Girardi is Wrong in Right

There's nothing wrong with competition, especially when it comes to earning a job. But Joe Girardi's assertion that Nick Swisher has the opportunity to take the right field job from Xavier Nady, is all wrong.

Don't get us wrong, we really like Swisher, and we want him to get plenty of playing time. But not at the expense of Nady. The X-Man is coming off a career year, when he hit .305 with 25 home runs and drove in 97. While he hit just .268 after his acquisition from the Pirates at the trade deadline, Nady homered 12 times and drove in 40 runs in 59 games. Being in a contract year is all the motivation that Nady needs this season.

Perhaps Girardi is just trying to motivate Swisher, who is coming off a miserable year in which he hit a career low .219. On the bright side, the 5-yr veteran drew 82 walks and hit 24 home runs. When the Yankees first acquired him in a trade this past November, Swisher expected to be the starting first baseman, but that all went out the window with the free agent signing of Mark Teixeira.

Though it's clearly not his best position, we want to reiterate our position that Swisher should have a chance to win the center field job over Melky Cabrera and Brett Gardner. After early May, Cabrera was nothing less than pathetic at the plate in '08, while Gardner has yet to prove he can hit major league pitching. (It's actually our hope that Gardner could prove himself, because his speed would be tremendous at the top or bottom of the lineup.)

Getting back to Girardi, Mark Feinsand of the News reported that Nady was not told there would be a competition. That concerns us. Girardi didn't have the best rapport with the veterans last season and that's not the way to get off to a good start this season.

He's also stated that no job is guaranteed. But try to tell that to Jeter, A-Rod, Cano, Damon, Teixeira, etc.. Like we said Joe, not the way to start the year.


photos courtesy of Reuters