Cano's Work Ethic Is Killing Him

As the Cano Counter over on the sidebar indicates, Robinson Cano is rebounding nicely from his horrible 2008 season. A by-product of this success seems to be comparisons to other second basemen around MLB, especially to Boston's Dustin Pedroia (.296 AVG, 10HR, 53 RBI, .371 OBP). Joel Sherman of The New York Post assembled a committee recently, and that committee, comprised of front office executives from around Major League Baseball, came to the conclusion that they'd prefer to have Dustin Pedroia on their team rather than Robinson Cano.

The reason they came to this conclusion? Pedroia's work ethic. Hardworking, scrappy players are more desirable than those with natural ability whom, it is assumed, don't work as hard.

Sherman's article appeared just a day after Mark Teixeira was interviewed on The Michal Kay Show. Kay asked Teixeira if there was anyone on the team of whom his opinion had changed since becoming his teammate. His answer? Robinson Cano. Teixeira said that he sees how hard Cano works and that he believes his teammate is a future MVP and a future Hall Of Famer. (For his part, Kay sounded utterly shocked to hear this.)

I don't know about the Hall Of Famer part, but I was happy to hear Mark Teixeira speak positively about Robinson Cano. Teixeira ought to know what he is talking about. He is around Cano everyday. Front office executives from other teams (and Michael Kay, too, for that matter) are not.

Bernadette