Also, I think he’s under rated in many ways. He could never throw but he usually ran down everything that went his way and caught it. The guy is clutch, .. he rises to big moments. He’s got great baseball instincts and he can still run. All these things he does better than Ibanez.

Hell, if the primary attraction is his bat, I like Matsui more than Ibanez.

I do think you are right about Gardner, though I wonder how much the jerking around has to do with his inconsistency (CF-LF-CF; leadoff-9th-leadoff; plays against a lefty-sits against a lefty-plays against a lefty). I think all of these things require a bit of time to acclimate, and that is something the Yankees have not given Gardner. I wonder if he would have developed into more of a star by now if he was on a team with less pressure.

You mean both of them can stand out there and make routine catches look spectacular?

I have always thought he was not living up to his talent, but recently I’ve wondered if Gardner isn’t the George Thorogood of baseball players. See, the Delaware Destroyer was knocked in guitar playing circles as someone who can obviously play guitar but people would see his show and wonder why he never elevated his playing to a true Jimmy Page or Eric Clapton level. He was called an under achiever for years. But then Thorogood gave an interview and said that people always got him wrong, he was never going to be a virtuoso, he never had a ton of god given talent and that he had to work his ass off just to be as good as he was.

He had a ceiling and he had to struggle just to stay there.

And I wonder if Gardner fits that mold. I wonder if the talent we see isnt about untapped innate potential, but is the ceiling on him as a player and it is only thanks to intense hard work that he is even this good.

If that’s the case, then I’ll embrace that and look at the platoon situation differently and i’ll have to stop waiting for Gardner to tell all the other left fielders that the “big dog’s moving in.”

I’m in full agreement.