OF Nick Swisher (All Star, World Series Champion)

[Buckskin86]

In his best shape, Swisher expecting results
By Adam Berry / MLB.com | 03/14/12

DUNEDIN, Fla. -- Nick Swisher has made many changes since the end of last season.

The 31-year-old outfielder returned to the football-style workouts he used before the 2006 season. He improved his diet instead of "playing for the tie" between fitness and food like he'd always done. He started visiting a sports psychologist. He decided he wanted to be known as more than just a good clubhouse guy, too.

But the one change people are most curious about -- whether Swisher will be changing teams next offseason when he becomes a free agent -- is the one he's putting the least focus on.

Yankees managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner has publicly stated the team's desire to cut payroll down to the $189 million luxury tax threshold, which will likely mean cutting ties with potentially expensive players reaching free agency soon, including Curtis Granderson and Swisher. But Swisher, whose contract runs through the end of this season, isn't worried about next winter quite yet.

"To tell you the truth, I never even thought about it. I wouldn't even know how to think about it," said Swisher, who has never entered an arbitration season or contract year before in his eight-year career. "I know what type of player I am. I know the people that are supposedly 'comparables,' so I know where I stand. That's all I need to know. You're never going to hear me give years. You're never going to hear me give a number. That's not my style.

"I make great money. My wife makes great money. I've got a good life, man. I'm just excited to go out there and see what I'm capable of doing this year. At the end of the season this year, we'll all talk about it."

Swisher thinks he's capable of doing quite a bit in 2012. He made all those changes, because he wants to have a "monster breakout" year that will put him in a new class of players. He's had plenty of good seasons, but he believes he is ready to take a step beyond that.

Swisher certainly put in enough work. He trained with the Ohio State football team the offseason before he hit 35 homers with Oakland in 2006, and he went back to those power-oriented, fast-twitch workouts in Westlake, Calif. The energy in those sessions clicked with Swisher's personality -- and his inner desire to be a football player, he laughed -- and he enjoyed the way he was challenged there, saying he'd never worked out like that before.

cont...

http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/news...14&content_id=27270588&vkey=news_nyy&c_id=nyy

 

[Buckskin86]

In Swisher?s View, His New Physique Pales Next to His New Mind-Set
By PETER KERASOTIS
Published: March 18, 2012

TAMPA, Fla. ? When Nick Swisher talks about the stress he felt last season, he comes across like a walking contradiction.

But he insists he felt the pressure.

?Oh, yeah, man,? Swisher, the Yankees? regular right fielder, said, his bobbing head punctuating each syllable. ?I was stressed last year. Super stressed.?

He laughed at how his words sound even to him, never mind how they must come across to those who perceive him as a carefree soul. He is, after all, one of the most ebullient Yankee players, someone who exudes enthusiasm.

Stressed? Swisher?

?It?s crazy, man, isn?t it?? he said. ?You wouldn?t think a guy like me gets stressed, but I do. I think that?s always kind of the inner fight for me. It affected me last year.?

So this year, Swisher arrived at the Yankees? spring training camp with a new physique and a new attitude, which he attributed to off-season workouts with N.F.L. players, a healthier diet and visits with a sports psychologist. Swisher, whose contract is up after this season, says he hopes the combination will produce the kind of season that will keep him with the Yankees through another contract.

But Swisher realizes the odds of his returning to the Bronx might be against him. He is 31, and the Yankees, with new contracts for Robinson Cano and Curtis Granderson also on the horizon, are looking to get their payroll down to $189 million by 2014.

?It could be my last year here,? Swisher said. ?I don?t want it to be, but it possibly could be. And for me, man, I just wanted to come in and be the best player I could be. I?m one of those guys who?s never had an arbitration year, who?s never had a contract year. I don?t even know how to do it.?

cont...

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/19/s...es-his-physique-and-changes-his-attitude.html

 

[Buckskin86]

Long Before He Was a Yankee, Swisher Grew Up in the Mets? Camp
By DAVID WALDSTEIN
Published: April 3, 2012

Barton Silverman/The New York Times
The Yankees? Nick Swisher used to shag flies at the Mets? spring training ballpark as a youngster.

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. ? Nick Swisher walked briskly through the visitors? dugout until he saw Tommy Bowes, the longtime head groundskeeper. Swisher stopped, threw his arms around Bowes and gave him a hug. The men smiled and laughed as they reminisced about a long-ago time, then Bowes turned to a bystander and said: ?Nick grew up here. He was a great kid.?
Related

From age 8, when his father, the former major leaguer Steve Swisher, was a minor league manager with the Mets and later a coach with the big-league club, Swisher was a fixture at the Mets? spring training. There were the days when he won $100 off Todd Hundley, joked around with the eccentric Bill Pulsipher and took what he estimated were a million swings on the back fields.

