Yankees fans always make him out to be the second coming of the Mick (but, when do they not?), but if the M’s can aquire him I think he’d be a fairly serviceable option in CF next year and for several seasons.

To this day, I still laugh about how the Yanks gave up on Jay Buhner thought Ken Phelps would help them win the AL East back in 1988.

/snark

His BABIP stands out as quite low for his LD%, especially when looking at the previous 2 years. Melky won’t turn 24 until August 11th either.

As far as his fielding, I can only get at RZR right now. He ranked 1st in the AL @ LF in ‘06, 2nd in the AL in CF last year and is tied for 5th this year with Granderson in CF.

Yankees fans always make him out to be the second coming of the Mick (but, when do they not?), but if the M’s can aquire him I think he’d be a fairly serviceable option in CF next year and for several seasons.

so the Mets are said to be looking at Bay, Blake & Ibanez (’tho their respective teams are asking ‘exorbitant’ prices) as Church likely won’t be back ’til after the trade deadline … and Rosenthal says the Dodgers might steal Blake out of the pot, and other’s say that Bay might not move after all, with the Bucs/Yankees trade …

Forget Gardner! If we can get Melky Cabrera for Jerrod Washburn it would be the best Mariners trade of the new century. Don’t scoff. Cabrera is Adam Jones at the plate but walks more and strikes out less. In my opinion, his struggles this year can be attributed inconstant playing time in the Yankees outfield. If you don’t agree with that you will agree Cabrera is at least an upgrade over Reed/Bloomquist.

It seems it may be a moot point anyway but I strongly disagree with your assessment of Melky Cabrera. First of all, he’s a good outfielder who acts like a Jim Edmonds type drama queen setting up unnecessary dives for catches, diving *after* he caught the ball and bumping into walls in oddly conspicuous ways that didn’t seem to be required to catch the ball.

But comparing him to Adam Jones is silly. Melky’s offense seems to be coelescing into a good for one month a year sort of thing. Here’s his OPS month by month the last two years:

–2007-2008
A .451-.864
M .762-.589
J .811-.544
J .938-.632
A .818
S .456

As for the argument that it’s inconsistent playing time that caused him to be lousy, well, in 2007, he had 75, 59, 94, 106, 111 and 100 at bats, more time as he produced and then still a lot of time as he was terrible in september. In 2008 he’s had 87, 94, 102 and (so far in July) 64 at bats. Since May 2007 he’s been on a 550 or so at bat per season pace. He’s just not good.

Someone will just pay him to waive it. Who it is doesn’t really matter that much.

The Yankees also have deflected all Scott Boras efforts to extract an extension or relocation bonus if Washburn waves his no-trade clause to the Bronx

Strange, the one thing my sources were unanimous about was that the no-trade clause was “taken care of”. I wonder if this means the M’s would be paying him off then?

“They continue to haggle with the Mariners over Jarrod Washburn. The Yankees don’t think they should have to give up top talent if they’re assuming all of Washburn’s contract. And while a person who spoke with Washburn recently said Washburn would be willing to waive his no-trade clause for a deal to the Yankees, agent Scott Boras is likely to seek some sort of compensation in return for such a waiver. The Yankees would, obviously, resist that.

“Another Yankees update: Despite all sorts of reports about the likes of Melky Cabrera and Brett Gardner being included in a deal for Jarrod Washburn, indications are that the Yankees view acquiring Washburn strictly as a goodwill mission to take Washburn’s money (over $14 million) off the Mariners’ books. So the Yankees aren’t willing to offer low-level prospects unless Seattle A) agrees to eat some of the money and/or B) is willing to take Kei Igawa. So far, there’s no sign that the Mariners are interested in either option. The Yankees also have deflected all Scott Boras efforts to extract an extension or relocation bonus if Washburn waves his no-trade clause to the Bronx.”

Sounds like the M’s might be contemplating sending Morrow down to Tacoma to work on starting. Well, as long as JJ can fill the vitally important closer role for a team on the way to 90+ losses.