Actually I really like Brett Gardner. As a Yankee fan it is easy to forget that young players actually develop. Gardner is young and still learning to play as a big leaguer. I like a lot of what he brings to the table and I'm glad Cashman is making the decisions and not me. I always knew Melky wasn't really a life-long Yankee like Derek Jeter or Mariano Rivera. Brett Gardner has a ton of upside if he can learn to hit. His speed is remarkable which he can make him a huge threat on the basepads. His speed carries over into the field and he can cover a lot of ground out in center or left whichever the Yankees decide is best for him. I believe it will be left field because Granderson's arm may be a bit better than Gardner's. One last thing about Gardner that should be noted is that he is a throwback player. He gets dirty and he plays the game hard and I love that about him.
My only hangup on Brett Gardner is that his flaws are aspects of his game he desperately needs to improve upon. In particular I am talking about baserunning and hitting. First his baserunning has been subpar to put it lightly. He gets picked off a lot and makes a lot of baserunning mistakes. Hopefully this is in large part due to him feeling out the competition. Which pitchers have good moves, which fielders have good arms, or which catchers have arms he can run on. I can only hope he is just trying to gain his bearings in the big leagues and it will all start to click because right now he is relegated to a pinch-runner/defensive sub type player. Next is his hitting. Last year Kevin Long, the hitting coach, told Gardner to become more aggressive particularly on the first pitch. I remembered hearing this and not seeing it acted out. Gardner tends to look for that perfect pitch and often times the big league hitters don't give you a perfect pitch. Maybe Gardner should pick Jeter's brain about how it is to hit early in the lineup or work with Kevin Long extensively but Gardner's hitting problems are something that needs to be fixed. After all what good is a base stealing threat if they are not on the bases.
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