The Ref Headed Step Child

If Brett Gardner is the teacher’s pet, then Rob Refsynder is the Nate Diaz of this present Bomber regime…

“Let’s be honest” Refsynder is the Cash-Rardi red headed step  child, they  don’t like him.. Refsynder seems to have a chip on his shoulder, which is what I like about him, that  and he’s had a bit of a tough  time coming up  as a ball player

In fact rumor had it he was a bit arrogant last year  when he had a cup of coffee with the varsity, and word on the bricks or at least  the rumor that was authenticated by Honest Mike Francesa may have been one reason Ref was sent packing…

Of course a rumor like that is an  easy  fix if your Cashman or Girardi, you just  deny it… No doubt whoever Honest Mike was sucking up  to  at  the time told him something off the record..

Anyway  the easy  way  out of playing Refsynder for the defensive minded Cash-Rardi duo is to  blame the Rook’s defense, and he does look a bit stiff out there playing 2nd base, in fact it’s been documented a lot in the media, defense is Refsynder’s Achilles Heel..

After playing his first game at  third yesterday in the Yanks 6-5 loss to  the Phillies, Refsynder has the lead over his detractors 1-0, Ref looked pretty good out there from my vantage point

In his first career start at third, the first ball hit to Refsnyder was a one-hop rocket that he snagged while sliding to this left. Refsnyder got to this feet, made a good throw to second base, and started a double play that was key to getting the Yankees out of trouble in the second inning. Didi Gregorius walked over from shortstop to slap him on the back.

“How you drew it up,” Refsnyder said. “I was talking about it yesterday. I just want a hard one. … I felt good (and) comfortable. My goal was to kind of be aggressive, try to make a lot of plays, do a lot of different things on both sides of the ball. I just wanted to be aggressive.”

Refsnyder cleanly handled another hard-hit ball to start the third inning. He also had a single, a walk and stole two bases. He’s hitting .333 with three stolen bases so far this spring.

Girardi had to bite his tongue and give the kid credit,

“Good job,” manager Joe Girardi said. “I mean, he had two really difficult plays, and he made them, so that’s encouraging.”

For some reason Cashman  and Girardi  are fixated on always giving  the back-up  utility gig to  a no hit / decent defensive player, of course that’s by the book, the 25th man on the  bench is a position  your not supposed to  worry about much, it’s an unwritten  rule..

That’s old school in my book, not only do  you need to  worry about the 25th man, but you need to stay up  at night worrying about the 35th man on your 40 man roster, that’s how important depth has become in the post PED era

The way  this division and this league is built, 1 or 2 games can mean making the playoffs or staying home in October. The game on April  4th is as important as the game on October 1st, and when one of your 9  starters goes down  you better not have a hack replacing him…

That said how sick and tired are we  watching guys like

Brendan Ryan .229 .275 .333 .608

and

Stephen Drew, 201 .271 .381 .652

come to bat and produce the center of a donut?

And while both players were labeled defensive whizzes, I didn’t see that magician label come to  fruition  that often

Refsynder represents the new look Baby Bomber ascent on this aging Geezer-thon that is as traditional to the NY Yankees as the no facial hair rule.. For some reason the Bomber’s high command just  doesn’t trust young players

Hopefully this all  changes, for my money I don’t want to  see minor league retreads

Ronald Torreyes,  Pete Kozma, or  Donovan Solano clogging up  a roster spot, been there done that last yr, and the year before, and the yr before…

I want a home grown kid who has an offensive track record, let him work on his defense, if he starts to leak runs like Eduardo Nunez, then let’s go  to plan B

Let’s start  to  trust  the farm  system

Refsynder  was the co-top  story coming out of yesterday’s loss, that  and TJ Tanaka looked good in his 2 inning stint.. I watched him, and his pitches had some life on them, his split looked like it was working, he was able to  throw his fastball from 86 to  92 with  some depth

What’s gonna save this 2016 version of Tanaka, will be his constant use of 5 pitches, he needs to be deceptive, a “crafty Righty” if you will..He’s not gonna throw a fastball in a fastball count by anybody that’s for sure

And if he gets a fast ball  up in a hitters wheel house, you might as well hand it a first  class airline ticket because it’s gonna fly a long way…

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