Most Yankees fans have been pleasantly surprised by the numbers put forth thus far by Robinson Cano and Melky Cabrera. The two buddies have been in the middle of a bunch of game winning rallies, with Melky in particular notching a number of game winning hits. However, a closer look at the statistics suggest that since a hot April, neither player has been especially impressive.
Cano started the season by walking more often and seeing more pitches than we had come to expect from him. In April, he hit .366/.400/.581. It seemed like he had thrown off the burden of his poor 2008 and gotten back to the Robinson Cano that people expected to be a star. However, he went .272/.297/.465 in May and is at .171/.237/.171 in June. He looks uncomfortable at the plate again, and has been coming up small with runners on base.
Melky has had a similar experience, which has been hidden by the fact that many of his hits have come in important spots. He also changed his approach this season, seeing more pitches than ever before and driving the ball to all fields. While he has maintained his improved eye at the plate, his triple slash numbers have plummeted from .327/.400/.571 in April to .321/.348/.429 in May to .161/.235/.290 in June. He did injure his shoulder coming into June which may explain the drop in his performance.
What can we expect going forward? With Cano, he has traditionally had awful first halves and then turned it on after the All Star break (.738 OPS vs. .884) . The fact that he has had a solid first two months suggests that if he holds true to form, he may put up some of his best numbers yet. I would expect Robbie to break out of his slump shortly and to carry this club for a bit, as he can certainly do when he gets hot.
In regard to Melky, his career splits show his best months to be June and July, but there is nothing too stark to draw any real conclusions from. Even during his recent slump, he looks like a different hitter than he did during the last few seasons. I would expect performance to match what he did in May from here on out for Melky, which would make for a very solid season when coupled with his excellent April. Those numbers would almost certainly be enough to hold off Brett Gardner for the CF job.
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12 Responses to A Closer Look At Cano and Melky
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TIQ IQ
Moshe way to much faith in SOUR MELK!
The injury to Melky came at a really unfortunate time, it will be interesting to see if he’s mature enough to re-focus and get those numbers back up. He would have to suck pretty bad in order for me to feel good about playing Bunt Gardner out there every day.
I want Brett Gardner out in center field and SOUR MELK traded as there is no future in NY for him other then possibly in Queens.
Is it really so hard to fathom that a 24 year old will improve a bit? His May numbers are just a little better than his 2006 numbers. Makes sense to me. I’m not saying he will be an All Star or anything.
He’s turning 25 in 2 months. Melky is smoke and mirrors and the sooner he is gone the better. With all the starting pitching the Yankees have I believe a trade is coming. Hopefully they will trade for a big bat that can play the outfield. Gardner and Jackson will be fine in CF is Melky goes.
Could we get some data to support that? Something that tells us that Melky is not going to take even a little step forward?
And since when is Austin Jackson an automatic sure thing to produce once he’s brought up?
The last 2 years are enough Melky for me to see that he will always be an inconsistent player in NY. Austin Jackson should be a better player then Melky right now but who knows for sure. I am very much looking forward to seeing what he can do.
I think you are right on Mosh, especially with Cano I predict him to bust out as per usual post all star break and put up some career numbers. I’m hoping that him and Arod do their thing around the same time, then look out…
I’m hoping that this is a DOMINANT post All-Star break team. There are guys on this team that are historically better in the second half… Pettite, Burnett, Cano, Tex, ARod?, CC, …even Jeter & Hughes have had good latter season performances. Couple this fact with the possibility of some minor league reinforcements, i.e. Melancon, Garcia?, we can see a team that may just pull away. Of course this is total wishful thinking, but a definite possibility. No?
Moshe over/under on Melky reaching 20 total hits for the month of June? I am taking the under what say you?
I’ll take the over. He has 5 already, in spite of the shoulder injury. I think he gets there.