Brett Gardner: come on up

Hello, Brett Gardner. Welcome to the Bigs.

There certainly are some pros and cons to this youngster. Let's take a look at the cons, first.

Cons
1. .385 SLG in minors. However, he does have a .429 SLG this season, with 11 doubles, 10 triples, and 3 home runs in 282 ABs. So maybe he's starting to develop some extra base hit capabilities, though it's unlikely that they will apparent to us in his first stint at the MLB level.
2. Strikes out in 24.1% of his ABs. This is not good. For a guy who hits for pretty weak power, he shouldn't be striking out this much.

Pros
1. Excellent eye. Has walked in 13.4% of his plate appearances in the minors, with it being 17.3% in AAA this year.
2. Incredibly fast. 83% success rate in swiping bases, going 150-30. It'd be good to have a great SB threat on the bases.
3. Excluding the numbers he put up right after his midseason promotions, at each level, he's put up very high BABIPs, including this year's .357.

Could look at it this way. Reggie Willits has a Jason Tyner-like ability to hit home runs and he walks a ton, also, while striking out a fair amount (although in the majors, not the minors) and not putting up a tremendous average. If he could be Reggie Willits, that's not terrible. A guy at the bottom of the lineup that can get on base at a decent clip will certain help. And who knows, as my third "pro" states, when Gardner does put the ball in play, he gets a lot of hits. If he were to cut down on the strikeouts without losing his patience, he'd become a lot more valuable. Plus, it's possible that Cashman might want people to see this guy's patience and his speed, and hope that someone would jerk off to him enough to want to give up something worthwhile to acquire him.