9
2010
A Couple of Mets Roster Notes
An article by 
According to Adam Rubin of the New York Daily News, Angel Pagan and the Mets avoided arbitration and have agreed to a one year contract that will pay the center fielder $1.45 million.
Pagan had originally requested $1.8 million whereas the team filed for $1.275 million. Therefore, they are paying him a little bit under the arbitrary midpoint.
Last season, Angel had a fine season despite suffering an injury that sidelined him for a couple of weeks. In 88 games, the 28 year old hit .306 and six home runs along with eleven triples.
In other news ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick is reporting that the team is close to an agreement with Mike Jacobs. The deal would be a minor league contract with an invitation to spring training.
Back in October I had suggested that the Mets pursue Jacobs this off-season to platoon with Daniel Murphy at first base. He may not be ideal, but he did hit 32 home runs in 2008 and 19 in 2009, which is more than any member of last year’s team hit.
Unfortunately, he is horrendous against left-handed pitching. Nonetheless I am intrigued to see how he will perform this spring and whether or not he will make the team.
About the Author: Joe DeCaro
Went to my first Mets game, a Mayors Trophy game at Shea, in '73. We beat the Yankees 8-4 and I was hooked. I marched in two Banner Day parades, and before the Grand Slam single, there was the "Hendu Can Do" grand slam - I was there. I've collected Mets memorabilia all my life and started Mets Merized Online to feed my addiction.
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NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nationals | 26 | 18 | .591 | - |
| Braves | 26 | 20 | .565 | 1.0 |
| Mets | 24 | 21 | .533 | 2.5 |
| Marlins | 24 | 21 | .533 | 2.5 |
| Phillies | 23 | 23 | .500 | 4.0 |
Last updated: 05/25/2012
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Platoon with Murphy fine,dont put jacobs, who is mediocre at best, as the starter.I think Murphy will be a big part of the Mets for quite a while, even when Ike Davis comes up
I disagree on Murph’s future; but see him as being showcased for an AL team to salivate over. Jake is, at best, excellent insurance to prevent the too early exposure of Davis through a rushed call-up situation.
To those indicating a platoon situation; What is the benefit of platooning to Lh 1B defensivly challenged at best! Both are conversion players, Murph from 3B, Jake from C. Laugh with me on this one; perhaps Jake’s a catching option & 1B is a blind?…LMAO!!!
Taking a low-cost chance on Jacobs couldn’t hurt.
Good call Phil,
I’ll be rooting for this guy in spring training.
This move makes little sense if we’re going to keep Murphy. Both Jacobs and Murphy are challenged by lefties. The ideal move would’ve been a RH bat able to platoon with Murphy at 1B.
Maybe, it’s an ‘insurance move’ by the Mets IF Murphy struggle, slot the vet Jacobs at 1B.
It would make more obvious sense if Jacobs could play some OF, but i do not recall when he last played OF.
So, this move puzzles me.
Bob, to my knowledge Jake never played OF; but was a minor league catching prospect originally Therefore, he likely can’t outrun Murph.
Platoon Jacobs at first with Shawn Bowman and move Murphy to 2nd base.
Bowman is a solid prospect who has recovered fully from a severe back injury much earlier in his career. Here’s his stats:
http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/B/Shawn-Bowman.shtml
ss Reyes
2b Murphy
3b Wright
lf Bay
1b Jacobs/Carter
rf Francouer
cf Pagan
c Santos/Thole
Just a thought…or with Beltran…
ss Reyes
2b Murphy
3b Wright
cf Beltran
lf Bay
1b Jacobs/Carter
rf Francouer
c Santos/Thole
That’s a pretty strong line-up.
Are you serious!! Murphy at 2B?? The guy who couldn’t play leftfield? And you want to play Bowman who cant hit a curveball at first? This is a terrible idea.
Bowman was stuck in A ball for six years dude!! And he has yet to play above AA, and you want to pencil him into the major league lineup?
In 1500 at-bats he has 500 strikeouts!
Bowman is a career minor leaguer and should never see major league service time.
Tommy, do u forget last offseason when he was sent home from AZ Insructional League failing in his attempted 2B conversion.
In 50+ yrs of baseball fandom, I’ve never ever heard of anyone flunking out of the Instructional League. You sure u think 2B is a good idea knowing all the actualities?
Oh, yeah, with Bowman…
ss Reyes
2b Murphy
3b Wright
cf Beltran
lf Bay
rf Francouer
1b Bowman
c Santos/Thole
Fairly strong line-up.
Jacobs and Mathews Jr. deals make me start to get the feeling that the Mets might throw some trade bait out there. Moving Murphy, Pagan, F-Mart for the right deal and having Mathews Jr and Jacobs around gives them stop gap replacements. Just food for thought……..
That’s pretty horrible. I hope they don’t do that.Actually its got mets management written all over it. Trade young guys and keep old veterans
Jacobs is a terrible fielder. And only a DH. Chris Carter is as good if not better than Jacobs.
Jacobs will never beat out Murphy. Jacobs will be in AAA or he will be cut.
