Cano wants to improve with runners in scoring position

TAMPA, Fla. - Robinson Cano, by most accounts, had the best year of his career in 2009. He hit .320 with 25 homers and 85 RBIs and played well enough at second base to be in the discussion for a Gold Glove.

Cano also knows the "but'' that followed him pretty much throughout the season.

"I would say that's one of the things I need to work on, men on base,'' Cano said. "Be patient and swing at balls that I can drive and get guys in. I'm an aggressive hitter, but with men on base, I need to be more patient and swing at balls that I can drive.''

Cano hit just .207 with runners in scoring position, including one stretch in which he went 0-for-21. His average with two outs and runners in scoring position dipped to .204.

Manager Joe Girardi said some of Cano's struggles last season with RISP could be boiled down to bad luck.

"There was a stretch where he had made about 10 or 11 outs in a row with runners in scoring position and he hit nine bullets,'' Girardi said. "His at-bats a lot of times were very good with runners in scoring position. I didn't think he had a lot of luck last year. I really don't.''

Oddly, some say Cano's ability to put almost any pitch in play hurts him in those situations; he'd almost be better off missing tough pitches to drive rather than hitting them weakly.

In any case, Cano sees room for improvement there, as well as in the field.

"I would like to win a Gold Glove one day,'' said Cano, who worked out five days a week during the offseason. "I don't put that in my mind, but I'm not going to lie; anybody would like to have one. We'll see what happens this year.''

Girardi thought it should have happened last year, though he didn't mean it as a slight to the Tigers' Placido Polanco, who did win.

"The thing about seeing your players all the time, I had a chance to see what he did on a daily basis. I find it hard to believe anyone played better than he did,'' Girardi said. "But that's for voters, and I didn't get to see Polanco every day, and I'm sure Jim Leyland would have said the same thing about him. There's a lot of second basemen. That's a tough field out there . . . But I think Robby played second base pretty much as well as you can play it.''