Sometimes it is tough to be a Mets fan, isn’t it? You sit and you watch other teams, both big market and small, call up player after player from their minor league system who step foot on a major league diamond and instantly make an impact. Some of these players they had a chance to draft like Jered Weaver & Phil Hughes in 2004 (when the Mets selected Phil Humber at #3). Others they never had the opportunity, due to forfeiting their first round draft pick because of signing a Type A free agent.
If it is poor prowess (or lack of dedication and finances) in the draft or just simply trading away any player with a reasonable opportunity to produce, when you see a viable Mets prospect reach the major leagues fans just drool at their potential. We not only want to see him on the roster, but we want to instantly hand him a starting job, especially when there is a whole to fill.
Enter Josh Thole, who made the jump from Double-A last season to hit .321 over 53 AB in September. That came after hitting .328 with 1 HR and 46 RBI over 384 AB in the minor leagues.
His hot hitting has continued this winter in the Venezuelan League, going 21-54, good for a .389 average, while striking out just five times.
The 2005 thirteenth round draft choice certainly has proven that he can hit, though a few of the numbers can be a little deceiving. He is only a .292 career minor league hitter, with last season’s average being buoyed by a .359 Batting Average on Balls in Play (BABIP).
Is that something that is maintainable? Probably not, though he does put the ball in play an awful lot. For his minor league career he struck out just 165 times in 1,321 at bats, a strikeout rate of 12.49%. At Double-A last season, his mark was actually better at 8.89% and in the major leagues he was at 9.4%.
In the vast expanses of CitiField, putting the ball in play is paramount. There are a lot of holes to be found, so seeing him continue to post solid averages, even if it is lower than last season’s mark, should be expected (at this point I’d pencil him in for about a .285 average due to a decrease in luck and a few more strikeouts).
The power, however, is nonexistent to this point. He has hit just eight career minor league home runs, with his high at just five at High-A Ball in 2008. In fact, he hasn’t even shown the potential to hit for more power, with a career slugging percentage at .375.
He’s 23-years old, so you would expect him to gain some more power, but maybe not. You would’ve at least liked to see him reach 30 doubles at any level in the minor leagues (last season he did have 31, 29 at Double-A and 2 in the Major Leagues).
At this point, you have to consider him a singles hitter, something that is tough to stomach when you aren’t a speedy little outfielder (like Brett Butler in his hey day). While he stole eight bases last season, showing he has more speed than most catchers, there’s nothing elite about it.
In order to carry a catcher like that, you need to either be able to hit him second (thanks to his propensity to make contact) or bury him in the eighth hole because you have such a deep line-up. The presence of Luis Castillo makes that virtually impossible for the time being.
For the Mets to use him in their line-up would seemingly make the weak weaker, even if they were to add a Jason Bay or Matt Holliday in LF. This is a team that lacked pop last season, so carrying Castillo, Thole and the pitcher, whose spot in the line-up would likely carry less than five home runs total and 60 RBI, would be a mistake.
Unless the Mets completely revamp their line-up, even with a potential .280+ average, Thole just doesn’t fully answer their needs, at least not currently. He would be best to gain more experience in Triple-A, maybe learn how to pull the ball a little bit more (or at least find the gaps).
He has potential, but the Mets needs just don’t fit his skills. Obviously, unless the Mets import a catcher for the season, they will be forced to pair Thole with Omir Santos from the outset. My guess, they either trade for or sign a one-year stopgap, giving Thole more time to develop (and hopefully hit for a little more power), putting him a year away from making a fantasy impact.
What are your thoughts? Will the Mets turn the keys over to him in 2010 or will they let him mature more before handing him the job?
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Mets should platoon Thole and Santos and stop trying to fix problems that will have little to nothing to do with the outcome of the season. If Minaya spends more than 15 minutes thinking about the catcher it would seem to me to be an attempt to focus on a small problem, or no problem at all, to avoid the fact that he can’t fix the real ones.
Whom we play at catcher will not almost no effect on the outcome of the season.
I disagree John. I think who is behind the plate will make a difference when trying to bring in a big name pitcher.
