwords.com:

Christopher J, Author of The Perfect Game
Sample or purchase The Perfect Game: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/260583

Also available at Amazon.com.

Yankees were swinging the bats like slow pitch softball players during the playoffs

Yankee manager Joe Girardi said during the playoffs that his hitters had to make "adjustments." Unfortunately none of them did. All they did do was stand at the plate and hack away like they were playing slow pitch softball.

None of the Yankee batters tried stay back in the box, drive the ball where it was pitched and into the opposite field, or not hit lazy fly balls. It should be obvious that the Yankee hitters had success during the regular season because they were smacking around fastballs from mediocre pitchers.

But when a pitcher would throw a changeup or curveball in a fastball count, the Yankees appeared helpless. They were way too aggressive and chased bad pitches. Even in hitters' counts, the Yankees flailed at pitches out of the strike zone.

Some so-called baseball experts believe that a strikeout is no worse that grounding out, but with men on base it's always better to put the ball in play, since it can move runners around the bases, or maybe a fielder makes an error which can keep an inning going.

Curtis Granderson had a couple of good all-around seasons while playing with the Tigers, so next year  instead of just to hit a home run every time he's up, why not just wait on some pitches and try to make contact. Singles, doubles, and triples are good to hit, too.

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.

Yankees' Swisher Never Would Have Lasted with George Steinbrenner

Yanks' Nick Swisher Can't Take the Heat of New York City

Funny how current Yankee players who never met George Steinbrenner have praised him; guys like Swisher would have been the object of the owner's ire.

How can a baseball player who makes $10.25 million a year and has a career batting average of .167 in 45 postseason games be upset about being booed?

Last week the New York Yankees Nick Swisher expressed his disappointment at being booed by fans at Yankee Stadium as the Yankees fell behind two games to none in the American League Championship series against the Detroit Tigers.

Swisher was quoted as saying, "The last thing I ever thought in this ballpark was that people would get on me that bad. It hurts. Sometimes I'm a sensitive guy and some of the things people say get under your skin."

Yikes. Get under your skin? How would he have handled George Steinbrenner's wrath at his 4 hits in 30 at-bats performance in the 2012 playoffs so far?

Swisher has been a consistently good hitter for the Yankees in four regular seasons with the team, but his bat has been silent in each postseason series with the team. Even while he was with Chicago and Oakland, he was 5 for 24, a .208 average, in playoff games.

I'm not sure what Swisher expects fans to do. Why would anyone cheer if you're not getting it done? Especially when tickets to a game cost $300-$400 each.

Get over it, Nick.  You're just lucky old man Steinbrenner isn't alive. He's the one who would have run you out of town, not the fans.

How can Yankee relievers be "fatigued" when there's 12 of them in the bullpen??

After the Yankees' loss to Minnesota the other day catcher Russell Martin agreed that "fatigue" may have been a factor in relief pitcher Boone Logan's uncorking a wild pitch that led to a run and then getting hammered by several Twins batters that resulted in the Twins taking the lead in the seventh inning. Granted, Logan has pitched in a lot of games this season (76). But there's a total of 12 guys in the bullpen due to the expanded September rosters, so are we to believe there wasn't someone else who could have gotten the job done? Another pitcher who wasn't as "fatigued?"

Manager Joe Girardi has done a good job this year and in past seasons managing the workloads of his relievers. So to blame "fatigue" on not making pitches is a bit of a stretch. Logan's hasn't pitched badly but he's never been overly tough on lefty batters, either. Sometimes managers rely too much of matchups; out of all the pitchers in the bullpen there's got to be at least one who isn't "fatigued." Come on.

The Yankees need to start hitting some singles

The Yankees lead the major leagues in home runs and have remained in first place in the American League's East division for most of the 2012 season, but their inability to deliver singles with runners in scoring position may come back to haunt them for the rest of the season, and in the post season - if they make it..

Derek Jeter is the only Yankee who has been consistent this year. He can hit singles, get on base and drive in runners. The problem is though, there isn't always someone in scoring position when he gets up to bat. Unfortunately the Yankees have a number of regular players with low on base percentages (see Curtis Granderson .322, Ichiro Suzuki .314, Russell Martin .313, Andruw Jones .297, and Raul Ibanez .294) which doesn't help if a team is trying to manufacture some runs.

Robinson Cano is player that can and has hit singles, but he's been somewhat inconsistent this season. Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira have delivered clutch singles in their careers, but both have missed time this year because of injuries.

George Steinbrenner never really understood that giving a player a big contract meant that they would always deliver at the plate when it counts, and right about now it appears that Yankees GM Brian Cashman doesn't get it either, unless he was expecting something different when he put this team together.

The Yankees have a few weeks left to turn things around, so let's see if they can earn that big money they're all getting. The price of a a beer at Yankee Stadium is twelve bucks, but the Yanks have to still be playing in October if the franchise wants to collect some of that dough from their fans.

