A-Rod needing two days off brings up an issue, one that’s been simmering under the surface all season. In a perfect world, we would have been DHing Alex once a week to keep him fresh. But we live in an imperfect world, and now A-Rod has worn himself out to the point that we’ve lost him for two days, and at a point of the season where we’re coming off a bad stretch (caused in part by Alex’s struggles) and could really use a fresh Alex and his bat.
Hideki Matsui presents the biggest problem for this team roster-wise. Heading into this year, he had to hit A LOT for him to make any sense for this team, and up to now he hasnt. His OPS is the lowest
of all the starting regulars except for Melky, who is light years ahead of him defensively. If you try to play Hideki in the outfield, the difference between Hideki’s .818 OPS and Melky’s .793 isn’t worth the defensive downgrade. Whenever you try to find ways to rest the regulars, or give up a little hitting to upgrade your defense, you quickly realize that you’re stuck and Matsui is involved.
If Hideki can play the field at all (doubtful) he’s a Left Fielder at best. He really doesn’t have the arm to play Right. Girardi has no desire to play Damon in CF anymore, where Johnny is no longer an adequate defender, so in order to play Matsui that means you have to sit Damon or DH Johnny and sit Posada. In either scenario, you have weakened the team both defensively and offensively in order to play Hideki. If you bite the bullet and move Damon to CF and play Hideki in LF, you have a slightly better lineup but one of the worst defensive outfields in the game. Again, not worth it.
I’ll run through some of the scenarios, each of which could help the team but inevitably Matsui complicates things.
DH Posada more-3 of the starting 5 pitchers have had issues with Posada at some point this season. At 37, you’d like to DH Jorge more even if the pitchers all loved him, which they don’t. But DHing Posada more means Hideki sits and rusts on the bench. But I think Girardi is moving in this direction anyway, particularly vs tough Lefties.
Rotate the aging regulars through the DH-We already covered Posada. Coming off hip surgery, A-Rod needs some days off from playing the field. Damon and Jeter are 35 and could use a blow here and there. There are even situations where you would prefer to DH Nick Swisher and go with your best defensive OF in Gardner/Cabrera. But Hideki would almost never play if we did this.
Play Matsui in Left Field-Perhaps the worst of all scenarios. Playing Hideki over Johnny Damon would be a downgrade offensively and defensively. Johnny runs the bases better, makes the lineup go and is one of our more consistent hitters, wheras Matsui is one of our more streaky hitters. With Johnny’s new found Yankee stadium power, even his OPS is higher than Hideki this season. You only do this if Johnny’s hurt.
Trade Matsui for a PTBNL-Can’t do it. At 13 mil you’d have to eat most of the contract in order to move him, at which point you might as well keep him around rather than pay him to help someone else.
BTW-This is without Xavier Nady on the team, who should return in a few weeks. Nady figures to give us yet another LF/DH to try to find playing time for.
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0 Responses to The Square Peg named Hideki Matsui
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TIQ IQ
Is it reasonable for him to simply not play? I mean, Angel Berroa had 5 ABs in 30+ games, so can’t we just sit Matsui? It is quite clearly detrimental to the team to have him in the lineup. Other than as a occasional pinch hitter, his has little value you, he’s truly a square peg on this team.
How much baseball of any kind is in Hideki’s future after this season?
Would it be possible to move him back to the Yomiyuri Giants in some type of transaction during this season if he isn’t fitting in the best line-up/rotation for the Yanks?
I am a fan of Matsui, he is (was) a very dependable player for the Yanks and a class act. I feel for his leg problems, without which he would still be a very serviceable LF.
Be that as it may, he is a liability at this stage of his game. When hot he can (has) carry the team for a few weeks, when not…ground balls to 2nd or 1st. It would be nice if they would play him about 3/4 games a week and let others DH for a game or so.
Class guys are far and few between, hate to lose him but, team comes first.
Right on (as usual) OR.
I talked about this in the spring. For an AL team, he is not a square peg. He is in a slump, and although his numbers aren’t great, he is third among DH’s in OPS. If he is clogging up the roster, they can always put him on the bench as a pinch hitter. For a team that carried illustrious fielders like Ruben Sierra and Chili Davis on the bench, this should not be a big deal. It only hurts in these 9 games, where you need a bench with players that can field. Otherwise, really not a huge deal- I think he is an asset.
[...] S — you all might know him better as The Artist — writes about the Hideki Matsui situation over at The Yankees Universe. Hideki is putting up good numbers, but is taking up the DH spot, [...]
Trade Matsui for a PTBNL
Per Cot’s:
# 4 years/$52M (2006-09)
* signed extension with Yankees 11/05
* 06:$13M, 07:$13M, 08:$13M, 09:$13M
* full no-trade clause
Our best lineup includes Matsui at the DH. It is nice to give the veterans a rest, but we also have to win games. I don’t see a problem with the way the Yanks are handling the situation. They have seen to find a balance with resting the regulars and playing Matsui.