The Magic Carpet

By Matthew Storey

In the Summer of 2005, a Yankee team reeling from major injuries to two starting Outfielders, brought up a 20 year old, emergency Minor League replacement named Melky Cabrera...

He proceeded to overrun a fly ball and look like a Deer caught in Fenway's headlights, on his way to a forgettable MLB debut (6 games, .211).

The next season, given an invitation to Spring Training at 21, his smiling, energetic personality, switch-hitters bat and booming left arm put him on Joe Torre's radar, and he found himself back in The Bronx by Spring and playing important innings, at first as a late-inning Defender, then as the everyday LF and, eventually, supplanting Johnny Damon in CF, a move Damon himself approved since the dramatic difference in their respective arms made it a 'no-brainer'.

That 2006 season, at 21, Melky led AL OF in Assists with twelve (12) despite playing only 127 Games at 3 OF positions. He made one of the All-Time Highlight reel plays to rob Manny Ramirez of a LCF HR, which led noted Yankee-hater, Curt Schilling, to note 'You have to hand it to them, they bring up winners like Cano and Cabrera'.

He hit .280, with 8 HR and 50 RBI (460 At-Bats) (compare with Jacoby Ellsbury, last season at 24, who hit .280 with 9HR and 47 RBI in NINETY FOUR more at-bats (554). It's true that Ellsbury, stole 50 bases from 61 tries that season - Ellsbury has Gardner speed, Melky is 37 of 50 tries in his career...but it is ALSO true that Melky's 12 assists as a Rookie compare to 5 for Ellsbury in 212 games played and that Melky had 4 assist in one 4 game playoff series against Cleveland in 2007.

Melky came back in 2007, at 22, and put up .273, with 8 HR and 73 RBI, while placing 3rd in AL OF Assists with SIXTEEN, then followed up with the 4 assist playoff and what appeared to be a game winning Playoff HR before the swarm ate Joba and the Yankee victory.

Melky began the 2008 season, at 23, with an impressive .299/6 Start and then...fell apart, slumping all the way to .249 with only 8HR and 37RBI. Even ending up in the Minor Leagues late in August...

At that point, he'd played MLB OF for 2 full seasons plus 4 months and proven to be an effective player for all but the final three of those months (he still had 7 Assists from CF, which, while a STEEP drop for Melky, was still one more than Torii Hunter (4) and Grady Sizemore (2) had COMBINED in 2008, while battling for the 'Gold Glove', a total of 288 games).

Over the Winter, the speculation was that NY would trade Melky to Milwaukee for Mike Cameron, a player TWELVE years older than Melky, who had never managed to top Melky's .273 from his 22 year old season or reach his .280 from his 21 year old season, despite playing 14 years of MLB baseball. Cameron, hitting solely from the RH side, DOES have 20 HR power, but that power comes at the cost of an average of 135 K's per each of his 12 FULL MLB Seasons (Melky's career high in K is 68).

If Melky's .249 in '08 was a slump, Cameron's LIFETIME Avg. of .251 was hardly the antidote, and Melky's 'worst of three seasons' Assist total (7) was one less than Cameron's career BEST (8). His lifetime Ratio of Assists/Errors is 68/64 (Melky's? 35/10). As for RBI, Cameron topped Melky's 73 only 3 times in his 15 seasons, and only broke 100 once (2001).

Guru spent most of the Winter writing about the above numbers and the ABSURDITY of trading away a young player with that combination of skills, who was an INSTANT fan favorite in NYC and is beloved by his teammates, amongst whom are his Idol, Alex Rodriguez and his best friend, Robinson Cano.

What I found interesting about those columns was the RESPONSE. People wrote in to say what a 'terrible player' Melky is and screeched when confronted with the statistical rebuttal...'everyone KNOWS he sucks'! Which struck me as odd. Here is this kid, with a million watt smile, a HERO to his Dominican fan base in Washington Heights and throughout NYC. His T-Shirts adorn the backs of thousands of New Yorkers ('Got Melky?') T-Shirts are amongst the best-selling items for the Yankees, who sell 25% of ALL MLB merchandise.

Still, people outside of NYC and in the local media seem to truly DISLIKE the guy, despite the evidence.

My preview magazine, written by a guy named Scott Gramling, who is an Oriole fan and lists his writing staff as 'six world-class writers' (although three of the six are from the Gramling FAMILY!). His review of Melky Cabrera, had this to say 'The offseason acquisition of Nick Swisher likely pushes Johnny Damon to CF and Cabrera to the bench, where he belongs. He's atrocious Offensively and good Defensively, only in comparison to Damon and Bernie Williams'. Now, overlooking the fact that Bernie Williams won FOUR Gold Gloves as a Yankee CF, given the statistical and anecdotal evidence, its safe to say that Melky is indisputable as a Defender. And, given the numbers Offensively, it is hard to understand the intensity of criticism, given his age and established ability as a productive MLB hitter.