Returning here Tuesday as a 31-year-old Yankees right fielder brought back a stream of memories for Swisher, who celebrated his return by hitting a home run in a 7-6 loss to the Mets in the same park where he used to shag fly balls as a youngster.

?This was the first big-league park that I can remember being around,? he said. ?During the games, my friend Eric and I would go on the back field with buckets of balls and just throw batting practice to each other, and then take a golf cart and drive it around and scoop up the balls and do it all over again. For me, it was the best vacation ever.?

Like any player progressing through an organization, Swisher started on the minor league side of the Mets? complex in 1989, when his father managed the Mets? affiliate in Jackson, Miss. Nick was living with his mother in Ohio at the time, but he would visit every year during spring break.

cont...

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/04/s...-yankees-outfielder-grew-up-in-mets-camp.html

 

[EgonSchiele]

Doing his part to get Valentine fired.

 

[Jaxbuck]

Swisher and Teixeira have driven in all 12 Yankee runs, 6 each.

 

[Tonyank]

Doing his part to get Valentine fired.

Career High 6 RBI (so far)

 

[Buckskin86]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcIho0KN8vU"]MLB on FOX: Swisher all smiles - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Buckskin86]

Swish in time

Nick Swisher's grand slam and go-ahead double were essential to the Yankees' stirring Saturday afternoon comeback win at Fenway Park. With a league-leading 20 RBI, Swisher says his hot start is a product of off-season conditioning that included trips to a sports psychologist.

"I'm going to have as much fun as I can this year and enjoy it. I feel like I'm in a good place," said Swisher, who is in his free-agent season. But he dealt with far more angst last season, wondering if he'd perform well enough for the Yankees to pick up his $10.25 million club option.

"Last year was a super stressful year," said Swisher, who was hitting .269 with no home runs through his first 15 games last season ? compared with his .283 mark with six doubles and four homers in 15 games this year. "This off-season, I worked on everything I wasn't good at."

Manager Joe Girardi doesn't sense too much of a personality difference from his hyper right fielder. "Swish is pretty much the same character every day," Girardi said. "If he felt [more pressure last season] we didn't notice it."

http://www.northjersey.com/sports/p...5_Yanks_notes__Swisher_off_to_fast_start.html

 

[Buckskin86]

Swish-alicious

Nick Swisher homered from both sides of the plate for the 11th time in his career, tying Eddie Murray and Chili Davis for the second most in baseball history behind Mark Teixeira's 13.

But the two blasts ? and Curtis Granderson's solo homer in the seventh ? were among the few bright spots the Yankees had.

Tigers rookie starter Drew Smyly held them to just two hits in six-plus innings, retiring 17 of 19 batters he faced after yielding Swisher's first-inning homer.

"He has a little different delivery than a normal pitcher," said Swisher, who hit his second homer in the ninth off Tigers closer Jose Valverde. "But he did a good job really using his curveball effectively."

http://www.northjersey.com/sports/149403295_Yanks_notes__Swisher_homers_twice.html

 

[Buckskin86]

May 5, 2012
Swisher tests his hammy, says he's ready to go
BY Mark Feinsand

Nick Swisher has spent a frustrating week in the trainer's room, waiting for his slight left hamstring strain to improve to the point where he can get back on the field.

He was on the field Saturday, testing his leg by taking full batting practice, shagging some flies in right field and, finally, running the bases. Swisher ran first-to-third three times at full speed, a smile on his face as he reached third base each time. He even took a bow after his first two sprints, informing the coaching and training staff that he was good to go.

"Everything felt great. I?m ready to go," Swisher said. "Batting practice felt fine, my movement in the outfield feels pretty good, first-to-third felt great. It was probably my fastest first-to-third time in four years."

Swisher has been out since suffering the hammy tweak on April 29. Joe Girardi was non-comittal about whether Swisher would play Sunday, but it doesn't sound like it's out of the question.

?Something we?ll have to think about," Girardi said. "(Well) talk to the doctors and trainers and see what they think.?

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/yankees/2012/05/swisher-tests-his-hammy-says-hes-ready-to-go

 

[Buckskin86]

Yankees' Nick Swisher difficult to tune out, on and off the field
Published: Monday, May 07, 2012
By Conor Orr/The Star-Ledger

KANSAS CITY, Mo. ? Nick Swisher bounced out of the team cafeteria and into the clubhouse smiling but a bit perplexed by the backhanded insult he carried in his left hand.

