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Results for tag: New York Yankees
Posted by: RaysDigest on Oct 12, 2009 at 10:02:53 PM

I was going through the list of the first crop of minor league free agents at MLB Trade Rumors tonight when I came across the name Wilson Betemit. Betemit is not a player who I followed particularly closely this season, but reading that name immediately reminded me of the trade that sent Nick Swisher to the New York Yankees.

At the time of the trade, I loved the move for the Yankees. Swisher was coming off a miserable performance--he hit just .219/.332/.410 in 2008--during his lone stint with the Chicago White Sox. His .251 batting average on balls in play indicated that he was the victim of some plain old bad luck, though, as his 20.9% line drive rate was actually the best of his career. Bad luck or not, it was a great buy-low opportunity for New York, which also gained a bit of leverage

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Posted by: RaysDigest on Aug 22, 2009 at 08:12:03 PM

Earlier today, I compared second basemen Robinson Cano and Dustin Pedroia.

While watching the Boston Red Sox versus New York Yankees (a real laugher, by the way) game this afternoon on Fox, though, I began to compare the two rivals' entire infields in my head and was just amazed at how much stronger the New York four is. Clearly, the Yankees have a fine infield, with two of the most recognizable stars in the game, Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez, making up the left side of a group flanked by Cano and Mark Teixeira. It really does not take a rocket scientist to understand how talented of a group that is.

To determine the exact level of excellence of the New York infield, though, I went over to FanGraphs to take a look at how each player grades out in Wins Above Replacement (WAR). The four infielders,

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