Sherman: It's Time To Demote Melky

post from Sliding Into Home: A Yankees Blog on 12 August 2008 09:58:00 AM. © Sliding Into Home: A Yankees Blog

They have big problems getting clutch hits and it might be that there is no remedy to unleash a breakout and save this Yankee season. But I think the Yanks should at least try and one way to do that would be to send Melky Cabrera to the minors. He simply is not having competitive at-bats. The YES announcers made a big deal that the AL's leading hitter, Johnny Damon, wasn't playing on Monday night, but Justin Christian was. Forget Christian.
Cabrera began the game with a .221 average against southpaws. However, whichever side Cabrera is hitting from, he hardly ever makes solid contact. He has three extra-base hits since the All-Star break, two RBIs and two walks. If I ran the Yanks, I would bring Brett Gardner back up and have a lefty-righty possibility in center with Christian. But I certainly would run the injury/defense risk by playing Johnny Damon more in center to get a better offensive lineup. And I would hope real soon that Hideki Matsui can play again, and you could have Matsui as the DH, Damon in left and Jason Giambi at first, and hope that jump starts the offense.

Melky has looked awful since early May and Sherman is right, there is no reason to continue running him out there.

Gardner may not have hit that well when he was called up, but he usually had a good at-bat, and when he did get on he was almost guaranteed to steal a base, or two.

And you never know, maybe a few weeks in the minors would be good for Melky. Maybe he needs a wakeup call.