BUREY - This week, a little before the usual time of year to plunder the farm system to trade two semi-promising prospects for the Pirates best player, Brian Cashman contributed to complicating the Yankees lineup again by picking up perennial underachiever Eric Hinske to shore up the bench and the outfield. While this move actually made me smile a little bit because the Pirates actually ended up with Lastings Milledge from Washington and two of our prospects, it was all too familiar with the typical process for Yankees mid-season moves. As we all know, Hinske will no doubt soon join the ranks of Richie Sexon, Josh Phelps, Craig Wilson, Aaron Boone, and even Glenallen Hill as the latest Cashman brainchild to fuck with Girardi as he continues to play roulette everyday with whose going to play leftfield.
This is what bothers me about Yankees management. It’s like year after year, whenever we’re two behind the Sox either two weeks before or after the all-star break, Cashman karate kicks the “break in case of emergency” glass in his office where there should be a fire extinguisher but instead pulls out a wad of 100’s and two trading cards of prospects that he can shell out for a mediocre UTIL guy whose gonna bat .212 with one game winning homer that makes him think it was a good investment.
Hinske is just too perfect of a player not to fit this mold. Immediately after we got him John Sterling jizzed his pants over how he’s going to be able to play outfield AND third base! He’ll be able to give A-Rod’s hip a day off (actually, as long as this decreases the chance that Cody Ransom ever gets to play it's sort of a good situation)! Susan, did you hear that? Yeah, she’s wet too.
Now let’s all remember that Eric Hinske did win ROY playing third base for Toronto...in 2002. Just to give you a point of reference, in 2002 I thought I had a legitimate chance to be Jeter’s successor at SS. Now after completing the AL East whore circuit (playing for the Sox, and the Rays after) he’s where he finally belongs, getting a start in RF in Yankee Stadium. It’s just too ironic and too perfect that another re-tred is gonna end up taking AB’s away from the guys who really need to get in grooves so we can continue our solid play of late. And here’s why:
Girardi really likes to micro-manage and mixes up his lineups too much. Now with another guy like Hinske on the bench he’s going to feel like he has to give him a start every third day, making our outfield an even more complicated orgy of Cabrera, Damon, Swisher, Gardener...and Hinske. Joe has enough problems balancing 4 outfielders, so that with Matsui constantly having to DH one of these should-be-every-day guys is going to get iced every so often and not be able to get in a groove. Now he’s going to want to DH A-Rod more, so Matsui won’t be able to play (even though he’s just starting to heat up after a NL road trip of never playing), Hinske will take every couple of games from Gardener, Cabrera will continue to streak to a .260 average, Damon won’t be able to milk his home starts for cheap homers, and Swisher will lose his OBP effectiveness if he doesn’t get to play everyday.
That’s thing the I’ve liked about Nady being hurt a little bit. Even though the X Man was well on his way to being the only Cashman midseason acquisition ever to secure an everyday job before his injury (minus Abreu, but he's actually good), his absence was giving some nice character to the lineup. Damon has 16 homers (wtf?), Swisher is getting on base a lot, Gardener is the fastest player we’ve had since Tony Womack or a 54 year old Kenny Lofton (your pick), and Melky is actually hovering around .290.
The main thing I’m trying to say is that giving Joe more options for playing time is going to end up making this Yankee team another hodgepodge of semi-injured old guys clamoring for their day off like they’re all trying to call out blackout bingo at a retirement home. You know why I love Teixiera? Cause he plays everyday at first and bats third like a man. Doesn’t complain, runs well and plays good defense. Good teams have consistent everyday lineups, and as soon Girardi discovers he has another toy to play with our lineup is going to get more convoluted. Also, the move resulted in sending my boy Ramiro Pena down to AAA. R.I.P. Ramiro.
It was almost too eerily familiar on Monday. Hinske got his first start in right (Tex was at DH so Swisher could play first, I bet Girardi was wacking it to how versatile his lineup could be at that point, pissin’ me off), and had a two hits (including a homer) and a diving catch in his first game. Even though they were down 7-4 in the ninth, Sterling had already busted a nut and was raving about how if the Yanks got the tying run on, Hinske (now called a power hitter, for some reason), would have a chance to tie the game. Guess what? After a couple of dunk hits he came up with the tying run on and K’d to end it.
It was such a beautiful metaphor, Hinske doing a couple of things well in his first appearance to make the fans (and management) forget that when we are actually going to need him to do a real clutch, come-off-the-bench job down the stretch, he’s gonna suck. They say life imitates art, and if I could just paint the portrait of our almost sweep off the Jays with this loss I’m pretty confident that the rest of the season with Hinske in the mix will follow suit. Unless you wanna prove me wrong Joe....
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