Yanks Chase Headley and Sign Him

Yankees signed Chase Headley today to a 4-year contract for a reported $50 million or so. A good move.

You win with Defense. And Chase Headley is the best defensive 3rd baseman Yanks have had since Graig Nettles  — as good as Scott Brosius was, and as well as ARod played 3rd, and as good as Pags was — nobody has had the Cat-like reflexes at 3rd like Headley. Saved so many runs for Yanks last year with STABS down the line robbing other teams of doubles, or to his right in the hole.

Offensively — .371 On Base Average for the Yanks last year in a half season. That’s HUGE — in a post-steroid, post-amphetamine era. We’re back in the 70’s with starting shortstops batting .200.

Headley also had an over-.370 OBA in 2011 and 2012. That’s 3 of last 4 years discarding first half of last year in San Diego.

Moneyball taught us what Gabe Paul knew in seventies — OBA is everything; batting average not as important.

And Defense wins titles — remember Graig Nettles winning the 1978 World Series with his Defense (like Brooks Robinson had done in 1970).

Year    Age   Tm   G   PA   AB   R   H HR RBI SB CS  BB  SO   BA  OBP  SLG
2007     23  SDP   8   21   18   1   4  0   0  0  0   2   4 .222 .333 .278
2008     24  SDP  91  368  331  34  89  9  38  4  1  30 104 .269 .337 .420
2009     25  SDP 156  612  543  62 142 12  64 10  2  62 133 .262 .342 .392
2010     26  SDP 161  674  610  77 161 11  58 17  5  56 139 .264 .327 .375
2011     27  SDP 113  439  381  43 110  4  44 13  2  52  92 .289 .374 .399
2012     28  SDP 161  699  604  95 173 31 115 17  6  86 157 .286 .376 .498
2013     29  SDP 141  600  520  59 130 13  50  8  4  67 142 .250 .347 .400
2014     30  TOT 135  531  470  55 114 13  49  7  3  51 122 .243 .328 .372
2014     30  SDP  77  307  279  27  64  7  32  4  1  22  73 .229 .296 .355
2014     30  NYY  58  224  191  28  50  6  17  3  2  29  49 .262 .371 .398
8 Yrs            966 3944 3477 426 923 93 418 76 23 406 893 .265 .347 .409
162 Game Avg.    162  661  583  71 155 16  70 13  4  68 150 .265 .347 .409

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 12/15/2014.

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