Well, Mike Axisa from River Ave. Blues and Rob Neyer think they should. McPherson was released yesterday by the Marlins and could be brought in to play third base.
(Before I go on I want to congratulate the guys over at River Ave. Blues for their recent content partnership with the YES Network. For more info on the partnership check out this post over at RAB)
Moving on... Here's some more on McPherson from Mike Axisa:
First things first, McPherson had a phenomenal year last year (.275-.379-.618) in his first healthy year since 2004, but he was in an extremely favorable environment. The PCL is a hitters' league in general, plus Albuquerque is at altitude (his home OPS was nearly two hundred points greater than his road OPS), giving him another nice boost. Translating his numbers to a neutral MLB environment (via the MLE Calculator) gives you a .207-.295-.440 batting line with a Mo awful 181 strikeouts in 468 at-bats. The .233 IsoP is dead sexy, and that's pretty much right in line with his .213 career mark. There's no doubt about it, the guy can hit the ball a long way. He just struggles making contact.
The second part you need to understand about his offense is his massive platoon split. A lefty, McPherson hit just .217-.308-.528 against his fellow southpaws last year, down from .285-.395-.635 against righties. In his big league career (128 total games), he's managed just a .176-.218-.297 line off lefties, with a 38.5% strikeout rate. If the Yanks were tempted to bring McPherson aboard, it would have to be in a platoon situation only, which is fine because Cody Ransom is a righty and annihilates lefties (1.056 career OPS).
Here are McPherson's numbers against right-handers in the majors: .263/.318/.498, with 16 HR and 40 RBI in 321 at-bats. Not bad. Also, Ransom is just a .221/.323/.371 against right-handers in 140 at-bats throughout his career. Although last year he did hammer right-handers to the tune of .345/.441/.793 in 29 at-bats. I know, a small sample size.
I think a platoon of McPherson and Ransom could turn out to be very good for the Yanks while they wait for A-Rod. The move would force either Ramiro Pena or Angel Berroa—whichever makes the team—off the roster, which isn't that big a deal.
Neyer goes on, saying that the Yankees don't know exactly what they will get from A-Rod once he comes back, and that even though "Brian Cashman knows a lot more about Rodriguez's long-term prognosis than I know. But I don't know that Cashman will be able to live with himself after the season, if for want of a platoon third baseman the pennant was lost."
So what do you think, should the Yankees sign McPherson?
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