So long Giambi and Abreu, perennial top 10 guys in pitches per AB. Enter Swisher and now, likely, Mike Cameron. Sure Cameron's a better CF than Melky and he's got more power, but this is a free swinger who will strike out 150+ times a year. He will also be a spry 36 by Opening Day. He owns a career .250 AVG and a beefy .340 OBP. He struck out exactly 142 times twice in the last three years, surrounding a 160 K "effort". Oy. His defense better make up for some of this.
According to Baseball-Reference.com, his Range Factor compares favorably to the league average, even last year, so that's good but how much left does he have? How good is his arm? I haven't seen a lot of him so if you have, let me know what to expect.
Remember, too, that Cameron missed 25 games last year due to a PED (amphetamines) suspension. Those 142 K's could have been north of 160.
At least CC gets an old buddy to hang with.
UPDATE: Not so fast, my friends, from MLBTradeRumors.com:
11:49am: Joel Sherman talked to a top exec involved in the talks who called the Chances of a deal "remote."
11:17am: Ken Rosenthal says the potential deal hit a roadblock over the Yankees' desire to have Milwaukee pick up part of the tab on Cameron. Also, the Brewers want a second player after Cabrera. Tom Haudricourt says the Yankees tried to unload Kei Igawa on them.
9:28am: The Cabrera for Cameron deal is close but not done, according to Joel Sherman's source. He says the Brewers could receive a pitcher as well, with the quality depending on whether they'll assume salary.
8:41am: Tom Haudricourt is not sure this is done. He says the Yankees like Bill Hall as well. The Brewers could gain quite a bit of payroll flexibility here. It'd be interesting to see all three Brewers friends (including Sabathia) move to the Yanks.
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I'll take Cameron over Melky 8 out of 10 times. He's usually good for about a 20/20 season. That's all I know about him besides the strikeouts.
Ugh, I don't like this deal either. 20/20 is nice, I suppose, but think of all the rallies he will kill with those Ks. I suppose I'll wait to see what the paramters of the deal are before passing final judgment. The real kicker in all of this is that we could have had Tori Hunter last year.
Ugh - Cameron is a terrible pickup for the Yanks. He is suitable for a platoon spot in San Diego or Seattle or something, but not for the New York Yankees. I'm not even a Yankee fan and I think this is a bad move.
Dean -- could have had Beltran a couple of years before that.
Given the timing, I can't help but think that this was a demand of Sabathia's. He and Cameron are reportedly very close. Cashman goes to SF the other night and CC tells him: "get Mikey to run down the flies in center and you have my right now."
OK, maybe that's far fetched, but stranger things have happened.
As far as his defense goes, you're in good shape. I used to watch Cameron when I worked security for the Mariners. We would stand in CF and watch him do great things out there, then go to LF and talk to Rickey Henderson through the grate in the fence. He's not going to hurt you in CF. Which should move DAmon to RF, and not LF, because there's too much room in LF for him to throw from.
There may be more room in LF but 1st to 3rd will be automatic on anything hit to right with Damon out there. Nady plays RF, Damon/Matsui/Swisher(?) in a LF/DH/1B mixture (maybe even Posada at 1B occassionally). Cameron in CF. Not terrible...but not great.
I think the Sabathia connection may have some merit if true since, as I mentioned before, it seems the Yanks are willing to do everything short of renaming the stadium to Sabathia Stadium for this guy. He'd better be worth it.
Oh, and Cameron's days in Seattle ended 5 years ago so...he's well past his prime. I don't think he's any kind of upgrade over Melky defensively but he should be a moderate-at-worst upgrade at the plate.
And FTR, yeah, we could have had Beltran but Bernie was still around and as much as his skills fell off those last few years, I didn't ever think he deserved to be forced to change positions. I don't like Beltran's personality anyway. He's kinda soft, IMO.
Thanks Dino for beating me to this.
Damon has an arm suitable for 2B, at best. RF could be the biggest disaster. With LF, Jeter can meet him half-way.
And I still feel an ARod-like ambush for Teix is coming. What that would mean for an already overcrowded OF, ya got me. That'd put Swisher in the OF with Damon, Matsui. Plus one for the DH role, whenever Posada's catching.
Unless, of course, the Yanks can pay most of Matsui's freight and ship him to San Fran.
Forgot about Nady. Damon should be at 1B.
As far as Cameron, the games I've seen him play, his defense is just as good now as it was in SEattle. And if he ever had a prime as a hitter, I sure missed that.
He's always been a 25-hr, 80-rbi, 150-so type hitter.
I'm OK with Cameron over Melky, in a vacuum. It's just his free swinging ways will surely eat at me.
"8:41am: Tom Haudricourt is not sure this is done. He says the Yankees like Bill Hall as well. The Brewers could gain quite a bit of payroll flexibility here. It'd be interesting to see all three Brewers friends (including Sabathia) move to the Yanks."
Bill Hall? For why? He's versatile I suppose but he's another low OBP guy.
By not working the count, you mean, they work the count more, right?
Swish & Cameron combined P/PA: 4.3740875912408759124087591240876
Baba Booey & Juicin combined P/PA: 4.2906325060048038430744595676541
Swisher was 1st in P/PA, Cameron 10th.
Hmm...
Complaining about strikeouts is dumb. Hey, Juan Pierre doesn't strikeout. Trade Cameron to the Dodgers for him. Please.
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