Boland: Cervelli shows he knows what to do with a bat, too

DETROIT

Kevin Long remembered his evaluation of Francisco Cervelli at the plate when the catcher was a September call-up in 2008. "Overmatched," the Yankees' hitting coach said. "He was an out."

There was little reason to think things would be different last year when, because of injuries to Jorge Posada and Jose Molina, Cervelli was called up from Double-A Trenton - where he was hitting .190.

Expectations were such that Long and manager Joe Girardi told the young catcher not to get too bogged down in the intricacies of hitting. Just catch the ball, they told him.

"Joe and I said this from the beginning," Long said. "We need you to catch, call a good game, block and do everything defensively we need you to do. And anything you can contribute offensively is going to be a bonus."

The 24-year-old Cervelli, signed as a non-drafted free agent in 2003, has more than exceeded those modest expectations. He proved to be excellent defensively, which was not a surprise, and quickly bonded with a veteran pitching staff, thanks to his enthusiasm and ability to handle pitchers.

No, the surprise was, and continues to be, that the player who couldn't hit Double-A pitching hit .298 in 42 games with the Yankees last year - and is hitting a ridiculous .408 with a .482 on-base percentage this year.

"He's played as well as he can play," Girardi said. "Big situations, he's gotten big hits for us."

And the majority of the hits haven't been a collection of slaps and dinks for the 6-1, 210-pound Cervelli. He went 2-for-4 in Wednesday's second game against the Tigers, yanking a double down the leftfield line - one of five hits the Yankees got off Jeremy Bonderman - and ripping a line-drive RBI single to center against Alfredo Figaro in the ninth.

Cervelli, who has much better speed than most catchers, hit the ball hard most of spring training, and his regular season has followed suit.

Part of his success at the plate can be traced to the fact that in the Yankees' loaded lineup, pitchers have to pitch to someone. But Long also said that when he saw Cervelli last year, even as a .190 hitter, he saw fundamentals that could be developed and honed.

"He has very little forward movement, he stays centered, he gets himself in a good position," Long said. "He doesn't try to do too much and he swings at good pitches. That's a pretty good formula for any player."

Although Cervelli said defense remains his priority - "I never ask what I'm doing wrong offensively; if I do something wrong defensively, I worry about that," he said - Long said that's not entirely true.

He said last season he quickly established a "bond" with the catcher, who was among the first to show up in the batting cages on a daily basis.

"He was on board," Long said. "And he worked his tail off, he made some changes and they've worked for him."

Cervelli - who first attracted attention two years ago when he was barreled over at the plate by the Rays' Elliot Johnson during an exhibition game and suffered a broken wrist - said the "all-field, no-hit" scouting reports bothered him.

"They just say he can catch but he cannot hit," he said. "So I think when you hear things like that, it's better sometimes, because it makes you work hard, hard, hard every day. Never fall asleep. Just work and work and work."

With the payoffs coming almost every day or night he's been in the lineup this season.

"It makes you happy and you want to hit again," he said. "You want another at-bat and another at-bat because I never felt in my career . . . a lot of people say, you can't hit, you can't hit. Now what's in my mind is, I know I can hit. So if they say that, just try to work and make adjustments. Sometimes things change."

Farm report: Nuñez off to good start

Among the group of players reporting to the minor-league complex the first week of February to hit and work out - a group that included Derek Jeter - was Eduardo Nuñez.

The 22-year-old, signed by the Yankees as a non-drafted free agent in 2004, has gotten off to a tremendous start in his first season with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, hitting .320 entering last night. In his first season with Double-A Trenton last year, he hit .322 with 26 doubles and 19 stolen bases.

Nuñez has a good arm, but a drawback has been his work in the field - 33 errors last season and already a team-high six this season. Still, he can play multiple infield positions, and a call-up at some point this season isn't out of the question.