I WANT CHRIS DICKERSON BACK!

There it is, I am just going to lay it out there. I know I am not the only one thinking this. Can we invent the “do-over” for baseball? Trust me, if I could I would right now. Sure, maybe this is easy to say right now but we believed that Chris Dickerson was a good solution for this team a long time ago, read GIVE CHRIS DICKERSON A SHOT! for our take on this.

Losing Curtis Granderson to an injury so soon really sucks, but because of this I think my worst nightmare just may be coming true. I really didn’t like losing Dickerson when the Yankees designated him for assignment. I felt sick to my stomach when I found out he went to the Orioles. Now I feel like I have come full circle because I am living in a “dejavu” world because it was just last month I was talking about how losing Dickerson would be a big blow. I would hardly say I have a good track record predicting these things, but this time I think I may have been on to something.

After Dickerson was designated for assignment we wrote about just how much we didn’t like it here at BYB in a piece called WHY CHRIS DICKERSON WILL BE MISSED. I really liked Chris Dickerson, and I still do. I think he is going to do great things for the Orioles and I am going to hate watching him play in their uniform. In fact, it may eat away at me inside. I think he is going to be a big contributor for any team he plays on. If we hadn’t let him go he could have made our bench very strong.

I had several people tell me that Dickerson just “didn’t have a place on the team.” I agree with that to a certain extent; however Dickerson has an impressive skill set and he had already proven himself in some big situations. When you have a good skill set, there is always a need. Sure, the Yankees had a lot of lefties and someone had to go, and unfortunately it was him. However, we were very quick to point out that cutting Dickerson because he was another lefty bat in a loaded lineup could come back to bite us later because “For all we know, the team could look a lot different by the time the All-Star break comes around.” In this case, we didn’t even get through the second game of Spring Training and the team is already looking different for a short amount of time.

What happens if we somehow come up short with left handed hitting outfielder later? It may not be likely, but anything can happen. Sure, Granderson will be back in May if all goes well but now doesn’t Dickerson look like a good option? No offense to the bench we have now, but I really liked Dickerson. He is familiar and I knew what we were getting with him.

After losing Raul Ibanez and Nick Swisher I kind of want that. He understood what wearing our uniform meant and the expectations that come with it. I think he rose to the challenge. Not to say that the players we have now won’t, but my loyalty rested with Dickerson. Sure, some say that train of thought may be crazy and maybe it is. However, what he did during his time here did not go unnoticed and he played the game with a lot of passion, and that is something a team always needs.

In my mind, he would be the perfect fit….and now he is gone. When I think about the skill set we are going to be missing while Granderson is out I think Dickerson matched a lot of that except for one area, the power numbers. Sure, he isn’t going to hit 40+ home runs but when you compare his defensive skills, and his speed he can match Grandy. While Dickerson doesn’t hit the homers, he does put the ball in play and he can drive in runs. He walks a lot and he doesn’t strike out as much as Granderson does.

I know the Yankees will figure this out, and I am sure if they choose to put Matt Diaz or Juan Rivera in the outfield for the time being that they will rise to the occasion….but I still feel like the Yankees gave away the perfect fit.

--Jeana Bellezza, BYB Writer and Editor

Twitter: @NyPrincessJ



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