ACE, WE AGREE! TO EXPECT A TEAM WITH A LESS THAN GRISLED VETERAN PITCHING STAFF TO CONTEND WITH A CATCHING DUO WITH LESS THAN 162 BIG LEAGUE GAME CATCHING EXPERIENCE BETWEEN THEM IS FROUGHT WITH DIFFICULTIES. I RECALL CASEY’S EXPLAINATION FOR CHOOSING A CATCHER WITH THE FIRST EXPANSION PICK WITH “YOU’LL HAVE A LOT OF PASSED BALLS WITHOUT ONE” OBVIOUSLY CASEY NEVER CONSIDERED A THOLE SITUATION VIABLE.
ERIC, OBVIOUSLY WHILE CITING THAT GOAL OF .280 TEAM BA DOESN’T REALIZE THE WOEFUL METS ROSTER COMPILED A NL #2 RANKED .270 TEAM BA LAST SEASON. NON-BELIEVERS SHOULD GO TO:
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/stats/byteam?cat=Overall&sort=722
FROM ALL I’VE READ BENGIE WOULD BE PERFECT AS HE’S LOOKING FOR A 2Y DEAL GIVING THOLE 1Y IN MINORS+ 1 Y UNDERSTUDY TO A TRUE VET.
I believe that Thole is not ready for everday play in the bigs. defensively he needs a lot of work. give him a year in triple A and see if the offensive numbers are for real. you go out and get rod barajas or benji molina who are very good catchers and if this team is going to be for real, then you need a good catcher in control of ur staff. Also, Benji molina was John Lackey’s catcher when they won the world series all years ago and maybe that could influence Lackey’s decision when picking a team to go to.
I have a question for the writer. I know it’s not an exact science and that you could be far off, but if you had to choose a major leaguer to compare him to who would it be? Can we expect a Paul LoDuca type career?
no and neither is Omar Santos or Brian Schnieder….Mets need a tough guy who will stop this pussy pitching staff from being so whippy..these pitchers need to be pitbulls not poodles ( hitters too..that what we got when we signed Beltran ) Mets need to get tough and the refuse to lose attitude, then we will get a change for the better
Even with his lack of power, Thole is at least as good offensively as any other option out there. The real question is how he handles the pitching staff. Maybe sign a great defensive catcher for the late innings?
I have a simple solution. Jayson Varetek for 1 year only. Thats it!
Tell me what redeeming qualities an aging 38 year old catcher (of all positions) brings to a team, while he hits about .210 and can’t throw out a snail stealing 2nd base?
Jason Varitek? Are you high? I’d rather keep Schneider if the choice was between him and Varitek. We need to go after either Molina or Barajas. Mets should offer each one a $6 million dollar one year deal and sign the first one that takes it.
i hope your kidding. V-Teck sucks these days. stay away from him
Eri, great article with great points. I am glad you pointed out the pitfall of having a 7-8-9 of Thole, Castillo and the pitcher. We need a thumper in the lineup and Bengie Molina would be a solid one or two year fix.
Barajas is your guy. He doesn’t get on base much, but has pop. In the 8 hole that can be effective. Not to mention he could just be a stopgap for a year at 3 mil with incentives to 5. Omir can back-up with Thole getting ready in AAA. Molina is a type A, old, and cost more. Varetek is humorous and I dont see Torrealba happening b/c of the history. He is also going to require a multiple year deal wich would be unnecesary considering Thole.
BLUE, Re AGE MOLINA ONLY 1Y OLDER THAN BARAJAS; BUT MORE OFFENSE. EITHER WAY IS OK; BUT NEED 2Y. YR 1 PERFORMANCE, STAFF MNGT/FAMILIARITY; YR 2, THOLE MENTORING @ MLB LEVEL.