3b,LF.1B and now 2B? Murphy is very versatile if nothing else. His lack of power wouldn’t matter as much if he was a catcher. Why not give Thole the catching job and send Murph to Buffalo and let him learn how to catch?
oldtimer, perhaps they’re looking to retutn Jacobs to catching..lol
Hey, ’62, according to MetsBlog, someone has indeed conjectured, just that. It’s not crazy. It gives him AB’s against RHPs, and adds power to the lineup. Of course, i have NO idea whether he’s a defensive calamity behind the plate or decent.
Bob, I don’t know either; but here’s my supposition… since his conversion to 1B likely coincided with Piazza departure & Flores loss in Rule V(inside job in my opinion orchestrated by Bernazard to assist his protege, Acta) on a team berift of topflight catching prospects, I don’t hold out much hope for his catching proclivity. He’s always seemed a bit oversized for the position, to me.
Murphy will be at 1B unless he is trade bait. Did anyone see Keith working with him last night?
I think that it is HUGE that Keith is working with him.
It’s also ironic that Keith Hernandez was working with Murphy early in the day than later on that same day the Mets sign Mike Jacobs.
Did the Mets already have Jacobs waiting in the wings and were just awaiting Keith’s evaluation of Murphy before pulling the strings on Jacobs?
I think it’s something that bears watching.
Perhaps – but I think Murphy looks like a gold glover at 1st compared to Jacobs.
I thought the idea of platooning was to platoon players who couldn’t hit lefties with players who could….jacobs and murphy both can’t…id give the edge to murphy. Jacobs hasn’t cracked an 300 OBP either…who cares if the mets can hit home runs if people can’t get on base? He is also a K machine. I hope he doesn’t sniff first base for the mets and they let murphy play for a whole year and see what he is about. Very few players get called up and have immediate success. While Jacobs has pop and is a former met, he is pretty horrible everywhere else. No defense, and No offensive skills but the ability to hit for power. This is a great signing for the bench and to give some rest to guys if he had some versality but I hope he doesn’t take AB from Murph.
Picking up Jacobs is a decent option worth looking at. If he works out in some way, great. If Murphy bombs out, perhaps Jacobs takes over until Davis is ready. Otherwise, he gets dropped and no harm done. No problem with taking a look and seeing whether something comes of it. Maybe he’s just a PH if there’s room for him on this crummy bench. But the platoon idea doesn’t seem to work.
MASK, NOW,NOW crummy bench? Who do u expect to be on the bench? Piazza?
try taking A LOOK AROUND THE DIVISION, from what I can ascertain from the various depth charts the cadidates for benches are:
NYM: BLANCO(39),EVANS(24), HERNANDEZ(28), CORA(35), PAGAN(33), MATTHEWS(36(, MARTINEZ(22) Avg. age 31.0
PHL: SCHNEIDER(34), GLOAD(34), DOBBS(32), J.CASTRO(38), FRANCISCO(29), MAYBERRY(27) Avg age 32.3
ATL: ROSS(33), HINSKE(33), INFANTE(29) HERNANDEZ(26), SCHAFER(29) Avg age 30.0
I’m sorry; but with all the sreaming & gnashing of teeth going on and on and on; I get a little sick & tired of this lumping everything into the NOT GOOD ENOUGH” basket
Let’s all ASSUME BILL mADDEN WAS UNFORTUNATELY SPOT-ON when he predicted, Jeff’s proclaimation of “NO MONETARY RESTRICTIONS!”.”OMAR WILL GET WHATEVER HE NEEDS” were all bald faced lies aimed at making us disappointed WITH OMAR & Madden was correct estimating only 20-25M allocated for improvments. I think, given that, Omar did remarkably well in Bay & Escobar. Iragashi’s a Japanese crapshoot, I believe Omar’s hopes are on the 2 big ones I mentioned. Escobar’s only 2y older than Sheets, cost 10M less & is proven healthier since he’s already pitched in Winterball successfully. Sheets has only auditioned & still has back & shoulder issueas never addressed.
If u disagree, with only 20-25M to spend what would u have done, BE REALISTIC! None of this I’d sign “X” for this rediculous amount.
Certainly the Gnats have added names & risks; but isn’t that what last place teams are supposed to do? Remember when we were destined for last & Phillips did the same adding Vaughn, Alomar, Buernitz? Where’d that get us? SAME THING FOLKS!
we had injuries galore. BELIEVE IT! They wreen’t old timers injured”(excl Delgado) they were prime-aged young studs injured. Why shouldn’t they be able to bounce back? No TJ or ROTATOR CUFFS. There isn’t a Pedro or Delgado typew expected to ret’n & contribute. Certainly there isn’t a long track record of success in our rotation, u don’t get that with 20somethings do u? I’d rather have 20yr olds capable of throwing 95+ than a rotation full of 35+ pitchers trying to reclaim glory. Why would Maine @ 39 returning from “tired arm” be a bigger risk than Hudson @ 35 coming off serious surgery? or Moyer @ 48? back from knee surgery better than Perez @ 29 from knee surgery?
