The eighth inning ended Saturday with a low line drive to center field by the Philadelphia Phillies' Michael Cervenak. The Yankee wearing No. 95 raced in and speared the ball, just above his shoe tops. The Yankee wearing No. 44 bounded from the dugout and into the clubhouse, raving about what he had seen.
"Best athlete in the organization," Reggie Jackson said, beaming as he spoke about the 21-year-old center fielder Austin Jackson. "He moves better than anybody. A-Rod moved like that five or six years ago. He's smooth."
As Reggie Jackson, a spring instructor, described the play, he compared Austin Jackson (no relation) with Devon White and Gary Pettis, frequent Gold Glove winners in the 1980s and '90s.
Add Tabata and Gardner to the mix and the Yanks appear to be loaded in the outfield down below. As jscape noted in two earlier posts, Austin is ranked #41 overall in Baseball America and #2 overall by them in the Yankee system.