Of course, the same group of Oriole fans said of Jeter 'his Defensive deficiencies won't kill your fantasy team the way they do the Yankees' (UPDATE: Jeter is 2nd in AL Fielding Percentage with 2 errors in 37 games, while being 5th in Total Chances and trailing a guy who plays fulltime on the rug...). That would be fewer errors than Julio Lugo, made in a single inning for Boston or Oriole kid, Robert Andino, made at SS during the just-completed SWEEP at Yankee Stadium). Interesting to note this is another 'fact' that 'everyone' knows, but is an absolute JOKE to those of us who have seen every inning, every game and understand that, in New York, NOBODY lasts if they aren't doing the job - not even Derek could survive if his Defense was porous, which it isn't - it happens to be terrific.

Happily, the Yankees avoided trading away the Switch-Hitting 24 year old Melky for the 36 year old Cameron, throwing open the Spring competition and awarding the starting spot to speedster Brett Gardner, who promptly lost the job to Melky when it became apparent he lacked a serious CF arm and was not an everyday Offensive threat, while Melky was streaking to a season, in which he's hit successfully in 25 of his 28 starts, hitting .319/.370 On-Base/.500 Slugging, with 5HR/19RBI.

But, just today, a friend on Facebook, called Melky 'one of those guys who is a dime a dozen', and I wondered - where are there are other switch-hitters with that sort of an arm, who don't strike out, can hit .280, drive in 73 RBI and slug .500, before they turn 25?

On MLB, recently retired, Sean Casey, a favorite of the White-Boy Press (Joe Buck, Peter Gammons) opined that he saw Gardner last year and thought he brought more 'energy' than Melky, which is interesting phrasing since Melky is, perhaps, the most demonstrative of Yankees, while Gardner is a stoic, crew-cut sort...

Is it all possible that the critics, like Casey, are really talking about the TYPE of energy?

Melky speaks no English, and the NYC media have proven time and time again that this makes them FURIOUS (they despised El Duque Hernandez). In Casey's world (and in Boston) the bouncing, laughing, stylin' Dominican approach has not exactly been the local favorite! When Melky mugs for his buddy, Cano, hops into his big brother, Alex's arms or leaps skyward after the final out for a butt bump with Robby...lots of us see 'Energy' (Joe Torre said 'I love the energy and charisma this kid brings to the team'), but apparently, lots of folks see something else...something they do NOT like, something lots of them also saw in class-act Bernie Williams, whose gentle, Guitar Playing self did not keep him from being a hated Yankee for a decade and a half.

It was nothing short of bizarre to watch the disconnect between the urban Yankee fans (who adore Melky, as we do Manny, Cano, Alfonso Soriano...) and the conservative, anglo press (NY Daily News staff, Yankee Announcer Michael Kay, MLB Network Casey and fellow Right Winger, Al Leiter) when it came to the Gardner/Melky contest - the latter were rooting HARD to see the South Carolina kid to win the job and only grudgingly have admitted how superior Melky's play has been, while Melky's teammates insisted all along that the reports of Melky's demise was WAYYYYY overdone (Damon said, in Spring 'Melky is going to be here a long, long time').

Which is NOT to say that Melky is in the same class Offensively OR Defensively with the Tampa Bay Rays phenom, BJ Upton OR the Orioles duo of CF Adam Jones and RF Nick Markakis...those are all Superstar type players with power that dwarfs Melky's.

Melky will remain a solid everyday player, but never be a superstar. He can hit .300, hit 20 HR, drive in 100 runs, steal 15-20 bases and throw out a bushel full of Baserunners, however, and that is MORE than enough to insure he remains a Yankee for longandlong. Happily, he and Gardner get along beautifully and his teammates adore him, as do Yankee fans who live IN the City. CF is likely to be patrolled by 5 tool Minor League Phenom, Austin Jackson (hitting .341 at AAA) who Reggie Jackson compared to Devon White, Defensively, in the coming years, but Melky's big arm and defense figure to make him a RF fixture as Damon and Matsui move on, and Swisher/Gardner shift over to LF.

As for his Manager? Joe Girardi said 'Melky is a different player than he was last year, he's patient at the plate, driving the ball with authority from both sides and his Defense has always been there. He's so young, and it is not unusual to see struggles from a 23 year old, regardless of how many seasons he has under his belt. We challenged him to compete and do better, and now he is playing everyday and winning games for us. We like everything we've seen.'

As for Guru, I love Melky, always have and believe that The Magic Carpet was the ONLY voice sticking with him when the critics were circling.

I have no problem saying 'I told you so..'.