Yanks Win with Guiel

The Yanks showed some guts in turning around their July 4th thumping and administered an ass-whooping of their own against the Tribe Wednesday,11-3. Moose was great. Melky was great. The hot dogs tasted better. The beer tasted better. All is right with the world.

One note of interest. You know this by now, I'm sure, but the Yankees claimed outfielder Aaron Guiel off waivers from the Kansas City Royals. He's a Canadian boy with a flair for the dramatic. I don't mean baseball drama, I mean like "Canada:World Police" kind of drama. Check out the picture from the 1999 Pan Am Games where Guiel and a Cuban player subdue a protester who ran on the field. Kick ass Aaron!

As for the baseball side of things, Guiel has showed he can handle the bat a bit. He's kind of a career minor leaguer, or a AAAA type player as some may like to call him. He's played in over 1100 minor league games over the last 13+ years, and only 263 Major League contests. At AAA, he went .285/.387/.516/.903 in 609 career games, but only managed to produce .245/.320/.412/.732 in 263 Major League games over 5 years. His minor league numbers show some promise, and he's a very good fastball hitter. You can say that about most AAAA players actually. It's the offspeed stuff that keeps them from a regular Big League job. Guiel is a solid bench player against right handed pitching, but shouldn't see any time against lefties. Against lefties his numbers are fugly.

That works out just fine because Bernie Williams is fugly against right handed pitching this year, but looks All World against lefties. Do I smell a platoon?

Guiel is an upgrade defensively, and the key factor is his power from the corner outfield position. He may not hit consistently, but in 128 games he hit 32 doubles, 4 triples, and 30 home runs at Omaha in 2005. He hit 17 home runs in 80 games between Rookie, AA, AAA, and the Royals in 2004. In 2003 he played a combined 151 games between KC and Omaha and hit 39 doubles and 23 homers. 30 of the doubles and 15 of the home runs were in the Majors. He can slug given the opportunity, so it looks like a great pickup for a platoon.

Go Yanks.