Honset , Unbiased Opinion on the yanks

Care to explain in more detail your assertion about how Damon's "diminishing skills" only give the Yankees a clubhouse presence rather than a really good leadoff hitter who happens to have a personality?

Have you actually looked at his numbers? His career 162 game average is .289, 14 hr, 74 rbi, 112 runs and 29 sb . In Boston it was .294, 15, 81, 125 and 27. In New York it is .284, 18hr, 78 rbi, and 109 runs and 28 sb in in 2 plus seasons. One of the two full seasons in NY was the second best of his 14 year career. His numbers in the second were impacted significantly by injuries early on (.245, 5, 7, 44 before the break last season) and got better late (i.e. the opposite of a decline). Since the break last year, he's gone .309, 13 hr, 73 rbi, 99 runs in 147 games, which amounts to . 309, 14, 80, 109 on a full season's play. His overall numbers in NY are nearly identical to his career numbers (.005 less in average, 3 fewer runs, and 1 fewer sb, with 4 more hr and 4 more rbi per season), and only differ from his Boston numbers with respect to runs. Considering the injuries in the first half last season, and their impact on his NY numbers, those overall numbers in NY are very solid.

Your assertion that damon has "diminishing skills" suggests he's been on a downward track in NY. In fact, the numbers show an outstanding season (that was much better than his last season in Boston, a disappointing season (where the numbers were bad early and improved significantly in the second half), and then another very good season. Comparing his move to Millar's is way off base.

I know it stung Boston fans when he jumped ship, and the reaction for many of them was to then convince themselves they didn't want him anyhow because his skills were in "decline", but since you claimed to offer an "honest, unbiased opinion" in this thread, I thought you might want to actually look at the evidence objectively. When you look at all of the numbers, rather than only the first half of last year's, you'll see that his production in NY has been pretty much exactly what the Yankees thought they were getting, and have not been in "decline" since he went .316, 10, 75, 117 with 18 steals in his last season in Boston.