Comments on: Is Josh Thole the Mets Catching Savior?

By: METS62FAN

METS62FAN — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:18:01 +0000

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)

By: Brian

Brian — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:04:53 +0000

METS62FAN, respectfully, if the anti-Wilpon sentimentalism that you write is optimism, I’d like to know what negativity is.

By: METS62FAN

METS62FAN — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:02:03 +0000

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

By: METS62FAN

METS62FAN — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:25:49 +0000

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.

By: I’m Reading: about Putz, Bryce Harper & Shinjo

I’m Reading: about Putz, Bryce Harper & Shinjo — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:22:09 +0000

[...] of catcher, Eric of Mets Merized Online asks, “Is Josh Thole the Mets catching [...]

By: Brian

Brian — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 20:37:47 +0000

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!

By: Alex in CT

Alex in CT — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 17:22:16 +0000

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!

By: Alex in CT

Alex in CT — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 17:17:11 +0000

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.

By: Brian

Brian — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 17:03:29 +0000

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.

By: METS62FAN

METS62FAN — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 13:31:00 +0000

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.

By: Brian

Brian — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:18:51 +0000

We need better scouting… smarter, better scouts

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:07:09 +0000

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.

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:33:07 +0000

“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.

By: METS62FAN

METS62FAN — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:09:11 +0000

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.

By: Brian

Brian — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:04:10 +0000

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.

By: METS62FAN

METS62FAN — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:51:51 +0000

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?

By: Brian

Brian — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:44:07 +0000

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.

By: METS62FAN

METS62FAN — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:40:40 +0000

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?

By: METS62FAN

METS62FAN — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:32:40 +0000

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

By: METS62FAN

METS62FAN — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:20:25 +0000

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.