Hey Yankee-Haters, why don't you buy some of those empty seats at Yankee Stadium?

Hey Yankee-Haters, why don't you buy some of those empty seats at Yankee Stadium?  There's plenty of space to boo the team you hate.

Contrary to what Michael Kay and the YES Network say, there are some empty seats at New York's Yankee Stadium during games. Why don't Yankee-Haters buy some of those empty seats, jeer the Yankee players, and cheer for the opposing team?

"A sold out Yankee Stadium..." Well, maybe the tickets have been bought by brokers, but the seats are still empty. Fans who are Yankee-Haters ought to buy all those tickets, then go to the game and boo the Yankees. They could applaud when a Yankee strikes out or makes an error, and cheer when an opposing player gets a hit or makes a great defensive play.

Now, I know most reasonable fans don't want to spend their hard-earned money on going to a lot of baseball games to watch a team they don't even like, but think of the consternation that it would cause the Yankee management. They wouldn't be happy to hear people cheering the Yanks' opponent. And on the other hand, for the seats that aren't being bought by brokers - would they want to not bring in more money, by not selling those tickets? That would be quite a dilemma for the Steinbrenner clan.

So Yankee-Haters, put your money where your mouth is. Literally. Here's your chance to get some satisfaction and put your energy to good use.

http://www.mlb.com/http://www.yankees.com/http://www.mets.com/http://www.redsox.com/http://web.yesnetwork.com/index.jsp

Why does Major League Baseball even bother playing the All Star Game?

Major League Baseball's All Star Game has become nothing more than a silly exhibition game at this point. It's almost as a bad as the NFL's Pro Bowl.

Some of the players don't seem to approach the game as a competition. Just a different generation, perhaps. People and culture change, so maybe today's players just don't feel the same type of emotion about the All Star games as those 40, 50, and 60 years ago.

Then there's the money factor. Today's players earn so much in salary that the extra dollars that they collect from winning the All Star Game is almost insignificant. Why expend the energy and risk getting injured for a small amount of money? Forty years ago, those extra bucks could mean something to a player.

Inter-league play that began in 1997 has also diluted the excitement surrounding the All Star Game, as well as the World Series. It used to be that fans would see players from the American and National Leagues compete against each other only in the World Series and the All Star Game, so the midsummer classic had more drama and intrigue. Now that we've seen mixing of the leagues, the All Star Game has lost some of its luster. Even the Yankees-Mets rivalry isn't as intense anymore. Back in the early 1980's George Steinbrenner put a halt to the annual New York Mayors Trophy game between the two teams because it was so upsetting for him to have the Yankees lose to the Mets. Today, it's just another series against another team. Ho-hum.

The All Star game began feeling more like an exhibition in 1997 when pitcher Randy Johnson let a pitch fly over Larry Walker's head, just as entertainment, since Walker had previously expressed his fear in standing in the batter's box against the hard throwing lefty.

Major league's baseball's All Star Game accelerated its downward slide due to two incidents in 2002. Outfielder Tori Hunter made a sensational catch on a fly ball hit by Barry Bonds, robbing Bonds of a home run. Bonds picked up Hunter on his way off the field, with the two laughing. That display enforced the idea that the players weren't taking the game as seriously.

Then when Bud Selig ended the game in a tie, due to both sides running out of pitchers, the All Star game was seen as somewhat of a farce. Managers Joe Torre and Bob Brenly felt it was more important to get everyone on their rosters into the game - meaning winning the game was on the back burner.

Selig's lame attempt to instill some competition into the All Star game by declaring the winning league would have home field advantage in the World Series hasn't had much of an effect. Why would a player from a last place team even care about that? And, what if he was traded by the July 31 deadline to a team in the other league that had a shot at the postseason? Where would his allegiance be then?

Inter-league play has become meaningless and should be ended. For the All-Star game, give the players on the winning team a ton of money, like $300,000 each. Players on the losing team would only get $15,000. That would make them compete and take it seriously. Maybe then it would again become the Midsummer Classic.

http://www.mlb.com/

Memo to Joe Girardi: update the chapter in the Binder about utility players

Poor Eduardo Nunez. Asked to play the outfield without any experience. Joe Girardi and the front office have all that material and statistics, yet they throw a guy who's never played the outfield before into the fire. Just because he wanted to get another right-handed bat into lineup against a lefty pitcher? That's a questionable strategy.  I understand they're short players because of Swisher's injury, but put Andruw Jones and Raul Ibanez in the outfield and just let Nunez be the DH. While Jones and Ibanez aren't gold glovers, at least they can still make the routine plays. The Yanks could have given Nunez more time in the outfield during spring training, if they had wanted him to be more of a utility player. Time to update the binder, Joe.