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I THINK WE'RE GUNNA NEED BACK UP
2004-01-16 08:52
by Alex Belth


My man Cliff C profiles the Yankees' new back-up first baseman, Tony Clark over at Cliff's Big Red Blog. I didn't realize how young Clark is, or how decent he has been during his career. If used correctly, he should turn out OK for the Bombers:


A Tony Clark/Kenny Lofton platoon (with Bernie shifting to center against lefties) would give the Yankees a tremendous boost. Take a look at those two lines again:

Tony Clark vs. lefty pitching: 2003 - .279/.355/.500 (.285 GPA); 2001 -
.321/.376/.557 (.308 GPA)

Kenny Lofton vs. righties: 2003 - .313/.373/.478 (.287 GPA); '01-'03 - .281/.354/.442 (.270 GPA)

By way of comparison here are the GPAs for Derek Jeter and Alfonso Soriano over the past two seasons. Jeter: .289 & .273; Soriano: .283 & .286.

Basically, a Lofton/Clark platoon would give the Yankees another full-time offensive player on the level of a Jeter or Soriano. I just hope Joe Torre's smart enough to make it happen.

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