All hail Helen!!

All hail Helen!!
Helen Carmona and your humble blogger

Saturday, April 5, 2008

Suspensions taking their toll

It may seem insignificant, a ninth-place hitter missing two games against a perennial loser like the Rays, but Melky Cabrera's absence last night had disastrous consequences for the Bombers, and today could be more of the same.

With Cabrera sitting out the two-game, reduced suspension the league offered him on Friday, manager Joe Girardi is forced to move Johnny Damon to centerfield, leaving him two unattractive options for the spot Damon must vacate in left. He can either put Shelley Duncan in the field and continue to DH Hideki Matsui, or he can let Matsui patrol left, which is what Girardi did last night.

And we all saw what happened.

There's no way to let LaTroy Hawkins off the hook for his two-game disaster show, but if Damon is in left last night, that fly ball off Eric Hinske's bat is caught, and Hawkins is out of the inning and the game is 7-4, not 13-4. Does Duncan get to that ball? Who knows.... but Matsui should only play left field again in an emergency. He's that bad now. It may be the cold weather in New York, but it looks to me like his injuries the last two seasons have aged him, and he just looks incapable of being a competent major league fielder anymore.

Duncan's loss Sunday and Monday won't hurt as much as has the absence of Cabrera. Joe Torre was correct when he referenced Cabrera's taking over centerfield last year as the turning point in the season. The Yankee defense is not solid enough to withstand the loss of an up the middle defender the caliber of Cabrera, even if Cabrera is still prone to taking some strange angles on balls.

Let's get past today, and come Tuesday let's put this whole sad suspension business behind us and get the whole roster moving forward.

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