Brendan Ryan as we all know has a pinched nerve in his upper back and will very likely start the season on the disabled list for the Yankees so the question has arose, who will replace him on the roster? We are going under the assumption that Eduardo Nunez, minor league option and all, will make the club as a backup and platoon player at third base and everywhere else in the infield in a pinch or an emergency leaving two men for the job, Yangervis Solarte and Dean Anna.
As everyone probably knows by now I am a big stat guy, sabermetrics and the classic alike, so let's start comparing these two there, seen below using their spring training stats this season:
Dean Anna:
Year | Age | GS | G | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2014 | 27 | 17 | 37 | 31 | 3 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 8 | .258 | .378 | .258 | .636 |
Year | Age | GS | G | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2014 | 26 | 18 | 37 | 33 | 9 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 4 | 5 | .455 | .514 | .636 | 1.150 |
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 3/22/2014.
Obviously no one outside of maybe Francisco Cervelli has outhit Solarte this season, the question is do we chalk them up to simply being spring training stats or is he the real deal? Solarte's career minor league numbers are a .286/.336/.397/.733, obviously a far cry from batting nearly .500, but he is also 26 years old. Could a breakout, and some truth, be that much outside the realm of possibility? Probably not.
Dean Anna hasn't opened too many eyes with the bat but with his career minor league stat line of .286/.386/.428/.815 suggest that he can be better than what we have seen lately. As with Solarte, Anna is close to entering his true prime seasons and could be in line for a breakout with the bat. The problem is Anna has similar minor league stats to Solarte making it extremely difficult to separate the two offensively.
What about defensively? In his minor league career Solarte has played games at 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, LF, RF, and CF. Anna, in comparison, has played games at 1B, 2B, SS, 3B, LF, and RF. Another deadlock unless you consider Solarte's two games in center field enough of an advantage. Neither have had a cup of coffee in the major leagues really so you can't even use that as an advantage for one or the other.
What do the Yankees do here? flip a coin? Consult one of those California physics on television? Say neither and give the job to Scott Sizemore simply to have #24 back on the field on Opening Day? I don't know, I really just don't know. What say you?
Generated 3/22/2014.
Obviously no one outside of maybe Francisco Cervelli has outhit Solarte this season, the question is do we chalk them up to simply being spring training stats or is he the real deal? Solarte's career minor league numbers are a .286/.336/.397/.733, obviously a far cry from batting nearly .500, but he is also 26 years old. Could a breakout, and some truth, be that much outside the realm of possibility? Probably not.
Dean Anna hasn't opened too many eyes with the bat but with his career minor league stat line of .286/.386/.428/.815 suggest that he can be better than what we have seen lately. As with Solarte, Anna is close to entering his true prime seasons and could be in line for a breakout with the bat. The problem is Anna has similar minor league stats to Solarte making it extremely difficult to separate the two offensively.
What about defensively? In his minor league career Solarte has played games at 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, LF, RF, and CF. Anna, in comparison, has played games at 1B, 2B, SS, 3B, LF, and RF. Another deadlock unless you consider Solarte's two games in center field enough of an advantage. Neither have had a cup of coffee in the major leagues really so you can't even use that as an advantage for one or the other.
What do the Yankees do here? flip a coin? Consult one of those California physics on television? Say neither and give the job to Scott Sizemore simply to have #24 back on the field on Opening Day? I don't know, I really just don't know. What say you?