The Lowell Watch

There are reports the Yanks are going hard after former Yankee farmhand, Mike Lowell. We have to hope that this is not the case. Mike Lowell is a good player and a very good fielder. His hitting however has been massively inflated by playing in Fenway. In neutral parks, he doesn't break .800 OPS. Now, that wouldn't be terrible if the Yanks were viewing him as a stopgap for a year or two, but Lowell will no doubt get a 4 year deal.

In a sense the Yankes, then, might be making the same kind of mistake they made when they traded Lowell in the first place. Lowell had been a top Yankee prospect developed at roughly the same time as the Jeter/Posada group. The Yanks had added Scott Brosius as a stopgap while Lowell continued to develop in the minors, the after Bro had a big year in 1998, the Yanks decided to trade the prospect who's place he'd been holding. Of course, Bro never did much else, and Lowell was the player who should have stayed and replaced him.

Adding Lowell for 4 years now, would no doubt block Marcos Vechionacci, who the light seems to have gone on for and is in Lowell's class as a defender, or, perhaps Suttle, Laird or Pruitt. And, Lowell, in his decline phase (don't let the Fenway #'s fool ya!) isn't and won't be good enough to block those kids. If the Yanks are gonna make a multi-year committment at 3B it has to be to an elite talent like ARod or Caberera, and not give 4 years to a 34 year old who's a pretty ordinary hitter outside the friendly confines.