I agree with the conclusion of this article, given all the conditions that exist in place as of right now. A few gripes though (not with the article, but with things Mets and Thole related in general):
1. There really was no reason not to promote Thole to Triple-A after a few months last year. His BABIP might have been high, but month to month, he was pretty consistent, especially in the first half. Offensively, there was no reason not to promote him after May or June. He wasn’t going to develop more power by hitting off Double-A pitching, he was going to move up and continue to put the ball in play, get on base at a decent clip, and maybe even test his ability to draw walks, which is really the offensive skill that needed testing, since a .285 avg and a .100 ISO just won’t cut it with a .320 OBP, but with a .350 OBP that’s solid offense from a catcher. And of course, Buffalo would have been a much better learning environment for his receiving skills as well. He could have caught veteran pros like Nelson Figueroa, Brandon Knight, Ken Takahashi, Fernando Nieve, and Elmer Dessens. He would have even gotten a taste of catching major league pitchers on rehab assignments. Oliver Perez and Tim Redding both made two starts in Buffalo and Freddy Garcia made three. Not to mention Jon Niese, who’s the closest legit prospect the Mets have to an MLB quality pitcher. Why make a catcher who needs to learn primarily about receiving learn from pitchers who are learning how to pitch (if that makes any sense?)? A la Jenrry Mejia, Brad Holt, Eric Niesen, Michael Antonini, Dylan Owen, etc.
2. Josh Thole would be a much more desirable looking option if the right handed counterpart wasn’t Omir Santos. Its really hard to imagine Santos being much better than Thole offensively next year. And even though some like his defense, and he’s clearly further along in that regard than Thole, he’s a 30% CS and a bat with no upside. The problem is, what are the better options? At this point, it probably makes sense to start the year with something like Omir and Barajas, with the understanding that it may not be long before Thole looks like a considerably better option than one or the other.
3. As for the lineup construction issues, I wouldn’t be too concerned about those here, except for the fact that I’m not sure Jerry would understand how to properly exploit low power aspects of his lineup by using his team speed. If Thole and Castillo are both in the lineup, Angel Pagan becomes a much more attractive option as a starter. Hit him around 5th or 6th, ahead of Castillo and Thole. He has enough pop to drive in some of the high OBP guys from the middle of the order like Wright and Beltran and enough speed to score frequently on singles from Castillo and Thole. The lineup would be a little bit off-balance seeming, but in a way that might function very well. Something like:
Reyes
Wright
Beltran
LF??? (Holliday hopefully)
Pagan
Castillo
Thole
Murphy
There’s a huge power dropoff, but its transitioned nicely with some speed. Pagan and Castillo can create some trouble on the bases when Thole hits, which should take advantage of his contact ability. Thole gets on base enough to take advantage of Murphy’s bit of pop from the bottom, and hitting 8th could force Murph to take better advantage of his pitch selection instincts, which I still believe are strong, but got clouded by problems he was having with his approach. On days when Francoeur starts, I think you lose a lot with this lineup. His lack of speed and OBP make him less than ideal to hit 5th in this lineup, or just generally ahead of low powered, singles hitters. But against lefties in particular, something like this might work:
Reyes
Castillo
Beltran
Wright
LF
Francoeur
Evans
Santos
wow thats a long comment
That’s a manifesto, not a comment. But in the end we wind up with a lineup that looks like…um…this year’s lineup. No thanks.
BMF -Very well said. Short and Sweet
BMF, THIS YR’S LINEUP? ARE U DELUSIONAL THINKING ANY OF WHAT WE EXPERIENCED WAS EVER PLANNED FO OR TO BE SEEN AGAIN? SORT OF LIKE JUSGING BUSH ADMIN BASED ON 9/10
I agree with almost everything you said except for one thing. You seem to have Francoeur and Evans as a platoon players. The Mets will have Francoeur in there for 160 games in 2010 and Evans will probably not even make the 25.
As for Thole, the cup of coffee he got will go a long way toward preparing him for a more significant role in 2011. Next year he should be refining his catching skills for the entire season in AAA.
U LEFT THE ROTATION BLANK; IMPORTANT SINCE IF NOT SIGNIFICANTLY BETTER YOUR ‘TEAM’ BARELY HOLDS OFF THE GNATS. ARE U CHANNELING A “BACK TO THE FUTURE” CONCEPT RE. RET’N TO EARY 90s?
I think Molina will be the mets C, also according to metsblog.com it will be the Mets vs Angels for Matt Holiday.
