What Would You Ask For If You Caught An Important Home Run Ball?

On Wednesday, Colin Curtis hit a memorable home run into the rightfield stands. It was memorable because he came on with an 0-2 count in a big spot, battled back to make the count 3-2 and then hit the home run. It was also memorable because it was his first Major League home run. It was "must see TV", as Curtis, a baby-faced cancer survivor hit it out of the park and rounded the bases with a huge, thrill-of-a-lifetime smile on his face. It is hard not to root for Curtis--who never was a great hitter even in the minors--and his dad was doing so back home. Curtis got a curtain call form the Yankees crowd and amazingly got the ball back from the fan who caught it.

There was a condition to getting it back, though. The fan who caught it exchanged the ball for a signed Derek Jeter and a signed A-Rod ball. So that brings me to my question: what would you ask for in exchange for a ball like this? Would you ask for anything different? Try to sell it? Just give it to the kid?

Personally, I would ask for a baseball signed by each of the "Core Four". I think that would be a reasonable trade for the first home run ball. But if whoever is in charge of making these trades (I'm guessing a Yankee representative) said that it was too much, I'd settle for a signed ball from Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera. I already have a signed ball from Mark Teixeira and I'm not sure there's another player I would want as badly as those two. A-Rod is not a bad choice, however.

But there's another important ball that's about to head into the seats and it will probably land there this weekend: and that's A-Rod's 600th home run ball. The people at SeatGeek have done an awesome job at tracking where that ball will land and the expected profit from sitting in that seat from catching the ball. The best place to sit seems to be Section 136 so I'm sure there will be quite a few people heading there this weekend against the Royals (my vote is for tomorrow against Kyle Davies who A-Rod also hit #500). So let's say that the ball doesn't land in the bullpen or hit something (like the foul pole) and head back into play and you're the one who catches it--what do you do?

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The Yankee Clipper: The Outfield

As the All-Star break comes to a close, it feels like a good time to review the season so far. We'll try to roll a different one of these out for the next week reviewing the Yankees different positional groups to see how they've performed so far this season. We'll also be reviewing this to see where weaknesses are before the July 31st non-waiver trade deadline. Let's start out with the outfield:

1. Brett Gardner. One of my favorite players coming into this season has rewarded the Yankees' faith in making him an everyday player. He's hitting a robust .309/.396/.415 and at his current pace would finish the season with 10 HR and almost 50 SB. He's 10th in the AL in runs (56), 5th in OBP (.396), and 4th in SB (25). Baseball-Reference has his defense in left rated as tops in the American League. In my opinion, the best thing about his game is the amount of pitches he sees. He averages 4.58 P/PA which would be the highest average since Rickey Henderson had 4.55 in 1997 (and if you want to read up on the correlation of P/PA and production, I found this Hardball Times piece from 2005). Better yet, FanGraphs says that only 5 players in the Majors swing at less balls outside the strike zone than Gardner--then again, he's also swung at the least amount of pitches inside the strike zone in the Majors and overall meaning he only swings 31.3% of the time (but he makes contact at balls inside the strike zone a league-leading 98.1% of the time when he does swing). FanGraphs tracks Gardner's Wins Above Replacement number at 2.3 which already surpasses his 2009 value and puts him in the top 15 among American League outfielders and Baseball-Reference has Gardner's WAR at 3.4 with would be tied for 6th among all AL positional players (with Carl Crawford and Kevin Youkilis). Whether it's "Gardner Planted One" (for his Inside-the-Park home run), "Gardy Goes Yardy" (his regular home run call), or "Brett The Jet" (his stolen base call), Gardner has not only turned into an important Yankee regular, but he may be a reason the Yankees second-guess giving big money to Carl Crawford in the off-season. Best Month: June .383/.472/.533.
2. Nick Swisher. I will repeat: the Yankees acquired Nick Swisher for Wilson Betemit. Wow. Swisher came into camp this year in even better shape than last year and it has showed. The Yankees starting rightfielder is having his best Major League season with career highs at every slash (.298/.377/.524) as well as his Weighted On Base Average (wOBA) of .391 (only Robinson Cano has a better mark. He's projected to have 28 HR, 93 RBI and 72 XBH. And although UZR rates him as a negative defender, he's shown definite improvement in right with both his arm and his glove. His 2.7 WAR in both FanGraphs and Baseball-Reference means that he's on pace to greatly surpass last year's output. And as shown by his recent All-Star Final Ballot selection, he's having a lot of fun doing it, bringing a loose atmosphere to the clubhouse that the Yankees needed after guys like Johnny Damon and Jason Giambi left. Swisher has moved around in the lineup a lot, hitting 2nd some games and anywhere from 4th to 8th in others--but wherever he's hit in the lineup, he's produced. Although he hasn't walked as much in 2010 (mostly due to who he's had hitting behind him), Swisher has still taken over 18% of his at bats to a full count and done damage when he's gotten there (.554 OBP). Swish has been extra Swishalicous in 2010 and the Yankees can control him for cheap through 2012 (according to Cot's Contracts, signed for bargains of  $6.75 M this year, $9 M in 2011 and a $10.25 M club option in 2012 with a $1 M buyout). Best Month: May .374/.441/.670 with 7 HR. Picture from the New York Daily News

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