With Yankeeist favorite Nick "The Walk" Johnson on the shelf for the next several weeks (if not longer), one name that was floated as a potential replacement is the still-unsigned Jermaine Dye.While River Ave. Blues' Joe Pawlikowski enumerated plenty of reasons why no one is interested in Dye back in February, I wanted to at least look at Dye's offensive numbers compared to what the Yanks might get out of presumptive internal designated hitter replacement Juan Miranda.
If Miranda were to actually hit to his average 2010 wOBA projection (his 2009 wOBA is through eight mostly meaningless September games), then Dye makes absolutely no sense, especially given that he's apparently on an extended egotrip. I also threw Carlos Delgado in there for comparison's sake, although he apparently won't be ready until June at the earliest. Still, if The Stick's injury lingers, and the Yanks aren't getting much of anything out of their internal options, I'd imagine they'd at least kick the tires on Delgado. The .394 wOBA last year is only over 26 games, but it may indicate that he's not quite done yet.
TYU broke down what the Yankee lineup would be projected to score with Juan Miranda as the primary DH (5.372 runs per game) and Marcus Thames (5.398 runs per game) as the primary DH.
For comparison's sake, the Yankee lineup (ZIPS' ROS projections) with Jermaine Dye's 2009 numbers (with Dye batting 7th, Thames 8th and Gardner 9th) would project to score 5.518 runs per game, and Carlos Delgado's 2009 numbers (Delgado 7th, Thames 8th and Gardner 9th) would project to score 5.658 runs per game.
I'm not necessarily sold on either Thames or Miranda, although it seems like Thames would be a slightly better option -- despite some big minor league numbers I'm just not sold on Miranda being able to handle daily duty at the Major League level. However, I'm more than happy to be wrong, and I have a feeling the Yankees would rather find out what they have in Miranda than pursue a washed-up, overpriced and aging former slugger.
With the way Cervelli is playing, I am interested in seeing Posada at DH and catching against lefties and DHing Thames in these games. If Cervelli stops hitting, then I would make a change, but as long as he's hitting, I say give it a try. of course, this would probably necessitate carrying a 3rd catcher, which isn't especially versatile. I guess Montero's numbers dont warrant a call up at this point for DH duty.
ReplyDelete~jamie
Hey Jamie,
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately Montero's at .234/.294/.362 on the young season, so no need to rush him to The Show just yet.
If a Delgado or Dye were willing to come wayyyy down in price (a la Frank Thomas signing for $500k with the A's a couple seasons ago) I'd say yes. Let them come in hungry and play for a 2011 contract. But $3 million for Dye is absurd.
ReplyDeleteis a salary under $5 ever really absurd for the Yankees? I'm not advocating for Dye as I think the Yankees are fine with their in house options (at least until trade deadline deal)
ReplyDeletein fact, I think the Yankees, Phillies and Red Sox should all have to pay their players the premium bucks for having to put up with the insane local medias. look at today's NY Post cover: http://www.nypost.com/archives/covers/
I love that the Post uses photoshop on their front cover - their like an insane, fake right wing daily show
Can you imagine what its like to have to answer questions from these knuckleheads every day? (you heard ARod actually said, "Uncle" in response to the repeated Dallas Braden questions?) I'm sure the NY Daily News is no better