Wow why as Mets fans do we have too rush our propects,so fast then if they dont immediately win or hit 350 with 40 homers and 120 ribbies we give up on them.Any way I would like this organization to slow down.Meaning keep our propects in the minors,i.e Ike Josh and Fmart.This franchise will be better of in the long run,if we sign a couple key free-agents,Holliday/Bay, Lackey/Marquis/Wolf and Molina/Barajas.If we cant sign them no problem backup plan.Next year freeagents Crawford Halladay.There are propects coming up lets just slow them down.If the Mts dont win in 2010 it will be okay.Id rather build a team and franchise that will be great every year.With quality propects throughout the organization to be able to trade for championship pieces.Like the Phillies did ,as much as i hate saying that.
STEVE, BRAVO!
ROME WASN’T BUILT IN A DAY, UNFORTUNATLY METS’ FANS ARE DUPLICITOUS IN CLAMORING FOR HOMEGROWN PROSPECTS; SHOWING LITTLE PATIENCE FOR DEVELOPMENT. CERTAINLY NYers ARE SPOILED BY THE BASEBALL DEVELOPMENT RESULTS DISPLAYED FAIRLY QUICKLY BY JETER,WILLIAMS,POSADA,PETTITE,RIVERA,WRIGHT,REYES, ETC.
UNFORTUNATLY, IN FLUSHING, THE METS’ HIERARCHY LONG AGO FOCUSED ON PITCHING PROSPECTS MORE THAN SLUGGING. THIS HAS BEEN TRUE FOR 47 YRS.
THE THOUGHT PROCESS SAYS, EVERYONE DESIRES PITCHING, IF U HAVE AN ABUNDANCE, LIKE GOLD, IT ALWAYS CAN BE DEALT FOR WHAT U NEED, OFFENSIVLY.
PROBLEM 1. FOR YRS STEVE PHILLIPS WAS ENAMORED WITH ATLANTA STYLE PITCHING(CONTROL OVER POWER)AND TARGETED PITCHERS WITH THAT POTENTIAL. UNFORTUNATLY TYHAT METHOD REQUIRES A LONGER DEVELOPMENT/LEARNING CYCLE LEAVING NY WITH LITTLE TO BARTER.AS POWER PITCHING NUMBERS ARE MUCH MORE IMPRESSIVE THAN CONTROL FINESSE NUMBERS. MORE Ks THAN IP IS A STALWART LANDMARK FOR EVALUATING OUTSIDE PITCHING PROSPECTS IN A SINGLE GLANCE, IT’S THE IMMEDIATE SPORTSCAR IDENTITY OF PERFORMANCE.
First of all MetsFan62, calm down! While bad grammar comments are annoying, nothing is more annoying than all caps! I agree with you about Molina though.
If Thole and Castillo were in the lineup, they wouldn’t be batting 7-8 ever, as that would be an awful idea, instead they would be batting 2 and 8, which isn’t the worst case if the rest of the team is better/healthier than last year. Neither spot in the lineup normally is there to drive in a lot of runs or hit homers; the 2 hitter has to be patient and move the 1 hitter over, and if possible get on, which is what Castillo is great at, and the 8 spot just needs to be good enough to take pitches when the other team is unintentionally walking him in a crucial spot or get on base to clear the pitchers turn in the lineup. Granted, since the 8 hitter isn’t planned to be a part of many rallies, it would be nice if he had a little pop to drive himself in, but as long as he is not a consistent rally killer then he is not bringing down the team. Having a .280+ hitter with little pop but good on-base skills (who doesn’t immediately mess up running the bases) at these spots is something every team would take. That being said, after watching Thole catch I would say he needs at least a year.
