I remember Dave Martinez hitting fairly well (well, he had a decent streak anyway) during his brief period as a Blue Jay, and I think it was his fourth team of the season. I think they were all trades.

It didn't have any pennant race implications, but he played well.

Best I've got!

If they move Matsui to centre field I think the fans in Japan might just explode -- it's his old position, and out of respect they let Matsui play centre last year for the pre-season exhibition game in Japan. Or was that this year? It all seems to long ago...

Anyways, it's supposed to be a really big deal, playing centre field.

Does this trade mean that I'll never again be able to shout "TONY WOMACK, CENTRE FIELDER!" at my TV as he makes a routine play look difficult?

I'm pretty sure Matsui already played CF this year for a bit right when they were in the whole "experiment" stage. Wolmack played left, Matsui centre, and Robinson Cano was called up to play 2nd.

Great trade for the Yankees (unfortunately). The Yankees desperately needed another player to get on base at the top of the order and Lawton, a .370 OBP guy will provide that. Does anyone know where he'll be hitting in the order? Lawton then Jeter would make the most sense to me, but the other way around works well too.

Damn Yankees!

Matt Lawton has started in RF, Matsui is in LF and Williams is in CF. Lawton is batting eighth.

Oh, that's horrible. Bernie back in CF? There's such a thing as TOO much loyalty, Joe Torre!

Lawton batted 8th today, in a game the Yanks are losing to the Royals.

This interesting note was tagged at the bottom of ESPN.com's game recap of NYY's comeback win:

"Lawton's brother, Marcus, played for the Yankees in 1989. They are the sixth set of brothers to play for the Yankees, joining Felipe and Matty Alou, Joe and Phil Niekro, Al and Mark Leiter, Melido and Pascual Perez and Billy and Bobby Shantz."

One of the reasons Matsui could play CF in Japan is because the ballparks are smaller and thus, he has less ground to cover. Just to give you an idea, Benny Agbayani was the Chiba Lotte Marines' regular CF until he got hurt and Tuffy Rhodes took over CF for the Giants before he got hurt and headed back to the States.

I don't think Matsui is worse than Bernie in CF but I don't think he's much better either. From what I've seen from Womack, he seems to misjudge a lot of balls. At this point, I think the Yankees are picking from lesser of several evils and they may as well just let Bernie play CF.

From what I've seen of the Yankees this year, the problem with Bernie isn't so much his range - although that has shrunk, like a vanishing habitat - as the fact that he can barely throw the ball as far as the next relay man.

Womack still runs well, but the man is simply not an outfielder. You can't really hold it against him.

Watching Womack try to play CF, though, is a strange and wonderful experience. I'm happy to have seen it, although I doubt Yankees fans are sharing my joy.

No, we are not.

It reminds me a bit of when I was a kid in Ohio and the Reds moved Johnny Bench to 3B. True, in no other context does Womack deserve to be compared to Bench in any way. But it was just about as painful and yet transfixing to watch JB out there. I guess the Reds figured, what the hell, we moved Rose there and it worked ...

If Womack HAS to be in the lineup 9and he doesn't, with Lawton now on board, the best defensive alignment would have him at 3B, A-Rod at SS and Jeter in CF. But I've been saying stuff like that for more than a year.

Definitely a nice pickup. The Yanks go from Tony Womack or Bubba Crosby as their fourth outfielder to either Lawton or Bernie.

This is where the scouting report becomes important. A Yankee fan might know nothing about Lawton (unless he followed the Mets too). Anyway, the Fans' *hate* Lawton as a fielder. For three years in a row (and seeing that he's played on many teams over 3 years, that's a good cross-section). He's got good speed, but terrible instincts. He can't catch, or throw. Basically, he's Tony Womack as a fielder. UZR also rates Lawton as one of the worst fielders in MLB since 1999. Matsui is an average fielder, which makes him a below average CF. That Torre alternates Bernie between a high-end fielding responsible position like CF and one with no responsibility like DH shows that he's being completely handcuffed in terms of managing his team. How hard is it for the Yanks to get Cameron, Kotsay or any other excellent fielder / average hitter?