• McPherson a third base option for Yankees

  • By Rob Neyer | April 2, 2009 6:16:07 AM PDT
Who should sign the just-released Dallas McPherson? River Ave. Blues' Mike Axisa offers a pretty good candidate: the Yankees:
    First things first, McPherson had a phenomenal year last year (.275-.379-.618) in his first healthy year since 2004, but he was in an extremely favorable environment. The PCL is a hitters' league in general, plus Albuquerque is at altitude (his home OPS was nearly two hundred points greater than his road OPS), giving him another nice boost. Translating his numbers to a neutral MLB environment (via the MLE Calculator) gives you a .207-.295-.440 batting line with a Mo awful 181 strikeouts in 468 at-bats. The .233 IsoP is dead sexy, and that's pretty much right in line with his .213 career mark. There's no doubt about it, the guy can hit the ball a long way. He just struggles making contact. The second part you need to understand about his offense is his massive platoon split. A lefty, McPherson hit just .217-.308-.528 against his fellow southpaws last year, down from .285-.395-.635 against righties. In his big league career (128 total games), he's managed just a .176-.218-.297 line off lefties, with a 38.5% strikeout rate. If the Yanks were tempted to bring McPherson aboard, it would have to be in a platoon situation only, which is fine because Cody Ransom is a righty and annihilates lefties (1.056 career OPS).
Whether A-Rod is back in the lineup on Opening Day or May 15 or some other fateful date, the Yankees could use some insurance. It's not just the date of the A-Rod's return. It's the distinct possibility that once he's back, he might not stay for the rest of the season. Granted, Brian Cashman knows a lot more about Rodriguez's long-term prognosis than I do. But I don't know that Cashman will be able to live with himself after the season, if for want of a platoon third baseman the pennant was lost.

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