January 15, 2008
Sheenhan on Cabrera
Joe Sheehan looks at players who might break out in 2008, and Yankees blogs are surprised at Joe's prediction for Melky Cabrera. My Baseball Bias, Yanksfan vs. Soxfan, and River Ave. Blues all are skeptical.
I tend to be more positive on Melky than most people I read, due to the fact that he's getting a lot of playing time at a young age. The 2007 season lowered my expectations for him as he appeared to take a step back, but a decent centerfielder with a .340 to .350 OBA is still a useful player. Given that he still has time to develop, he could turn out to be a good to very good player. I sometimes wonder if because he doesn't project to be a Williams/Mantle/DiMaggio if people are overly tough on Melky. After all, Bernie Williams hadn't played that much or that impressively through age 23. A year younger, Melky is ahead of him in major league service.
Posted by David Pinto at
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Thanks for the link David. However, I want to go on record as saying, considering his age (23), that it would be a mistake to simply say he’s not very good and never will be as some have suggested.
Having said that, slugging .500 is a tall order for any player considering only 38 players who qualified for the batting title in 2007 slugged .500 or better. I think when you suggest, as Sheehan did, that Melky will "pop 80 extra-base hits and slug .500 in a season very, very soon", that raises some eyebrows.
Based on his last 2 seasons Melky would need about 1000 at bats to get 80 xbh - the one bad thing about Melky besides his slg being EXACLY .391 the last 2 years is that his OBP went down from .360 to .327 - usually a bad sign showing lack of confidence in taking pitches
