Yesterday, we looked at Brett Gardner’s season at the plate and argued that his continued emergence provides the Yankees a perfect opportunity to bat him leadoff, at least against righties, upon Derek Jeter’s return. Since we were focused specifically on his spot in the batting order, we didn’t get into the other aspects of Gardner’s game — most notably his outstanding defense. But FanGraphs today calls attention to some of Gardner’s advanced stats and makes the case that he has become one of baseball’s elite players. First, FanGraphs’ Jack Moore notes that since the beginning of the 2010 season, he’s twelfth among position players in wins above replacement. That’s in all of baseball. But also impressive are the numbers supporting his value as a well-rounded player: Since the beginning of last season, his hitting, fielding, and baserunning have all been at least five runs above average, and his hitting and fielding have both been more than twenty runs above average, making him one of only two players in the league to fit that criteria. (Andres Torres, by the way, is the other. Make of that factoid what you will.) Still, it might be time to drop the “underrated” tag with regards to Gardner. The Yankees’ left-fielder is starting to get noticed. [Fangraphs]