Even though he was drafted in the third round of the playoffs, Brett Gardner was never a highly touted prospect. The College of Charleston product worked his way through the system nonetheless and was in the major leagues to stay by the 2009 season. He was a regular outfielder the following year and good enough that Brian Cashman cited him as justification to not pursue All-Star Carl Crawford last offseason.
EXPECTATIONS: The reason why the Yankees didn’t go after Crawford is because Gardner had far exceeded expectations the year before. He had to repeat that though otherwise fans would have turned on him and Cashman too.
SLOW START: Gardner didn’t make things easy on himself as he hit just .145 with a .197 OBP and .503 OPS over the first 20 games. His defense was strong throughout, but it did carry over to his base running as he stole 13 bases, but was caught nine times.
STRONG SUMMER: For a 104 game stretch from the end of April to the middle of August, Gardner had ...
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