I was surprised a few years ago when some Yankees fans expressed shock and disappointment when the Yanks got rid of Bubba Crosby. I couldn’t see the appeal. Some of these fans were disillusioned enough to actually believe he’d be the starting CF for the Yanks. What they were seeing, I have no clue. Do you remember when Brian Cashman gave the smoke and mirrors routine (before signing Johnny Damon) about Bubba being the Yanks’ starting CF in 2006? He couldn’t have been serious, could he?
I wonder if those fans who pined so much for Bubba back then feel the same way today. They may argue that he never got a chance, but given the emergence of Melky Cabrera and with Austin Jackson and Jose Tabata hopefully just two years away, whatever window of opportunity he had was going to be short anyway.
Bubba now goes to the Mariners. He didn’t play in the majors in 2007, and played in only 13 games for the Reds’ AAA team, Louisville, going 5 for 39 (.128) with a HR and 5 RBI. The 31 year old has 250 at bats in the majors, going .216-4-20 for an OPS+ of 46. He had an OBP of just .255 and a slugging average of .300 and was 10 for 12 in stealing bases. Only 11 of his 54 hits were for extra bases.
Ex-Steelers coach Chuck Noll used to have a saying when someone was done. He’d say “it’s time to get on with your life’s work,” expressing the fact that being a player was a small part of life and that there was so much of life ahead. At 31 and with the numbers (or lack of) that Bubba has had, it’s probably that time for him.
Apparently Jason Giambi has shown up to camp in great shape, and Mike Mussina has lost some weight also. Is it any coincidence that both are in the last year of their contracts?
6 responses so far ↓
1 BubbaFan // Feb 20, 2008 at 9:26 am
Since you ask…yes, I still feel the same. I don’t think Bubba got a fair chance.
He only played two weeks last year because of a shoulder injury. (And, typically Bubba, the play that made it clear he could not continue playing with the injury was one of those “Holy crap, how did he catch that?” deals. He covered an amazing amount of ground, made a terrific circus catch…but then couldn’t throw the ball back in.)
He finally had surgery on his shoulder in July. If he’d been healthy, he’d have been called up.
He’s only 31. It’s too soon to hang ‘em up.
Look at Aaron Guiel. He played 10 years in the minors, then continued his career in Japan.
Not every player can be a hall of famer. That doesn’t mean they don’t belong in the game.
2 Mike Sommer // Feb 20, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Fair enough. I full well realize that not every player can be a HOF, but a career OPS of 46 means that so far Bubba hasn’t even been half as good as the average major league player of his time (that would be a 50). I just don’t think and never have thought that Bubba was very good, and I expect that he will be surpassed–and quite rapidly–by a youngster in another team’s system much as he was surpassed by Melky in NY.
With Dunn, Josh Hamilton, Griffey, Ryan Freel and Jeff Conine in the OF, I doubt Bubba would have played very often–that is, if he would have been called up AT ALL (maybe in July with Hamilton on the shelf and later when Conine was dealt) by the Reds. Maybe he would have been a defensive replacement, but nothing more than that.
3 Mike Sommer // Feb 20, 2008 at 1:00 pm
I should add that so far Melky’s OPS+ of 90 (and Melky is several years younger than Bubba–he should just be coming into his own starting now) is almost double that of Bubba’s. That 90 is still 10% below league average.
4 Mike Sommer // Feb 20, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Unfortunately, the end of lunch break at work wouldn’t let me continue my thoughts. The fact that Bubba started game 5 of the 2005 ALDS over Bernie was a testament THEN of how badly Bernie had slipped–yet fans still wanted Bernie active two years later.
In writing a blog, sometimes I feel like Girardi or Cashman must sometimes feel in determining whether an individual is going to help the Yankees or not. Maybe that individual doesn’t get a fair shake. I, for one, feel that Kevin Thompson could have received more of a fair shake than he got. I wish Thompson and Bubba the best, but feel KT was a better ballplayer than Bubba. This feeling stems from the times I saw KT play at Trenton and Scranton.
I’m not going to be dead-on with each player in my assessment of them. I was dead-on in the early 1990s in stating to watch a guy named Mariano Rivera. I was also “on” Joba way before most bloggers and talk-show people had heard of him. I’m on record in stating that I don’t think Eric Duncan will make it. It’s nothing personal, just my opinion.
Some I don’t think will make it may make it and prove me wrong. God bless them if they do. I hope someone like Eric Duncan will do just that–it would be to the Yanks’ benefit, and certainly Eric Duncan’s. It may even benefit another team. I may also think some will make it and then we find out that they are colossal “Brien Taylor-like” flops. That is the risk and uncertainty of the game. As of now suspect, but don’t KNOW, what he have in Hughes, Joba, Ian Kennedy and others.
And that’s what makes the game so special. It’s like a mystery novel, but we can’t “cheat” and read the ending. We have to take it day-by-day and year-by-year to see how the plot develops, and we hope some ballplayers give us a heck of a ride–like Jeter, Mo, Posada and Pettitte, to name a few–already have.
5 BubbaFan // Feb 20, 2008 at 11:25 pm
I don’t think it’s fair to judge Bubba on his current stats. He’s gotten 250 at-bats over four years. Most players would have a tough time hitting in that situation, even players with a lot more experience than Bubba. And he got many of those at-bats as a LIDR, against the other team’s closer.
Plus the Yankees put so much pressure on young players to hit. Like Paul O’Neill said, it’s like being a contestant on “American Idol” - one bad night, and you’re gone. They end up hacking away at the plate. (Like poor Andy Phillips, who went three weeks without a walk in one stretch in 2006. And he was starting almost every day.)
Kevin Thompson didn’t get a fair shot, either. Maybe he’ll get a chance with the Bucs. They may be short of outfielders this season.
And I wonder how long Melky will last in the Bronx.
I think Bubba would have gotten a lot more playing time with the Reds than he ever got with the Yankees, if he’d been healthy. Partly because the Reds went through outfielders like Kleenex last year. They were picking up random outfielders everywhere and running them out there. And partly because they are a NL team; the bench players all get a lot more playing time than in the AL. Especially a Torre-led AL team.
6 Mike Sommer // Feb 21, 2008 at 6:28 am
Fair enough, and you make some valid points, but I differ on my opinion. I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree.
If Austin Jackson is the real deal, then Melky won’t be in the Bronx long.
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