Look, there were plenty of opportunities to sign btter players for the bench at very little extra $ than what we wound up with. Garko and Kennedy come to mind right off the bat. There were plenty of others.
Not a matter of age but rather productivity…rather of being a competent fill in if any guy goes down for extended period of time…
I still think there is a trade for a starter coming!!! Too many players being picked up?? Maybe to Toronto or KC,in spring training?
Steve, I believe Omar may already have snuck one past Jeff, who tried to sabotauge his GM by restricting him to only 1 key FA signing in only allowing 20-25M allocation for player additions. Who? How about a pitcher coming off injury, who like Sheets did not pitch in ’09; but unlike Sheets has already logged in an impressive season of Winterball, KELVIM ESCOBAR!!!
FOR ALL U SHEETS FANS:
Escobar Career #’s
CAREER 101 91 4.15 Escobar’s biggest season ’07 18-7 3.40 3cg 1 sho
Sheets Career #’s
CAREER 86 83 3.72 Sheets biggest Season ’08 13-9 3.09 5cg 3 sho
Sheets cost Billy Beane & A’s 10M+incentives & hasn’t thrown a competitive pitch since elbow surgery leaving back & shoulder issues still problematic.
Escobar cost Omar Minaya & Mets 1.25M already pronounced “healthy” after competing in Venezuela’s Winter League as a SP/RP. by announcing Kelvim as a setup option, Omar has finessed his “boss” Jeff who’s mission has been to derail Omar by first pronouncing,”Omar will get whomever he deems necessary to contend” while quietly, yet obviously restricting spending to a one big ticket investment amount bet 20-25M
If all of the SP options are healthy a rotation comprised of SANTANA,PELFREY,PEREZ,MAINE,ESCOBAR in no particular order could conceivably be SANTANA,ESCOBAR,PEREZ,PELFREY,MAINE with NIESE & NIEVE on call for whether a LH or RH SP is needed. Certainly that IF re Escobar’s health is big; but i contend that Escobar at age 34 is no bigger a question than 35 yr old Hudson ot 48 yr old Moyer. Escobar has already competed post surgery the other 2 haven’t.
Dudes Murphy is not playing second or any other position! in matter of fact no met is going to moved to a new position!! so you guys lets be real here the mets have to be ready by opening day. either there trading players or were staying how we are. Murphy will be fine! last year was a first year for him at first, we dont know what will become of murphy he may turn out to be really good at first. you guys want to pick up has beens but the mets may be thinking of working with murphy to see how he turns up and get not just a has been. Castillo is our second baseman you guys better face reality. he is our second basemen im sick an tired of fans not moving on from this. Minaya and the mets office feel that the pitchers if healthy are similar or better than the pitchers out there. sheets was a risk, same as wang. the big pitchers we werent going to spend money on. Minaya will see what are team is when they will be on the field playing. i am confident he will make every move he can after he see the mets play on the field. so support your team wish for the best!
Mr. Met, where have u been hiding? your old-fashioned “Love u, win or lose” approach is a refreshing breath of air around here! welcome to the BRIGHT SIDE! BRAVO!!!LGM!
I like the Jacobs signing. Last year everyone cried because we had no depth, but now the Mets sign guys like Jacobs, Coste, Mathews, etc. and everyones complaining. Did you expect them to sign Hideki Matsui, Jermaine Dye, Jarrod Washburn and Rod Barajas as backups for more depth? Get real people and lets stop complaining about these small but necessary signings.
iF IT WEREN’T FORE ALL THOSE MISC SCRAP HEAP SIGNINGS LAST OFFSEASON, WE WOULD’;VE BEEN WATCHING THE FRONTOFFICE MAB POSITRIONS LAST SEASON, HOW ELSE DOES ANYONE THINK WE COVERED OVER A THOUSAND LOST DAYS(GAMES) TO THE DL? MLB FRONTOFFIOCES ARE LIKE SHARKS TOWARD ONE ANOTHER, LET ONE APPEAR INJURED & THE REST ARE IN ON THE KILL TERAING THE INJURED APART. WE ONLY NEEDED TO VENTURE OUT INTO THE MKT TWICE FOR MID INFIELD HELP; MOSTLY DUE TO PRIMARY SECOND TIER BASCXKUP GREEN @ AAA WAS INJURED OFF BUFFALO TEAM MOST OF THE YEAR.
SORRY FOR THE CAPSKLOCK; BUT I WAS ALREADY FINISHED & STARTED PROOFIONG BEFORE I NOTICED; I’M SURLEY TODAY & DON’T WANT TO RETYPE IT SO DEAL!
Mets clearly overpaid for their bench players but apparently put a premium on guys they know and will not distrupt the club house. Omar looking for chemistry as much as talent and age.
Speaking of chemistry just watch the show on the ’86 Mets again, wow, were they a lot of fun, can’t imagine any of these players sucker punching an opponent who slid into third base too hard… where is Ray Knight these days……
Rick, Ray Knight is presently employed by MASN in the same capacity as Ojeda covering postgames for Gnats. They also employ Rob Drivel(Dibble) for color commentary of game broadcasts. Drivel surplanted Sutton.