YANKEES PROJECTIONS 2011: THE OUTFIELD

LF- Brett Gardner: .295 Avg, 72 stolen bases, 112 runs scored. Last season, Gardner had another year, like 2009, in which he didn't do quite as well as most Yankee fans thought he could do. He did steal 47 bases in 150 games last year, while stealing 26 the year before, while playing just 106 games. But Gardner's average last year was .277, and in 2009 it was .270. That's not quite where he needs it to be. With his speed and ability to slap the ball to left field with ease, look for him to have a big year. He'll be batting lead off against right handed starting pitchers, and he'll bat 9th against lefty starters. With that, he should get plenty of at bats to get on base a bunch of times to steal over 70 bases, and score more than 100 runs.CF- Curtis Granderson: .280 Avg, 30 Hrs, 32 stolen bases. Overall last season, Granderson had a disappointing year batting only .247 in 136 games while stealing just 12 bases. He was hampered last season by a right groin injury. He did hit 24 home runs, a bulk of them coming in August and September. But overall it was a tough year. In the postseason he batted .357. Nice. I think Granderson will have a very good bounce back year, and should have a 30 homers and 30 stolen bases in 2011.RF- Nick Swisher: .272 Avg, 23 Hrs, 84 RBI. Last season, Nick Swisher bounced back from a bit of a sluggish 2009 season in which he batted .249. In 2010, his averaged jumped to .288. His power numbers were basically identical as he hit 29 home runs in 2009 and 2010. And his RBI's were right around the same rate at 82 (2009) and 89 (2010) respectively. I see Swisher having similar numbers to last season. Not quite as great a season as 2010, but, with Swisher not batting in the second slot of the lineup on a consistent basis, I expect him to struggle a little bit, but still have a solid overall year.

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--Jesse Schindler, BYB Guest Writer
My Blog: The Pinstriped Personality



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