(Still?) Defending The Melk Man

It's not that I didn't understand the thought process behind trading Melky. Some people looked at the organization as a whole and saw Brett Gardner, Austin Jackson and Jose Tabata rising through the system, then looked at Melky and said, "He's only put up average numbers for a center fielder, he won't have a position on the team in a couple of years."

I've talked about this topic way too much, so instead of writing the same diatribe over and over and over again, every month or so I'll take a look at how each of the Yankee outfield prospects are faring at their respective levels, how Melky is progressing in the bigs, and you guys can make up your own mind if the Yanks should've dealt him, "While his value was at it's highest."

Check after the jump for the stats, and keep in mind, we aren't comparing like things. A 19 year-old at AA isn't the same as a 23 year-old in the bigs. We're also looking at an extremely small sample-size. The only thing I'm trying to do here is keep an eye on the outfield of the future. The notion that Gardner, Jackson and Tabata will all make it to the big leagues and should supplant Melky is highly unlikely, as far as I'm concerned, but it's definitely worth keeping an eye on everyone involved.