17
2010
Mets Need “QUALITY” Versatility
An article by Former Writers
Okay Fans. It’s time to put to bed all the foolishness that has enveloped the Mets this past week. Make no mistake. It is ALL foolishness. We can try to ascertain who is at fault, who was right, who was wrong. Analyze it. Whatever. The bottom line is we’re missing, arguably, our best player for at least 2 to 4 weeks of the regular season, and probably a little longer. (Let’s be hopeful it won’t be)
Luckily, Angel Pagan is still with us as a 4th outfielder. He is now our starting center fielder. Mr. Pagan showed us all some intriguing skills last year. Given the playing time to prepare in Spring Training, I believe Pagan will do well. However, what if the injury bug that stole our and the organizations’ 2009 season away returns, and that insidious little injury bug bites Angel too? It has previously with Angel…
Lest we forget what truly decimated the Mets last year was a lack of depth beyond not only the starters, but quality replacements around the diamond, and across the whole New York Met system. That’s not to say the Mets lacked replacements for their injured, fallen stars. We just lacked quality replacements. Let’s just be honest, without being completely disrespectful, Cory Sullivan? Wilson Valdez? Angel Berroa? ANGEL BERROA for goodness sakes! I’ve seen better players in the Independent leagues.
Granted, the injuries that the Mets had throughout their system last season were of nothing like I’ve seen any major league team go through. I can’t recall anything quite like what we witnessed since I’ve been watching baseball. At one point the Mets had nearly an all-star team on the disabled list, or so it seemed. The organization had to scurry and scramble to find replacements for the replacements.
All of this begs the question: Why won’t the Mets sign a quality hitter who is versatile enough to play multiple positions? Is this in contrast to an organizational philosophy that preaches defense first among its backup players? It can’t be that. If defense is so important to the organization why was Daniel Murphy our starting LF coming out of the spring last year? Why is Carlos Delgado being considered to be brought back when we all know he’ll struggle with mobility and his defense around the 1st base bag this year?
I believe Omar and the front office have been doing an exceptional job this winter in letting the market come back to them when it comes to procuring talent. In one aspect of this approach I differ with the Mets: I believe big market teams with big payrolls like our Mets shouldn’t allow themselves to be fooled into not paying up for quality versatility. It’s the one thing I see occur year after year with the Mets.
Using this winter as an example, a guy like Alex Cora gets 2 million dollars. I’m not trying to disparage Mr. Cora, or his skill set, but I’d have rather had Aubrey Huff who’s played 1B, 3B and the outfield in his career for the 1 million more it took for San Francisco to sign him. (Huff got 3 million) He’d have been available as an excellent left handed bat off the bench or, if that insidious injury bug bites, to play at 1st or 3rd or one of the corner outfield spots, He’s not the greatest defender but is a quality hitter. At least then, a player like Wilson Valdez or the recently departed Argenis Reyes makes sense.
These types of players are out there. Ryan Garko who can hit and play the outfield or 1st base, I’ll take him. How about inquiring with the Orioles about former Met Ty Wigginton? He plays everywhere! There are quality utility men available in both free agency and via trade. Jerry Hairston Jr. is decent. I’ve seen him linked to our Mets in the wake of the Beltran fiasco.
So the question to be answered is this: When you have a payroll in the 150 million dollar range is it better to be thrifty with the money needed to make up your bench? Is it not more prudent to increase the payroll 5 to 8 million dollars over what you expected to insure against a repeat of last seasons debacle? Especially considering that the 5 to 8 million will mitigate what could turn into a repeat of 2009, and thereby render the Mets premier acquisitions a waste of good money.
The answer should be easy. It should be to increase the payroll to insure no repeat debacles.
At worst, if no players are injured, and you are cruising along, doing well with those players you have signed to insure that no repeat of last year occurs, You can either keep them for the season and hopefully post season, or deal them at the deadline for prospects…
Instead of the Beltran injury foolishness I’d rather Wednesday’s presser to have been about Beltran’s surgery and the Mets signing quality backups to guard against his loss for a protracted period of time…
Analyze that!
About the Author: Former Writers
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Quality utility players???
Quality subs and backups???
Omar, doing the bidding of Jeff and Fred, hasn’t been told yet!!! Angel Pagan is a rare exception. He is not appreciated for his considerable skills!!!
A FEW GOOD BACKUPS TO SPELL GUYS AND FIRM US UP! GO FOR IT!
Yes we do indeed need more versatile players even before Beltran had surgery. Offer a contract to Orlando Hudson as second baseman 4 to 5 games each week and jack of all trades for the rest. Seek versatility from Castillo as well. Win-Win for the team if people are willing to make some personal adjustments in how they’ve participated in this game at the major league level till this point.
The big issue is lack of viable CF sub now that Pagan is the presumed starter. Rather difficult to find such a type given the logjam when Beltran returns. I think Mets should try to snatch Eric Byrnes although he lives in Bay area and wants to be a Giant and probably will.
Otherwise perhaps a platoon of Randy Winn and Pagan might make sense if the former is willing. Brynes is injury prone but will cost major league minimum and could be quite a force and fan favorite if healthy again. Mets realy need a CF/first base type….which is very reallt doesn’t exist. Beltran’s surgery chances really necessitates change in plans.
Other option is to move one of the outfield corners to first base in platoon with Murphy and then sign Ankiel or Dye for the outfield. We have to add a big bat somehow and still offer good playing time when Beltran comes back.
Why would you sign Hudson and then play him 4-5 games a week? If he is better than CASTILLO (and he better be if you’re going to put out 10 million for 2B!) why wouldn’t you play him every day?
