Tatis and Evans Have Righted The Ship

An article by Joe D    Comments Off

Everyone knows how hot Nick Evans has been this spring as he leads the Mets in homers and RBI’s, but there is another righthanded bat on this team that is scorching the ball at the plate; Fernando Tatis.

I heard a lot of moaning and groaning this off season when the Mets re-signed Tatis and said he would be the lefthanded side of a platoon in leftfield with Daniel Murphy. Truth be told, I had some deep concerns myself. But as spring keeps grinding along, and we inch ever so closer to Opening Day, I can’t help but feel good about how well our righthanded contingent have performed thus far.

Fernando Tatis has been virtually unstoppable this spring, hitting .448 with a .793 slugging percentage. His OPS is off the charts at 1.293. (damn, that’s hot!)

If any of you had concerns about a lack of righthanded punch on this 2009 Mets team, put aside those fears. These two guys (Tatis and Evans) are for real and they’re here to stay.

Jerry Manuel practically affirmed the fact that Nick Evans will make the team and head to Cincinnati on Opening Day with the rest of his teammates.

“We’d probably like to see Evans defend a little better in the outfield,” Manuel said after the Mets’ 10-6 exhibition loss to the Tigers. “We have to try to create as much versatility for him as possible, but he’ll probably come with us at this point.”

The masses agree with Mets manager, Jerry Manuel. Yesterday, we ran a poll on this site and 66% (215 votes) of our readers said they would rather have Nick Evans on the team over Marlon Anderson who got 24% (66 votes).

I’m not the least bit concerned anymore about our righthanded punch, whether it’s in the lineup or off the bench. I believe that both of them willl see plenty of action this season, and that they will provide their fair share of big Mets moments and highlights in 2009.