BRIAN, I GATHER U R FAIRLY NEW HERE; BUT AS MOST KNOW, MY USE OF CAPSLOCK IS CERTAINLY NOT ATTRIBUTABLE TO AN EXPRESSION OF MY VOLATILE EMOTIONS Re NYM; BUT AS “A HANDICAP ACCOMODATION”; A STATEMENT I USUALLY LED ALL OF MY RESPONSES WITH; BUT HAVE RECENTLY DECIDED WAS REDUNDANTLY TIRESOME. RESPONDING TO YOUR LINEUP OBSERVATIONS, I’D LIKE TO POINT OUT YOU ARE ACCURATE ON TYPICAL #2 HITTER FUNCTION THAT CASTILLO HAS EXCELLED IN Re.MOVING RUNNER. THIS TEAM IS ATYPICAL IN THAT REGARD WHEN REYES IS HEALTHY, HIS PERSONAL ON-BASE ABILITIES SHOULD NEGATE THE NEED FOR “ADVANCING HELP THAT SQUANDERS ONE OF 27 PRECOUS OUTS. WE ALL KNOW JOSE’S ONBASE PRESENCE TYPICALLY DISRUPTS PITCHING PATTERNS AND A PREPONDERANCE OF FASTBALLS TYPICALLY ENSUES, MY QUESTION ON OUR LINEUP IS THIS, THOUGH CASTILLO IS A PERFECT FIT FOR ADVANCING RUNNER 1 BASE; IS HE THE PERFECT FIT TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE PLETHORA OF HEAT COMING HIS WAY. RATHER THAN SACRIFICING THE #2 TO GET REYES TO 2B OR 3B WHERE HIS FEET COULD TAKE HIM ON HIS OWN; WOULDN’T A SUPERIOR SOLUTION BE A #2 HITTER WHO PREFERS HEAT & CAN TAKE FULL ADVANTAGE OF IT WITH XTRA BASE HIT POWER LIKE BELTRAN #2, MURPH #3, POWER-BAT #4, WRIGHT, (MOLINA), FRANCUER, CASTILLO, PITCHER? WE HAVE A TREMENDOUS BASERUNNING ASSET LEADING OFF; YET WE INSIST ON LINEUPS BY “SOME BOOK”. WE’VE DONE IT ALL ALONG WASTING OUTS, IN MY OPINION HIS SPEED SHOULD AT LEAST ALLOW US THE LUXURY OF STARTING OUR MEANINGFUL OFFENSE ONE PLACE SOONER WITH #2 INSTEAD OF #3, WHAT SAY U?
That type of lineup works alright when we have that much depth to it, like if we got Molina and a clean-up left fielder, in fact I like that lineup. If we had Barajas, he would have to bat 8th because he has no average; Thole has average but is a singles hitter, and so not for the 6 spot (though with all of Wright’s doubles, often a single would be enough) I might put him 7th in front of Frenchy with Luis #2; with Santos, he is just the worst hitter in the lineup and has to go eighth. I don’t think any other catchers are coming. Also, lets say we don’t get your typical power LF who can hit clean-up, but someone like J. Upton, then this lineup needs rearranging.
As for him only doing one good thing from the 2 spot, you’re not exactly correct. Reyes gets on base at around .350, and Luis often wastes his at-bats moving him over, lets say half the time, .175 (not exact just for example). That means at most Luis can have a .825 OBP. But he is routinely at least .350 OBP himself. That means that when he isn’t sacrificing himself, he is getting on at an even better rate. His speed is a little better than average, and he is smart on the bases too, because he has been on so much in his career. It just adds insurance that people will be on for the sluggers in your lineup, which is what you are really trying to do.
One more thing about the sacrificing outs issue; everyone is going to make outs at least 60% of the time no matter what, almost all at least 67%, a lot at least 70+%. If you can occasionally trade one or two outs for even just one run, why wouldn’t you. Chances are they are going to make an out anyway. Just saying.
In the end, are you saying his speed makes him a good fit for #8? I actually do like that lineup a lot though if Holliday is that #4.
CAPSLOCK=DISABILITY ACCOMODATION
BRIAN YOUR POINT ABOUT THE TYPICAL USE OF CASTILLO TO MOVE REYES IS AN IMPORTANT FACTOR I’VE BEEN CONSIDERING LATELY. WHY ARE WE TOO OFTEN WASTING OUTS TO ADVANCE ONE OF THE PREMIERE BASE STEALERS? ONE ADVANTAGE TO HAVING REYES ON BASE IS HIS ABILITY TO FORCE PITCHERS OUT OF THEIR ROUTINE BY THROWING MORE FASTBALLS IN OFFSPEED COUNTS. ARE THE METS TAKING FULL ADVANTAGE HERE? NO! FOR ALL HIS BAT CONTROL CASTILLO IS THE LEAST LIKELY HITTER TO TAKE MAXIMUM ADVANTAGE OF A FAT FASTBALL. I’D PREFER STEPPING THE OFFENSE UP 1 BATTING POSITION BT BATTING BELTRAN,SECOND, WRIGHT,THIRD ETC. CASTILLO #8 IS BEST USE OF HIS OBP FOR P TO SACRIFICE TO SCORING POSITION FOR TOP OF ORDER.