I like the idea of signing Rick Ankiel. Ankiel hits left-handed has some pop and is very good defensively. Beltran will most likely not be back full time until well into May and then will need many off-days during the season when he feels he has “tweaked” something in the knee.. This is Beltran we’re talking about after-all.
We’re looking at Beltran playing a total of, what 115-120 games best case in 2010? Ankiel provides us with a solid player who can play all three OF spots. If Ankiel does sign with the Mets you have to figure that with Beltran out and Ankiel filling in here and there during the course of the season he would play in about 60-65 games. That’s not a bad incentive for a player who is looking to showcase his skills to join the Mets as a 4th outfielder.
He’s sports a .231 BA from 09 and an OBP of UNDER .300. His career defense is .963. His pop ended when he stopped HGH. Unless we can get him for practically nothing, I say bye bye.
Pagan is a much more viable option.
Alfredo Amezega
No brainer… plays EVERY position. speed and defense. hustle and attitude
granted not a big average guy.
everyone else sadly will cost too much
I’m with you on Amezaga, although I can’t spell his full name correctly…
He does play every position and not alot of people have mentioned him.
i had thought Amezaga as well, but looking hard at his offensive #’s has me nixing the idea for anything more than just a defensive replacment; and Ankiel’s #s in 2009 were terrible. i think Dye is the best option for some added offense, but ‘where’ would he play? Can we expect guys to move to 1B, pairing with Murphy, and play it well? Why add more question marks to a team that needs pitching, pitching, and more pitching? Pagan can substitute for Beltran.
In fact, let F-Mart compete with Pagan in ST for the CF slot. We must move on to pitching.
[...] Lloyd from Mets Merized explains why the Mets need to pursue ‘quality, versatile [...]
I think you are assuming the starting 8 is good. It’s not. They have the worst 1B in the league and one of the worst 2BS. At least one of those positions needs to be addressed more than the bench. If they don’t sign Molina catching is a hole. weak both defensively and offensively. The biggest hole is the rotation. Depending on Pelfrey,Maine and Perez to be solid ML starters seems a little foolish. At least one starter (and no, it doesn’t have to be a #2 starter) needs to be signed. Finally a second lefty in the pen is needed. While the bench could be improved common sense says that there are other areas that need to be addressed before the bench.
Worst 1B? Ummm not really, his defense was actually fairly good.
Mets Classics is on tonight, did anyone see the power numbers from Keith Hernandez for 88? 11 homeruns…………
Now before anyone blows a blood vessel I am NOT comparing Keith to Murph so take a deep breath, but, for all the talk of how it MUST be a power position…………..not so much alot…..
i agree Mackey. Murphy showed great progress as a 1B last year and his offense also improved markedly in the 2nd half: 27 doubles in 266 AB’s after the All Star break is a real good number. Thats comps to 11 in 242 AB’s in the 1st half.
Looks to me like he can hit 40+ doubles/year and hit maybe .280, with 15 Hrs and 70 RBI’s this year.
Trouble is, i think the Mets are going to sign Delgado. Hope not. We’ll see.
Great point. Many first basemen have been high batting avg. doubles hitters. I think this fantasy baseball has infected everyone’s brain when it comes to real baseball roster construction. The facts are we have at 2B a guy with limited range. Do you want a 37 year old who missed most of last year, who never had range at 1B, coming off hip surgery, playing next to Luis? Guys and gals, the idea is to score more runs than you give up 100 times out of 162. If(I repeat if) you get 10-15 more HR’s from Carlos you will also probably get 10-15 less doubles too. HR’s are better than doubles but will they outweigh all the extra gb’s that go into RF? Say it’s only 2 gb’s per game. One ball murphy fields and throws to the pitcher covering and one 4-6-3 dp castillo starts because he’s playing closer to the bag cause Murph can cover more to his left. That’s the equivilent of having a relief pitcher who is perfect for 1 inning every game (3 outs) How much would you pay for that? Plus you have lower pitch counts on your starter, less relievers to warmup/bring in, fewer baserunners, fewer runs, less stress on the pitcher, cleaner innings and your facing less hitters with men on and your able to see if one of your young cost controlled players can be a solution to one of the many holes we have and will continue to have going into the future. Is 10-15 HR’s(if Carlos is healthy ALL year) worth giving all that up?
Hi, O-T, Murphy may be the worst offensively but not defensively; the kid improved markedly in the 2nd half on both ‘D’ and ‘O’. Castillo is a real problem because he has no range AND doesn’t really contribute that much to the lineup either. i actually believe our lineup is ‘ok’ as is, waiting for Beltran, et cetera, but the one thing we clearly need more of is starting pitching. i think we’ll sign either Molina or Barajas, so catching will improved, both defensively and offensively. It’s a shame Castillo is our 2B for this year; he’s such a ‘hole’ defensively and that hurts our pitching.
We must not expect our entire rotation, as is, to rebound and be effective in 2010–that’d be totally defying the odds and the baseball gods.
I agree with many of the sentiments written in the comments section about pitching. I’m not advocating using dollars earmarked for pitching to be used instead on utility players, I’m advocating getting quality bench players in addition to the # 2 starter we seek.
There is no reason to tear this team down.
You mean 37 year old Jolbert Cabrera doesn’t do it for anyone? I mean this is Teflon keeping his commitment to getting younger and more athletic, no?
[...] Lloyd from Mets Merized explains why the Mets need to pursue ‘quality, versatile [...]
Last years utility guys were not awful, but who knew they’d have to play 95% of the year, hence utility…….