With the midterm elections a couple days ago the New York Yankees decided to hold a offseason election to name the new captain for the team. After much deliberation the team elected Brett Gardner, CC Sabathia, Dellin Betances, and David Robertson as the players that could be voted on. Much of the decision making was centered around the tenure, both current and future, of the player and whether they came up through the Yankees system or not.
Dellin Betances was described as the rookie of the campaign and while his body of work spoke for itself the team worried about his lack of experience in the demanding position. Betances finished a distant fourth in this race, better luck next time kid.
If David Robertson had signed a long term deal last offseason or had a contract for the 2015 season he may have garnered more votes than he did. Robertson's uncertainty going forward led him to a third place vote but comes with the expectations to run again in four years.
CC Sabathia is the poster child for the position as he is great in the community and would represent the team well to opposing teams. The problem here is CC ran off what he has done in the past and not what he could do for the team in the future. CC didn't have a good and detailed plan for the future because nobody has one right for the big left hander. If this election was four years ago then CC wins in a landslide, but it wasn't and he finished second.
Brett Gardner was a walk on in college and a often disrespected fourth outfielder for the Yankees behind Melky Cabrera for much of the beginning of his career and in the minor leagues. Gardner has done nothing but shatter expectations in a big way as an every day player. The Yankees broke their unwritten rule of refusing to negotiate with a player currently under contract with Gardner and was voted as the teams next Yankee captain. Congratulations Brett!
*The team did not really hold an election, this is all for fun.
Why not have him as Captain? Talk about someone with less talent but, very hard work ethics making a place for himself in the Biggest Show in baseball. That is the type of player I will always admire. That's about as hard as working your way out of "Hells Kitchen" of the 40s...It can be done!
ReplyDeleteI like him as the captain because he is cool, calm, and collected and seemingly plays the game the right way. Then again if you call a third strike on him in the middle of a pennant race that he disagrees with he isn't afraid to blow up and fire up his team.
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