Cash’s scrap heap

By On August 4, 2011 · 14 Comments · In Player Analysis

Raise your hand if you thought Luis Ayala would still be on the team in July. Put your damn hand down, you liar.

Don’t even try to tell me you thought Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia would combine for 35 starts and counting.

Go ahead, let’s make some more jokes about this being a mid-2000′s All Star team with Colon, Garcia, Andruw Jones, and Eric Chavez.

Let’s laugh all we want now at our former selves. Were we ever wrong about this or what? The Yankees have gotten great production out of each one of those guys–not to mention Cory Wade–so let’s use this thread to appreciate Brian Cashman’s great work in signing these so called has-beens.

(All stats current as of the beginning of last night’s game)

Russell Martin was unceremoniously non-tendered by the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Yankees and Red Sox competed for his services. Luckily, the Yankees won out. He started the year on an incredible hot streak and hit .293/.376/.587/.963. Since then, he’s cooled off considerably (.201/.309/.287/.596) but he’s still provided good defense behind the plate and has reportedly helped the pitching staff considerably.

Colon and Garcia, as mentioned, have combined for 35 starts thus far and have a collective ERA of 3.26 and a collective FIP of 3.61 while striking out 7.08 per nine while walking just 2.51 per nine (2.83 K/BB). They’ve combined for 4.7 bWAR and 4.5 fWAR. This is just…awesome. The Yankees have gotten a fantastic return on their investments in Colon and Garcia.

Luis Ayala has done a great job with control (2.76 BB/9) while keeping the ball in the park (0.28 HR/9) which has led to a 3.24 FIP (80 FIP-) and a 3.84 xFIP (98 xFIP-) despite limited strikeout numbers (6.06 K/9). All told, Ayala and his 1.65 ERA have been worth 1.1 bWAR and 0.4 fWAR in 32.2 IP. Cory Wade has a nice shiny 2.08 ERA to go along with a 3.69 FIP (91 FIP-) and 3.48 xFIP (88 xFIP-). The former Dodger has been worth 0.1 fWAR and 0.4 bWAR, though those low totals are due to the fact that he’s pitched fewer than 20 innings.

Eric Chavez, who added a two-run homer and a two-run single last night, has been great when he’s been on the field. His fielding looks smooth, like it always did, and his swing has looked fine. He did miss time with a foot injury, but there’s been nothing wrong with his performance.

As for Andruw Jones, I couldn’t be happier with him. It seems that a lot of people want to rip on this dude every time he makes an out, but he was brought to New York to hit lefties. Guess what he’s done? He’s destroyed left handed pitching. His line against lefties is .259/.344/.506/.850 (.247 IsoP, .371 wOBA). Keep on keeping on, Andruw.

The Yankees get a lot of attention for the way the dole out big contracts, but the biggest non-CC Sabathia contributions they’ve gotten on the mound have come from two guys picked out of the bargain bin. Their lefty mashing bat is a supposed-to-be-washed up veteran. Brian Cashman did a great job filling in the holes in the Yankee roster before the season started, and for that, he should be applauded many, many times over.

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14 Responses to Cash’s scrap heap

  1. UYF1950 says:
    August 4, 2011 at 12:10 pm

    Matt – Cashman absolutely deserves all the kudo’s this year. He’s been able to spin gold from straw (if you will allow me the analogy). I agree with each and every thing you said with 1 caveat I’m still not a big fan of Jones. Aside from the fact that in my opinion I cringe every time he’s up at the plate. He’s taking away time from other players that in my opinion contribute more to the team then he does. That’s just my opinion, but I can live the one question mark in my mind when Cashman was able to sign all the others at ridiculous prices.

    Reply
    • MJ Recanati says:
      August 4, 2011 at 12:29 pm

      “[Jones is] taking away time from other players that in my opinion contribute more to the team then he does.”

      In fairness, the only person (singular) he might be taking time away from is Brett Gardner. I can’t think of a single other player that should be playing over Andruw Jones. Certainly not Jorge Posada and certainly not Chris Dickerson.

      Reply
      • UYF1950 says:
        August 4, 2011 at 1:15 pm

        I believe he’s also filled in for Swisher playing about 30% of the games he has played in RF. And in a round about way he has taken games away from Granderson. While he doesn’t necessary play CF they have on occasion moved Gardner over over from LF to CF and inserted Jones in LF. Does Jones serve a purpose? Sure, but sometimes it seems like he’s inserted into the lineup just to give him at bats, and in my opinion he’s still taking away time from other more productive ballplayer(s).

