Russo Should Stay

Send down winn and keep up the kid simple as that, we have to keep gettign better and winn isnt helping that russo will.

that is true), why would they keep Winn? Is Cashman overruling Girardi? Does Cashman not want to admit a mistake in signing Winn? Are the Yanks concerned about “wasting” Winn’s salary?

Why don’t the Yanks want to put the best team out on the field, which they claim they always try to do?

First of all, I doubt Winn’s salary is much of an issue, nor do I believe Cashman is holding on to him out of pride. He signed for $1.1 million this season to be a 4th/5th outfielder. He’s probably one of the easiest players in baseball to DFA at this point.

I agree that he’s been terrible at the plate this season, although if he could revert to something resembling last year’s batting line (.262/.318/.353) it would be fine for a reserve outfielder. There is no denying the fact that Winn is an excellent defensive outfielder, which is what you really want to see from somebody who figures to see the most action as a late inning defensive replacement going forward.

I think the bigger question is, can you realisticaly consider Russo an outfielder at this point? He’s barely played a dozen games out there in his professional career. As much as we like to see a young kid (and realistically, he’s almost 26 – he isn’t THAT young) get a shot, we need to be honest about what he brings to the table. He has little power, doesn’t hit for an especially high average, and doesn’t walk much, so expecting him to be exponentially better than Randy Winn at this point may be asking for too much.

Send him to Scranton and let him play all three outfield position for 4-6 weeks and I’ll feel more comfortable releasing Winn and calling Russo up then.

If he’s really an infielder who can play outfield in a pinch, how is he any different from Ramiro Pena? Taller? Better looking? Pena is, at least in theory, the third catcher.

Super utility players are all the rage now, but it’s hard to justify keeping Russo on his own merits since there is already another player just like him. The best argument for him is that he gives the team more offense than Winn or Pena, I guess.

The more I see of Winn, the fewer the reasons I see to have him around. He doesn’t look like his offense will improve much with more playing time, and he isn’t a basestealer or better outfielder than say, Gardner.

I suppose, for now, Russo will have to accept his frequent flyer miles that he accumulates going back and forth to Scranton.

And ditch him when he finally, inevitably cools off. Every now and then a AAAA player will catch fire for no good reason. Remember Shane Spencer, the Home Run Dispenser? :-)

And if he doesn’t cool off, well, I’m OK with that too!