This is some great news. Gary Sheffield has been the best Yankee hitter if you look out over a two year span. Alex Rodriguez had the MVP season in 2005, but Sheffield put together two great season since he’s been in pinstripes and he’s my favorite to win the MVP this year. He’s that good. And it sounds like Shef is excited about it too. So paying him $13 million in 2007 will most likely (we’ll get to that in a minute) be a bargain.
The biggest concern is injury. Will Carroll recently published his Team Health Report for the Yankees. and while I don’t want to go into too much detail because it’s a subscription only column, he gives Sheffield a red light. He talks briefly about his thigh injury and the fact that he’s getting up there age wise. And if you don’t subscribe to Baseball Prospectus, it’s great. You could warrant paying just for Will Carroll’s stuff alone, and you get a ton more.
Like their projection system, PECOTA. The weighted average mean for Sheffield is 35 homeruns and a .306/.392/548 line. Remember what I said about the MVP? Those are MVP numbers right there. And he only has a collapse rate of 11%.
And this is also a good read on Sheffield as well. He’s on a mission to bring the Yankees a championship. Gotta love that Yankee pride.
