Appreciating the Platoon

As New York Yankees fans, we've grown accustomed to having good, very good, or superstar players at nearly every position, seeing our favorite club go out and spend top dollar on talent, and make trades to bring top talent into the Bronx.

However, not all of the players that are brought in are entirely capable of doing every facet of the game well, or even average for that matter. Curtis Granderson has been the center of a lot of talk because of his inability to hit left handed pitching. Well, in comes the platoon. A lot of fans don't like it. They think of the platoon as a negative instead of recognizing that the player who is substituting for the day is an improvement over the everyday player.

For example, instead of giving Granderson at bats against lefties (.615 OPS against LHP), those at bats have mainly gone to Marcus Thames, among others. Let's not be mistaken, Thames is no allstar. However, he is good at what he is capable of doing. Against LHP this season, Thames has stepped up his game and hit an incredible .349/.418/.547. His OPS+ is 158 against lefties. In contrast, Granderson's OPS+ against lefties is 80. Thames has even been swinging the bat well against righties. His numbers this season are no where near what he has ever hit during his career, so he will eventually slow down. But he is on one awesome hot streak.

In order to make that switch possible, Brett Gardner switches from left field to center, Thames becomes the DH, and Austin Kearns steps in to play left. Instead of having a player incapable of doing something well, Brian Cashman brilliantly gave Marcus Thames a non-guaranteed contract to be a platoon player for the 2010 Yankees. In an season where many of his moves, and even his non-moves, were not well received, Thames has quietly put up fantastic numbers.

The platoon is not limited to the starting lineup, either. Recently, and to great success, our favorite micromanaging Joe Girardi has used matchups to decide who he uses out of the bullpen. As Yankees2 pointed out recently, the bullpen has been fantastic. Joba struggled in the 8th inning role and we all read the "Joba the Putz" series. Even he has turned it around in Girardi's new and improved bullpen use. Since the change, David Robertson, Boone Logan, Kerry Wood and Joba have pitched very important innings for this team and have performed well because of Girardi's use of the matchups.

We all get on Joe's case about falling in love with "the book." But in all honesty, it has been great for the 2010 Yankees success. They are tied for the best record in baseball, the bullpen has been fantastic using the matchup system, and Marcus Thames has been a pleasant surprise off the bench, and recently, in a starting role.