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Shea Hillenbrand

Reports have the Yankees pursuing Shea Hillenbrand.  He is a player with a reputation as a clubhouse distraction, and one that the sabremetricians dislike because of his poor OBP skill.

With those two strikes against him, any off-season coverage will make him appear to have begun with a 1-1 count.  Don't listen.

In the Yankees line-up, Hillenbrand will get plenty of ABs with men on base.  (He may not have the OBP, but the rest of the line-up does!)  And what Shea does is swing the bat.

With that swing comes balls in play, andwith balls in play comes RBIs.

Batting 8th or 9th as a Yankee will result in a 70 RBI season, and, for the price Shea is likely to fetch in a draft, that is good value.

FWIW, this applies to any player the Yanks sign to be a right-handed bat at 1B.