With Posada struggling, griping, let’s check on Jesus Montero

We can probably all agree that Jorge Posada has not been a productive hitter this season. His OPS is just .621, his batting average is .165, he hasn't had an extra-base hit in his last 33 at-bats. He's had no luck on balls in play, that's true (.164 BABIP), but he also hasn't hit the ball with any authority (11.4 line drive percentage).

It's not entirely clear that Posada, who turns 40 in August, will ever again be a useful hitter for the Yankees. Right now, this is the most pressing question: From which lineup spot should Posada continue his no-hitting? On Saturday, manager Joe Girardi decided the answer was ninth, which reportedly left Posada feeling disrespected. An hour before first-pitch, he asked out of a lineup that he was barely in. And because this is a New York story, everyone is talking about it. And Buster Olney is talking about it non-stop, to anyone who will listen, in the most dire terms.

If you're a competitive fantasy owner, you probably addressed the Posada situation long before Girardi took action. For you, the issue now on the table is whether Jesus Montero will get the call to New York. Whenever the 21-year-old Montero is promoted, it will be an actionable fantasy event. He's an elite young hitter and he's catcher-eligibile. Baseball America ranked Montero as the game's No. 3 overall prospect entering 2011, so expectations are clearly high.

If you only read the shorthand accounts of Montero's year-to-date performance, you'd think he was absolutely destroying Triple-A pitching. He's hitting .336 over 119 at-bats, and he went 3-for-5 on Saturday with a double and an RBI. But Montero has drawn only five walks this year, so his on-base percentage (.365) isn't actually much higher than his average. That's a small concern, and he hasn't displayed much power over the opening month, either. He's homered twice, doubled six times, and his slugging percentage is a fairly modest .437.

So Montero has been good, but not Hosmer-good. No one seriously doubts that he'll clear a few fences, though, since he finished with 58 extra-base hits and 21 home runs at Triple-A in 2010, over 453 at-bats. He's owned in just five percent of Yahoo! leagues at the moment and makes for a nice spec add, considering the Posada drama. The Yankees, of all teams, should not find it terribly difficult to replace a .165/.272/.349-hitting DH, even if he happens to be a franchise demi-legend.

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Photo via AP Images (Posada/Girardi), Getty Images (Montero)

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/fantasy/blog/roto_arcade/post/With-Posada-struggling-griping-let-s-check-on-?urn=fantasy-wp2399

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