As I have said before, Melky Cabrera is a polarizing figure amongst Yankees fans. While most love his exuberance and obvious love for the game, his talent has been questioned by many, including myself. Even when things were going well for Melky in the past, you always felt like the other shoe was bound to drop. he did not seem to have the swing to make consistent solid contact, and his approach at the plate was often awful. Yet all of that has changed. Melky is hitting .328/.374/.492, good enough for 6th in the majors in OPS for center fielders. He has also played an excellent outfield, with a UZR/150 of 19.2. While I would point to last year and say that Melky has started quickly before, the truth is that May is almost over. It will soon be time for us to stop calling it a good stretch and starting calling it a good season. Most importantly, Melky’s approach and ability to drive the ball seem to have improved enough for us to look at his performance and not expect him to totally collapse at some point. From Tyler Kepner:
“He’s hitting the ball hard and seeing a lot of pitches, taking great at-bats,” Long said.
Long said he based that on both personal observation and statistics not quantified in box scores. After every game, Long evaluates each at-bat, like a hitting-coach version of Roger Ebert: thumbs up or thumbs down.Cabrera, he said, has had 61 percent “good at-bats” this season, the highest percentage of any player on the Yankees. To Long, a good at-bat is defined as any hit, walk or hit-by-pitch, or any at-bat that consumes a lot of pitches or ends in an especially hard-hit ball.
As for those hard-hit balls, Long keeps track of those, too. He said Cabrera has hit the ball hard in 51 percent of his at-bats, also tops on the team. Fifty-one percent is an extremely high figure, he said. By Long’s calculations, a very good hitter will hit the ball on the sweet spot only about 40 percent of the time.
Melky lost his job at the end of 2008 and was told to work on his plate discipline and approach at the plate. By being more selective, he is eating up more pitches per at-bat and making better and more consistent contact. He lost the job coming out of spring training, but it is hard not to be impressed with the way he handled that situation and prepared himself for his opportunity. He has had a wonderful start to the season, and his at-bats are no longer a sight to avoid. A few more weeks of play like this, and I think those of us who did not believe in Melky will be gladly forced to admit that we were wrong. I look forward to it.
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9 Responses to The Resurgence Of Melky Cabrera
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TIQ IQ
A 24 year old is not one to give up on…so, I didn’t. I just thought (and still do) Brett had more aspects of the game going for him…everything except; HR-power and arm.
Right now, there is no doubt in my mind that Melky deserves to be in CF. Brett has been hitting much better the last few times he has played, which is good for the team. I would like to see both of them play well because, next year both Nady and Johnny will be gone. Hopefully, we can bring up A-Jax for CF move Melky to LF and Brett can play backup for all of them (he will come in as a CF).
Yankees win! Check it out. ;)
Melky was part of it. =D
http://adiehardyankeesfan.blogspot.com/2009/05/rods-5-hits-help-back-hughes-8-shutout.html
Glad to see Melky coming through in the clutch. Sign of some good things. In the past he always had some trouble. As I have been saying since ST, I believe that Melky is capable of .280-.300, 8-12 HRs, and that would be a great year for him at this stage.
I also believe that Gardner can play at this level. I have never bought into Ranger’s theory that Gardner deserved starting job, but both of these guys can play and will have solid careers.
Of course, they will go 0-50 now that we have written this stuff.
Lol, I hope not. I think Gardner was always slated to be a bench guy. Many of us wanted him for the starting job over Melky, but I dont think most of us thought he would ever be an above average major leaguer.
He could very well be an average player for the Yanks but, he is a very good and needed weapon the Yanks have sorely missed…along with Pena and Cervelli. Having bench players with skills like those three, is great for the team.
If Melky can keep playing as he has been, is there any doubt which one should be in CF? If we go by ST…Brett won the job. After that…he lost it! Let’s all hope that they both keep playing as well as they have the last few weeks, if so…no thoughts of black hole. Even Brett has picked up his game a bit, with Pena and Cervelli also showing what they have to offer the team…things are looking good!
So far in May Gardner in LIMITED time has 39 pa is batting .313 with a .436 obp. There is no reason to give up on Brett regaining the Cf job. Melky has always been very streaky so the jury is out on whether he with continue or implode. If he continues he will be good trade bait.
scott l
May 25th, 2009 at 22:26 · Reply
So far in May Gardner in LIMITED time has 39 pa is batting .313 with a .436 obp.
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Optimism, now I like that. One must remember Melky has had over 2 years ML experience to Bretts’ month and a half or two. I will not give up on any of them…they are all young, very little ML experience, with a large learning curve to over come. Melky is way ahead of the other three guys.
Optimistically, I would say; the 4 guys (Melky, Brett,Pena and Cervelli) have a lower up-side then guys such as A-Jax but, the floor is much better then some of the star or bust types.
Gardner can be a valuable major league player, but I believe its as a 4th outfielder. You need players like that on winning teams. However, Melky has a much brighter future.
Melky a brighter future is a JOKE! He can not maintain is lofty babip going forward. He has 4BB in his last 100 pa. Trade asap!