Sunday, January 25, 2009

Robinson Cano Is Saying All the Right Things

Sometimes it takes a young person a little while to get it. It must be hard for a natural talent to suddenly realize that success at the highest level means hard work, perhaps work that never had to be done before. Robinson Cano seems to fall into that category and according to this story, seems to finally get that to be his best, he has to work hard.

To be sure, every drafted player must face the same dilemma. They were the best players on their high school teams. Perhaps had great college careers based on talent alone. Suddenly, they are in a minor league camp and all the players are just as good. Those that work hard and catch the right break, just may make it.

But there are a selected few who stand out, even among minor league peers. These players have so much talent that they breeze through the levels on superior talent alone. The sudden realization doesn't strike this type of ballplayer until the major leagues come calling. Even then, for the first month, or first season, things go pretty well. Cano, for example, hit .297 his first year and was over .300 the two years after that.

The world caught up to Cano last year. His underbelly was exposed and major league pitchers shot all the arrows they could into it. He was awful the first half, came back a little and then tailed off again. He failed to run out ground balls. He looked lazy in the field. Trade rumors surfaced and many wrote him off.

It seems, though, that the young man has figured it out. He hired a personal trainer in the off-season, asked for permission to play winter ball and is playing in the Fan-hated WBC. All this is good news for the Yankees who could regain the star player they thought they had.

Now we'll see if his good buddy, Melky Cabrera got the same message. At times in 2007, it looked like Cabrera was going to be a really good player in the bigs. But he regressed badly last year and looked so lost at the plate that he was shipped out to the minors. Then in December, it looked like he was headed to Milwaukee for Mike Cameran. But that deal died and Cabrera just signed a new contract to avoid arbitration.

So it looks good that Cabrera will get a chance to win his center field job back as he competes with Brett Gardner for that job. It seems likely that the Yankees will tab one of those two to patrol center. Both players have upside potential and it may be fun for Yankee fans to see one of them develop into a good player. The Yankees would probably be happy if one of them hits .270 and plays good defense.

As for Cano, if he can give them a year at .320 with 20 to 25 homers, the team will be ecstatic.

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