N.Y. Sun: Marchman: All Hope Is Not Lost on Melky Cabrera

Andromedia straining to find value in the Melky way?

Horrified as the world might be by Cabrera’s lousy play, though, if he were a stock I’d buy as much as I could afford. You have to trust fundamentals, and even after the last few months his are still shockingly good.

First, as manager Joe Girardi noted Friday, “You cannot forget how young Melky is.” Four years into his career, Cabrera’s date of birth is still arguably the single most important thing about him. The second most important thing about him is that he showed he could play well at a very young age; it’s difficult to overestimate how strong a predictor of eventual stardom that is. The third most important thing is that he’s a center fielder, and not just in name. Whatever terrors he visited upon spectators while hitting, Cabrera notably improved in the field this year, something the better defensive statistics picked up. The Fielding Bible’s plus/minus system, for instance, credits him as having been 10 plays better than an average center fielder this year.