The Yankees hope to have Ellsbury back by July 1st has been put on hold & Girardi now has hopes that he MAY be able to return by the ASG. The Yankees are 12-11 since Ellsbury went down on May 19th, and his 324 average (48-148) & a .412 OBP are clearly missed at the top of the order. All Girardi could say was "He is not quite ready, so he will go home with us, He's just not where we want him to be physically so why risk it"? This is taking a LOT longer than anyone expected.
I guess the next best thing for this franchise at this time is giving a couple of their better more ready farmhands a looksee. Flores, Williams, Heathcott - too bad Heathcott got injured, I think when and if healthy he is ready, he'll be a good productive young player. The next wave is also promising with Judge and that Jake Cave kid is a comer.
Unfortunately as long as they have Beltran, Young & Jones manning RF Judge will be no more then a call up when the roster expands to 40 on September 1st.
The one negative (?) I have noticed about Flores,Williams and Heathcott is none of them are particularly known to have "power" although sometimes young players do develop power as they mature and being a LH hitter at the Stadium should help. Heathcott, from what I've seen and read about can step in -imo- immediately and help the team with his bat, glove and baserunning. Jake Cave (Trenton) good hitter, can steal a base but (for now) without alot of power. Currently hitting .289 with .366 OBP - hasn't yet hit into a GDP! (over 200 ABs) Kinda eye catching. Jagielo, 3b (LH) by all indications is progressing quite well and coming fast. Have to admit...with Headley sgned for 3 more years, how will this fit if Jagielo is ready in a year or two? Yes indeed, this one is on Cashman. The best rational (Cashman) I can see is Headley being more of a known quantity and "sure thing" if Jagielo regresses or doesn' t pan out.
Yep, this (Judge) should be an obvious move and I can't blame "the Yankees" for not clearing out Beltran and/or Young and going with a AA player every day in RF. I think Judge needs this full season at AA for development , ie: less pressure, working out certain kinks in his armour..lol
...he's not far at all from being as good as the other RF options at this point...we'll see Judge in September.
I don't people's perception that its better to keep the kid playing in AA/AAA everyday. Once you've mastered that level, you need to taste the next level. And that level is as much about learning to deal with everything else, than it is about major league pitching. You want to be a pro and something, you got to get immersed in the atmosphere. Doing that, AND not having the pressure to perform everyday is a better way to think about it.
...yeah, he's gonna have to face MLB pitching sooner or later. If Beltran continues to be, well, what he has been so far, and/or one of the current RFers are injured, I say call the kid up.