“Some of these players they had a chance to draft like Jered Weaver & Phil Hughes in 2004 (when the Mets selected Phil Humber at #3)”
We would’ve just traded Weaver or Hughes for Santana, like we did Humber, so who cares? I’d take Santana over any of the three anyway.
We definitely would have had to trade Hughes in the Santana deal, but Weaver was in the majors in 2006 and so would’ve made a difference then and been considered untouchable by the time of the Santana trade, and so still be on our team.
Point is, look at baseball america, it shows our top picks since 1992 and most never made an impact in the majors, or even had a cup of coffee. Actually, almost all made more news in the minors and in conversations about trades then the majors. Our scouting and drafting stinks, or our development people stink. Something is going wrong.
We need better scouting… smarter, better scouts
CAPSLOCK=DISABILITY ACCOMODATION
BRIAN, THAT’S ALL WELL & GOOD, U MAY BE RIGHT; BUT ARE WE PICKING/DRAFTING WHO WE DO BECAUSE OF OUR SCOUTS OR BASED ON PERCEIVED SIGNABILITY WITHIN SLOTTING GUIDELINES? IF IT’S SIGNABILITY, A SCOUTING STAGF FULL OF HOFers ISN’T CHANGING ANYTHING. OFTEN FIRST ROUND TALENTS FALL TO SUBSEQUENT ROUNDS DUE TO CASH BONUS DEMANDS FOR SIGNING. BOTH NYY & BOSOX HAVE AUGMENTED THEIR FARMS BY FOCUSING ON THAT CLASS OF DRAFT PICK CHOOSING TO PAY FIRST ROUND BONUS LEVELS TO FIRST ROUND TALENTS PICKED IN LATER ROUNDS. OMAR HAS BEEN ORDERED BY OWNERSHIP NOT TO PARTICIPATE IN THAT GAME. IN ’05, OMAR’S FIRST DRAFT, HIS QUOTES MADE IT APPARENT HE’D BEEN BLINDSIDED BY THAT APPROACH, WHEN LOCAL TABLOIDS QUOTED HIM AS “I WAS UNAWARE OF THAT; IT’S SOMETHING WE’LL HAVE TO REEVALUATE” OBVIOUSLY, OMAR WAS ‘READ IN’ SUBSEQUENTLY & NOTHING HAS CHANGED. THE COMMISSIONER’S GUIDELINES ARE STILL BEING IGNORED BY NYY & BOSOX AS THEY ARE OPTIONAL GUIDELINES NOT BINDING RULES. THE METS ARE STILL NOT CANDIDATES FOR FIRST ROUND TALENT DUE TO THIS RESTRICTION COUPLED WITH ‘TYPE A’ F/A SIGNINGS.
What round was, say, Albert Pujols drafted? 13th
Jake Peavy? 15th
Ian Kinsler? 17th
Jason Bay? 22nd
And we all know Piazza was taken in the 62nd round (but more as a favor than for talent)
Those are just some gaudy examples of the fact that there really IS talent that can be found after the first round.
It is true that there is top talent that the Mets do not sign and other clubs, like NYY and Bos, do sign because the Mets have followed the commissioner’s “guidelines,” and they haven’t; but is that the reason why our top picks have sucked? Like our top top, first round picks stink, until Mr Ike Davis. And even if we are looking to not sign certain guys because of signability, there is often much better talent available that we just don’t sign. Instead we sign tall right handers who can throw hard and thats it, crafty righty and lefties that other teams were saving until much later, and weak but speedy corner outfielders and infielders. We drafted Jason Tyner one year!
Wow Brian! I had no effing idea Pujols and Kinsler were drafted that low. That’s insane, but makes your point a solid one with regard to having a great scouting department.
