I can be Centerfield

John Fogerty sang it, and he has as good a chance as anyone else to play Centerfield for the Yankees on opening day. Getting a full-time centerfielder has been a long and boring process this winter. Brian Cashman has tried to give us the biggest snow job of the season by stating he’d be comfortable with Bubba Crosby in centerfield. Yeah and why not let Jason Giambi play shortstop. Okay, so maybe the idea isn’t as drastic as that, but to be honest I don’t even want Bubba on the team. I’d rather have an extra outfielder who can hit more than the average National League pitcher.


Bernie Williams. I love Bernie Williams -- in a beer drinking, ass-scratching kind of way. Bernie has had a superb Yankee career. He’s been a model citizen in addition to being one of the best players during his era. He’s been here so long; I can't even remember who the last regular CFer was before him. Okay, now I am embarrassed. I actually to look at baseball-reference.com to remember it was Roberto Kelly, or “Bobby” Kelly as Hawk Harrelson used to like to call him. The point being is that Bernie has been a Yankee great, but now he’s learning more towards has-been. It really hurts to say that. I’m somewhat glad Bernie is coming back for 2006, but I am concerned that Joe Torre’s loyalty is going to lead to Bernie playing too much CF. Bernie can still get some clutch hits, but his tracking ability is not what it once was, and his arm never was.

The choices out there are few and far between. Early in the off-season we heard rumblings of a Robinson Cano for Torii Hunter deal. It was more rumor mill than anything else. Thus far the Yankees have been unwilling to part with either Robinson Cano or Chien-Ming Wang -- how times have changed. There were rumblings about Juan Pierre, who gets mixed reviews, before he was ultimately shipped to the Cubs. Johnny Damon is out there, but he has super-scum Scott Boras wanting a 7 year contract. Boras will probably get Damon a guaranteed 5 years, but does any team really want to invest that much money in Damon? I don’t. This morning’s NY Post spoke of a 4 year deal being put together by the Yankees. That’s about the limit I would go. For that matter I wouldn’t go more than 3.

Can Johnny hit without his hair?

I am more than willing to look for short-term help and go looking for a better CF option next year. I like Brad Wilkerson, Brady Clark, or Gary Matthews for such cases. One solution with a longer impact would be Laynce Nix.

I’m not convinced that Melky Cabrera cannot be the Yankees eventual CFer, but I was very angry at the way this kid was rushed to the majors last season. It made no sense. He never played above ‘A’ ball, but they start him at ‘AA’ Trenton, which was fine, but then rush him through Triple-A and into the bigs. He was clearly overmatched. So much so, that he ended up back at Trenton after a brief, poor showing at Columbus. Hopefully he forgets about it and works hard this winter and comes out solid next year. Hopefully he’s watching a capable centerfielder manning centerfield for the Yankees.