I have to admit, when I first heard that the Yankees were interested in Raul Ibanez, I had basically the same reaction as Aaron Gleeman. Namely, I thought Jorge Posada made a lot more sense, both because of his legacy with the franchise and the fact that he was actually a better hitter than Ibanez last season. As far as I can speculate, I see two major points in Ibanez’s favor. First, there’s the possibility that Posada wouldn’t have wanted to play another season at his age anyway, especially for a salary in the $1.5 million range. Secondly, near as I can tell the biggest benefit the Yankees get out of Ibanez’s major league deal is that, at his salary, it will be easy for the Yankees to DFA him if he doesn’t produce adequately. That could be a much tougher thing to do with Posada, even at a similar salary level, given the emotional cost that would include as well.
I'm not thrilled about Ibanez either, but I am holding out optimism that the short porch in right will do him a tremendous favor this year.
Wel, it's not like CBP is a pitcher's paradise.
He did hit .278 at CBP with 15 Hr's. Not too bad, especially for 1.1 million and a platoon job with Andruw Jones. Also, Yankee stadium does have closer dimensions in right field, with the power alley being over 10 feet in and down the line almost 20 feet closer. Add that with the fact that when he pulls the ball he is a .361 hitter. I think i can see some logic in the move the more i look at it (from a biased angle of course)<img src="http://static.addtoany.com/buttons/share_save_171_16.png" width="171" height="16" border="0" alt="Share/Save/Bookmark">
I was about to blast in here and reiterate the points I made in my article about looking for a right handed masher, and how Raul at least partially fits the bill…but actually Jorge hit righties to the tune of a .353 wOBA (better than Ibanez). So I think it has to do more with the emotions than any sort of statistic–no one would want to DFA Jorge, even if it would ultimately help the team.
So, good points overall.
You could tell the Jorge situation effected everyone in the clubhouse at least a little last year. I completely agree, it would have been impossible to DFA Jorge.
We love you Jorge!
The people who run the yankees have never really liked Posada…. not even when he was completely underrated
sad, but true