Is Johnny Damon contractually obligated to bat leadoff? He's 0-for-17 in his last five games, hitting .233 and has an OBP of .337 for the season. He claims to be fully recovered from the fistful of injuries that hampered him in the first half but if anything his play is getting worse with every passing day. Joe Torre does nothing about this. Just like using Kyle Farnsworth in the eighth inning is preordained no matter how poorly he does his job, Johnny Damon bats leadoff come hell or high water. Melky Cabrera's been getting on base at a .385 clip this month but remains at the back end of the lineup while Damon gets the extra at-bats that stymie the Yankee offense. Damon's every trip to the batter's box fills me with the kind of dread normally reserved for Farnsworth's appearances and open heart surgery.
Yesterday was the rare game that saw the leadoff hitter bat first multiple times. Damon led off the game with a walk and scored on Bobby Abreu's double but he also led off the third and eighth innings. The third was a strikeout and he flied out in the eighth. Now he wasn't alone in his struggles against Dustin McGowan and the Jays. After Abreu's double the Yankees only mustered four hits which was enough to carry a 2-0 lead into the seventh but not enough to overcome the Toronto rally that won them the game 3-2. Chien-Ming Wang got into trouble when Vernon Wells's grounder died in fair territory and he couldn't keep the ball on the ground against Troy Glaus and Aaron Hill. That led to three runs, a blemish in an otherwise fine performance that the Yankee offense couldn't overcome. I don't want to pin that all on Damon but he's a black hole that's killing rallies before they can even start. When Bobby Abreu was struggling he was moved all over the lineup in an effort to shake up his approach or his psyche, why not try the same thing with Damon? The Yankees have nothing to lose by putting him in the ninth hole, freeing him of the obligation to set the table and seeing what happens.
(Barton Silverman/The New York Times)
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