“I think giving up on Cabrera at 23 will come back to haunt the Yankees”

I don’t.

Melky Cabrera is 24 (25 next season) and has logged 1,608 plate apperances in the big leagues. He’s posted an unspectacular .703 OPS. There are statistical indicators we look for to see if a young player is developing – is he walking more, are a higher % of his flyballs going for home runs – and he exhibits none of them. In ‘06 Melky had a slightly high BABIP, and in ’08 it was slightly low. His ’07 season is realistically the best we could expect to see from him in the future – slightly above average defense, slightly below average offense. Melky’s career stolen base success rate is around 75% – nothing to get too excited about.

Cameron is old and on the downside of his career. Yet, for 2009, he represents an improvement over Cabrera (or Brett Gardner, for that matter). Cameron projects to contribute similar defense but much more from the plate. Cameron is a different type hitter than Cabrera is, but he still represents an upgrade of anywhere from 80-100 points of OPS at the plate. He is a place-holder until Austin Jackson is ready, but he is a worthy place-holder.

There’s talk of the Yankees including other players, depending on how much of Cameron’s salary the Brewers eat. As long as they don’t include anything more than a Grade B prospect, I like this deal.

Being younger and “making more contact” is nice, but 80 points of OPS is 80 points of OPS.

…but not much else. Personally, I would have liked to have seen Gardner in center and maybe he will see some time if Cameron struggles, but by the end of last year i would groan every time Cabrera came to the plate.
Does anyone think there is anything else to this trade involving Cabrera’s friendship with Cano? Just speculation but:
-Was Cabrera a bad infuence on Cano? Did they at all cause each other to lose focus on baseball?
-Is this at all a sign that the Yanks might be considering trading Cano?

You don’t trade a player because he’s friends with another player.

Cano is actually a talented hitter coming off a down year. Melky is a 4th outfielder. End of story.

Update:

According to baseball prospectus, they are talking about expanding this deal to be Cameron & Bill Hall for Melky Cabrera, KEI IGAWA, and a minor leaguer.

KEI frickin’ IGAWA.

I understand Cash overpaying for CC, but his allegedly guaranteeing 5th year to Burnett and this proposed with the Brewers is ridiculous. It seems like Cash is chasing just about everyone such as Lowe, Burnett, Andy P, Sheets, Manny, Tex and etc. I think Cash will need to calm down and make more sound decisions.

1) Nix the deal with Milwaukee: Cameron and Hall don’t appeal to me too much. Both are coming from down years and both strike out way too much. Melky is only 23 and him and Gardner might work until AJax is ready.

2) Sign one from a list of Lowe, Burnett, Sheets. NYY’s 2009 rotation is pretty much set with CC, Wang, Joba, Possibly Andy P and Hughes. Signing two from Lowe/Burnett/Sheets seems like overspending. Even if Andy P. refuses to come back $10M, just sign one from the group. In this case, NYY’s SP will be CC, Wang, either Burnett/Lowe/Sheets, Joba, either Hughes/Aceves/IPK. This is not a bad starting pitching staff by any means. Burnett and Sheets are always injury prone and Lowe is getting old (why do you give a 4 yr. contract to Lowe who is 36?).

3) Trade Matsui/Igawa to Seattle or SF for whatever they can get and sign Manny to become a regular DH on a 3 year deal. Whatever you say about Manny, he can still hit. He will be an awesome addition to the line-up and will protect A-Rod.

4) Stay away from Tex. He is only 28, but giving a 8 year / 160 M contract is too much price. Just let LAA/Washington/Boston/Baltimore fight over him If Swisher does not work, NYY can trade for Prince Fielder sometime in 2009.