Wednesday, May 9, 2018

New Faces & Slow Starts in New York Are Nothing New



There is a lot that can be said about the George Steinbrenner era of New York Yankees baseball, but one thing that could not be said is that the team did not tend to always get their man. If the Yankees needed a first baseman they went out and got the best first baseman available each and every time. Need a pitcher? A few days after the determination was made prospects were being shipped out the door and a fresh new arm was headed to the Bronx. It was where the “Get Greedy” mantra began, and we got a glimpse of the past this winter when Brian Cashman and son of the Boss, Hal Steinbrenner, acquired reigning NL MVP Giancarlo Stanton from the Miami Marlins. Stanton has started his Yankees tenure off slower than expected, but he isn’t the first big time Yankees slugger to be acquired only to have a slow start to his Big Apple career. Let’s compare.

We all as Yankees fans know that there have been a few key acquisitions that started awfully slow, but ultimately rebounded to have good first seasons in New York and career's with the Yankees. That list of names includes Alex Rodriguez who was acquired in a trade with the Texas Rangers, Jason Giambi who was signed as a free agent from the Oakland Athletics and Johnny Damon who was signed as a free agent after leaving the Boston Red Sox. Does their past give us hope for Giancarlo Stanton's future?



Alex Rodriguez

2003 w/ TEX: .298/.396/.600/.995 with 47 HR and 118 RBI
2004 w/ NYY: .286/.375/.512/.888 with 36 HR and 106 RBI
Career w/ NYY: .283/.378/.523/.900 with 351 HR and 1096 RBI (12 seasons)



Jason Giambi

2001 w/ OAK: .342/.477/.660/1.137 with 38 HR and 128 RBI
2002 w/ NYY: .314/.435/.598/1.034 with 41 HR and 122 RBI
Career w/ NYY: .260/.404/.521/.925 with 209 HR and 604 RBI (7 seasons)



Johnny Damon

2005 w/ BOS: .316/.366/.439/.805 with 20 HR and 94 RBI
2006 w/ NYY: .285/.359/.482/.841 with 24 HR and 80 RBI
Career w/ NYY: .285/.363/.458/.821 with 77 HR and 296 RBI (4 seasons)



Giancarlo Stanton

2017 w/ MIA: .281/.376/.631/1.007 with 59 HR and 132 RBI
2018 w/ NYY: .227/.313/.455/.768 with 7 HR and 19 RBI (34 games)
Career w/ NYY: Stay tuned



As you can see a slow start or even a bad season to begin their tenures do not always spell the end or doomsday for these players. Stanton has plenty of contract left and an immense amount of talent to showcase before his Yankees tenure is in the books. I wasn’t worried when Alex Rodriguez, Jason Giambi or Johnny Damon got off to slower starts than you would like, and I am not worried about Stanton’s slow start either. We will try and revisit this post in October, that will be more telling than his stats as we entered the week here in May.

I said all that to say this, some fans need to just calm the hell down.

All stats courtesy of and thanks to Baseball Reference.


7 comments:

  1. Are we done with Levin's boy Gardner who now can't play D. That Mookie Betts play in the field is something a rookie makes. You don't go for that ball the way he did. Let it bounce and play the percentages. Disgusting to say the least. Time to bring up Frazier

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    1. Frazier is definitely making the discussion worth having. Hot bat, while Gardner struggles. He redeemed himself a bit last night but at his age (and the way speedy guys suddenly hit a wall when they get older) you wonder if this is just a slow start, or the sign of what is to come.

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  2. Ken H, Brett may have reached that age when one moves over for new blood. He did very well with the Yankees for a guy the "so called experts" said was only a "maybe" 4th OF. But now after calling for him to join the Yankees back in 2006/7 he made it in 2008, and proved the experts wrong. I must agree, time for him to be replaced. Yankees can eat his contract.

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    1. He is a free agent at the end of the season. I would be genuinely surprised if he didn't end the season with the Yankees. But hey, you never know.

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    2. He will finish with the Yanks because the Elf loves him. He's a career 261 hitter that sucks at running the bases and doesn't steal enough bases and has a sissy arm. Time for both he and Hicks to pack it up. The elf is dead wrong on Hicks as well

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    3. I'll agree with the Hicks scenario, when he is hot, he is hot, but only for a short time span.
      Frazier is a damn good player and can help the team much more than either one of the other two.

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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)