He?d missed the previous six games with a low-grade hamstring injury, and already it seemed like the team?s RBI leader ? the warmest bat in an order still finding its way ? was forgotten.

Before Sunday?s series finale against the Royals, his name was spelled incorrectly on the daily lineup card. His teammates laughed around him. Phil Hughes decided not to take another version being printed up to correct the error.

?Who?s Swusher?? Swisher said.

It wasn?t like they hadn?t noticed his typical clubhouse persona buzzing around the room all week in Kansas City. When he wasn?t playing, he ran through a battery of on-field tests and finished a long pre-game sprint around the basepath with a bow to those watching around him.

He bobbed around the clubhouse with massive noise-canceling headphones.

Girardi joked that tuning him out ? even when sidelined ? is nearly impossible, especially given his 24 RBI, third in the American League.

?He can bring production because he was really productive in his at-bats and drove in a lot of runs and had some big hits for us,? Girardi said before Sunday?s 10-4 win over Kansas City. ?Hopefully he just picks up where he left off.?

cont...

http://www.nj.com/yankees/index.ssf/2012/05/yankees_nick_swisher_difficult.html

 

[Buckskin86]

Yankees outfielder Nick Swisher catches plenty of bad luck
Published: Wednesday, May 30, 2012
By Marc Carig/The Star-Ledger

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Three times, Nick Swisher connected with what should have been extra base hits. Three times, he jogged back to the dugout with his head down.

For doing his job almost flawlessly last night, the Yankees right fielder came away with nothing to show for it, the victim of three great defensive plays in the Yankees' 5-1 loss to the Angels.

"The biggest fight for me is to not get frustrated after that and come back and feel like I've got to change something in my swing because I'm not getting the results that I want."

Mike Trout, the Angels phenom and native of Millville, made a leaping against the left field wall to rob Swisher of what would have been at least a double. Center fielder Peter Bourjos followed suit, making long runs to take two more hits away from Swisher, who was forced to settle for a run-scoring single.

It was the team's only RBI of the game.

"They've got some track stars out there in center and left," Swisher said. "Maybe I need to start hitting it to right."

Of course, right fielder Torii Hunter has been one of the game's better defensive players.

Said Swisher: "You get frustrated. But what are you gonna do?"

cont..

http://www.nj.com/yankees/index.ssf/2012/05/yankees_outfielder_nick_swishe_1.html

 

[Buckskin86]

Nick Swisher: 'Who is happier than me?'
June, 25, 2012
By Andrew Marchand | ESPNNewYork.com

In one corner of the clubhouse, Nick Swisher did his usual laughing and smiling act as he spoke with reporters. At the other end of the room, Robinson Cano wore a huge grin. After the three-game losing streak, the Yankees are back on a roll with a three-game winning streak.

"Everything is real chill right now, real mellow," Swisher said after he and Cano went back-to-back to back Hiroki Kuroda's fine pitching in the Yankees' 7-1 win over the Indians on Monday.

The Yankees are 23-7 in their past 30 games, which includes 13 wins in their past 16. After Cano and Swisher hit their back-to-back homers in the third, they were enjoying themselves on the way to the romp.
"We were laughing about it," Cano said.

Cano just moved to the top of the All-Star ballot for second basemen. He leads Texas' Ian Kinsler. Each has more than 3.4 million votes, but Cano has about a 15,000-vote edge. He said he would like to combine with Derek Jeter, who looks like a lock to start at short.

Swisher enjoyed the eighth inning, when he zigzagged around right field. With two men on, Swisher recorded the final three outs. A run scored, but Swisher kept the damage in check, laughing and smiling the whole time as, in his words, the crowd went "cccccccccrazy."

"Who is happier than me?" Swisher said.

Swisher has hit a homer in the past two games. On the year, he is batting .268 with 12 homers and 46 RBIs.

http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/yankees/post/_/id/38221/swisher-who-is-happier-than-me

 

[ucfknight]

god I love swisher

 

[AuTX Buckeye]

I met Nick when we were both Freshman. My roommate was on the baseball team, Nick was a very cool guy and was very laid back even then. I ended up doing the batter up songs for him and a few other guys, best one was Doug Deeds, who's intro of course was "Dirty Deeds" by AC/DC. I'm happy to see him successful and even as I don't like the Yankees, I can't root against the guy.