        Reply
        • MJ Recanati says:
          August 4, 2011 at 2:13 pm

          Nick Swisher and Curtis Granderson have played in 103 and 107 of the team’s 109 games, respectively. Granderson is 10th in the American League with 474 plate apperances (Pedroia leads the AL with 502).

          Respectfully, I see no evidence to support your claim.

          Reply
  2. MJ Recanati says:
    August 4, 2011 at 12:26 pm

    Matt – I agree. However, I’m a veteran of many wars with a particular blogger (name intentionally withheld) who would argue that the Garcia/Colon ROI is pure luck and that Cashman should not get any credit for good fortune.

    Just to play devil’s advocate, what do you think about that?

    Reply
    • Moshe Mandel says:
      August 4, 2011 at 12:34 pm

      I don’t think he should get credit for them being this good. But there were a ton of scrap heap guys that the Yankees could have gotten, and the two they picked have been among the best, while many of the others have lived on the DL or pitched poorly. He needs to be credited for them being useful members of the team.

      Reply
      • MJ Recanati says:
        August 4, 2011 at 12:37 pm

        I think that’s a very fair compromise statement.

        Reply
      • Tom Swift says:
        August 4, 2011 at 1:06 pm

        Cashman gets blamed when he has bad luck. He should get at least some credit when he has good luck. I don’t know how deep into the post season the Yanks get this year. But this will be a better year than many predicted coming out of Spring Training. Not only that, we kept our minor league chips, so we are in excellent shape for 2012. Cashman makes mistakes, who doesn’t, but overall he is an excellent executive. If he leaves after this year, we fans will miss him.

        Reply
  3. smurfy says:
    August 4, 2011 at 12:40 pm

    Heartwarming story, Matt. In it, the Yankees diplomatic/PR corps can score again: show loyalty to all these guys, at least until they falter.

    A fella I know, who cares deeply about the club, wants to non-tender Garcia and, probably, Colon. He wants to sign CJ Wilson. Sounds like the traditional Yankee way to war: get the best you can, let the chips fall.

    I say, keep your plans in your back pocket, only to come out when either seriously falters, and doesn’t recover. Rather than lock up an apparently strong rotation, I would rather go with these guys, making a fair offer (say, $5 – 10 mm, considering their production this year, and include a slight discount for risk) for next year. Do it toward the end of the season, when they have proven sturdy.

    They make the perfect compromise: current strong production; not so precious as to stand athwart developing our pitching prospects.

    Not to mention the pride that ensues.

    Reply
  4. Phil C says:
    August 4, 2011 at 3:27 pm

    What about Tony Pena getting some credit? He was the one pushing Cashman to sign Colon.

    Reply
  5. bpdelia says:
    August 4, 2011 at 4:44 pm

    Matt it pains me to be contrarian to your posts today but one slight nitpick.

    I personally (maybe it’s just me) find fip- and xfip- to be jarring and kinda annoying.

    I understand the idea that in pitching stats surrounding run precention “lower is better” but we have all become so accustomed to the + scale stats by now and since the – scale stats don’t seem to add much to our understanding of how they have pitched it’s just faster and easier for most (I think) to stick with + scale stats.

    Anyhoo, I fully expected Garcia to make 30 very solid starts and said so from the beginning. and I figured Martin woudl be a solid player and huge defensive upgrade. COlon had me optimistic once we saw him in ST.

    Ayala came as a surprise as did Wade.

    JOnes has done pretty much what just about everyone expected him to do.

    Cashman deserves tremendous, tremendous praise for these acquisitions.

    You can say he got lucky on COlon.

    But the Garcia, Martin, Ayala, Wade, Chavez, Jones, Gordon acquisitons have all been excellent moves and none of them “lucky”. Each one was easily defensible and well reasoned.

    Great job.

    Reply
  6. Thinking about the future | New York Yankees blog, Yankees blog, A blog about the New York Yankees | The Yankee Analysts says:
    August 5, 2011 at 11:01 am

    [...] I profiled the Yankees’ success (luck?) in their “scrap heap” pick ups and how they’ve [...]

    Reply

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