The best example of just how futile this organization is can be seen in the fact that they’ve not produced one player in their system that ever won an MVP, CY Young, ERA crown, Homerun crown, or Batting crown in two decades. Not one. Every team in the majors except the Mets have produced at least one player that achieved that.
Mets prospects have amounted to nothing more than mediocrity since the mid eighties, and I read a few months ago in BA that 72% of Mets top ten prospects never make it to the majors or wind up with less than 3 years of major league service time. I dont know if that’s the worst in the game, but it’s pretty god awful if you ask me.
CAPSLOCK=DISABILITY ACCOMODATION
ALEX, I’M ASSUMING U REALIZE YOU’VE GOOFED LISTING NO CY YOUNG WINNERS DEVELOPED. DID U SLEEP THROUGH GOODEN & SEAVER? ROY? GOODEN, STRAW. METS, HISTORICALLY WENT PITCHING WITH KOOSMAN,MATLACK,SWAN, OROSCO, ALLAN, AGUILERRA MOST NOTABLE CONTRIBUTOR TYPES ALL SP TYPICALLY AMONGST HIGH K LEADERS/SEASON. BIG BOPPERS WERE NEVER A TOP PRIORITY THE FEELING THROUGHOUT ORG WAS PITCHING CAN BE DEALT FOR POWER/POSITIONAL TYPES. SEE ACQUISITIONS OF MEX,HOJO. 90% OF THE ’86 ROTATION MADE MLB DEBUT WITH NYM, GOODEN,DARLING,FERNANDEZ,AGUILLERA.
I might add that the Yankees get a lot of flac on their spending, but remember that Jeter, Posada, Rivera, Pettite, Chamberlain, Hughes, Cano, Gardner, Cervetti, Coke all were homegorwn. Thats almost half their 25 man roster!
[...] of catcher, Eric of Mets Merized Online asks, “Is Josh Thole the Mets catching [...]
BRIAN, YOUR POST RE. PUJOLS,PEAVEY, et AL NOT BEING TOP ROUNDERS WAS INTERESTING & ACCURATE; BUT MORE VALUABLE IF U ESTABLISHED HOW MANY HUNDREDS OF PLAYERS WERE DRAFTED IN THE LATER ROUNDS DURING THE TIME SPAN IN QUESTION. 5 MISSED TOP PERFORMERS OUT OF SAY 2,000 ISN’T A LOT OF HOPE TO HANG YOUR SOCKS ON LET ALONE YOUR HAT! AND HERE I THOUGHT I WAS A BIG OPTIMIST! FOOLISH THOUGHT, IN COMPARISON TO U
METS62FAN, respectfully, if the anti-Wilpon sentimentalism that you write is optimism, I’d like to know what negativity is.
BRIAN, I APOLOGIZE FOR ANY MISCONCEPTIONS I MAY HAVE ALLOWED. PERHAPS U’VE MISSED MY MANY ENTRIES URGING OWNERSHIP COMPARISONS TO FORMER STALWART CONTENDING FRANCHISES SUCH AS ATL, KC, CINCY, PIT. I’M ALSO THE FIRST TO POINT OUT TO MANY SUCH AS MASK & ACE WHO’VE ADVOCATED OWNERSHIP CHANGE, THAT THE MLB OWNERSHIP COMMITTEE MUST FIRST APPROVE ANY NEW OWNER AND THE LIKLIHOOD OF GETTING A MORE PROACTIVE MET OWNER IS VERY SLIM. THEY WOULD CERTAINLY HAVE NO MOTIVATION TO INTRODUCE A MORE FREE-SPENDING AGGRESSIVE NYMET PRESENCE.
I DO CONTEND THAT MY SIMPLY POINTING OUT RESTICTIONS PLACED ON MNGT BY OWNERSHIP IS NOT NEGATIVITY; BUT RATHER INFORMATIVE. I AM CERTAINLY OLD ENOUGH TO REMEMBER VIVIDLY THE INEPTNESS OF LINDA DeROULET WHO WANTED TO USE AS FEW BASEBALLS AS POSSIBLE TO SAVE MONEY WHILE SHE BLAMED THE METS FOR RUINING HER CHILDHOOD & HER RELATIONSHIP WITH HER MOTHER(JOAN PAYSON)