Yanks get Matt Lawton

[Guest Bret Sabermetric]

for a minor league pitcher, class A ball. A good move for them.

[Guest Rotblatt]

ech. You're right, that is a good move. Lawton's having a nice little season offensively and IIRC, is pretty good defensively.

I'm surprised they're not putting him in center, though. Apparently, Matsui is getting the nod, which doesn't make much sense to me.

[MFS62]

At some point I'm probably going to call him Marcus, so I'll do my mea culpas now.

Later

[smg58]

Matsui's had more experience at center, at least recently. It doesn't hurt the Yankees, that's for sure. So they're committed to Bernie at DH and Giambi at first? Or is Bernie just a sub at this point?

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

Anyone who can catch the ball is welcome at Yankee Stadium. Lawton's pretty good season has been pretty crappy since going to the Cubs

[nymr83]

i'm suprised that nobody claimed him of waivers to block this trade.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

Jeez. The guy is 34 and very inconsistent. For the Yanks it'll probably mean less Tino Martinez/Ruben Sierra and more Giambi at first. Which is an upgrade but hardly a dramatic one.

Papers say Lawton will play left field, with Matsui in center, which still doesn't address their bad OF defense.

And if he performs as he did during his 2 months at Shea, that's no big upgrade either -- only the Yanks will have the benefit of batting him 8th or 9th and not 1st.

[Frayed Knot]

Lawton's a decent pickup but he's not nearly the defensive player he used to be, hence the reason why he's not going to CF.
Of course Matsui in CF is no prize either but Bernie let a triple fall last night that most CFers (and him in his younger days) put in their pocket so I guess the thinking is that anything's an upgrade at this point.

The longer than expected rehab by Sierra prolly has something to do with this also. It strengthens their bench.

They could hit him 2nd I suppose. They recently bounced the slumping Cano to the bottom of the lineup.

Oh, and the list of career Met/Yanx grows by one.



oe: Lawton makes his NYY debut batting 6th and palying [u:0ec8bb7bfd]RF[/u:0ec8bb7bfd] - Sheff DHs, Bernie still in CF.

[Elster88]

The FAN is saying that Bernie will DH with Giambi at first most of the time.

[Valadius]

Lawton has never been a center fielder for very long, or perhaps ever. I sure don't remember him in center.

[Guest SwitchHitter]

He played some CF for Minnesota between 1996 and 2000 (and possibly 1995). The most was 47 games in 1998. And no, this doesn't make him a CFer.

[Diamond Dad]

Only the Yanks would take that salary in order to fill in a small defensive hole.

Nobody blocked it, because nobody wants to pay Lawton

[Guest Edgy DC]

Are the Yanks letting Lawton get away with wearing his hat cocky? They seem to have put the kibosh on Shawn Chacon doing it.