Now that the NY Giants have gotten us as close as possible to the reporting of pitchers and catchers, and did so with an exciting World Championship, let’s turn our attention to the Yankees!
The DH signings – Bill Hall and Russell Branyan. Hall has a little value as a mediocre defensive guy that can play every where, but I am not sold on him being very helpful. As I have said numerous times, the Yankees are much better off getting a guy with a .700 overall OPS (assuming a low level signing) who gets all of that from one side of the plate (meaning his OPS is over 800 from one side of the plate and 500 on the other as an example) rather than being mediocre or worse from both sides. The Yankees were also linked to Ibanez, but at 39, I don’t think he has as much upside as the 36 year old Branyan…who didn’t play well last year, but usually hits righties well (OPS of .854 over the last 3 years). He also has hit well in Yankee stadium, even if a small sample. I think he would be OK to be a DH against some or even most right handed pitching. I don’t remember how his bat speed was when we watched him, but they could match him up against slower throwers and let him hit some moon shots.
So, while both the Hall and Branyan signings are cheap, I think the Branyan signing will be the only helpful one and I think it was a good signing as there is nobody else that interests me that is a free agent. Damon doesn’t interest me at all.
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