26
2011
Spring Update: Castillo Batting Second, Pagan Cleanup, Lets Play Ball!
An article by Hojo's Mojo
Saturday Updates
David Waldstein relays a funny story about a head-to-head race yesterday with all the players. The drill was a 60-yard dash, but Jose Reyes and Angel Pagan were told to start 5 yards behind the rest of the staggered crew, and Ike Davis was told to stand a few yards in front. Reyes and Pagan came from their positions on the blocks to pass everyone, with Reyes catching Pagan at the end to win by a fraction of a second. “It’s no fun running with those guys,” Davis said. “They make me look like a kindergartner.”
According to Brian Costa, only one team has spent less money on signing draft picks than the Mets in the last five years. That said, Paul DePodesta told him that things will change and to look for the Mets to be financially aggressive in this year’s draft. ‘When our turn comes to pick in every round, we’re going to take the guy that we think is the best player on the board and not worry so much about the signability portion of it.”
Mets prospect Darrell Ceciliani who won the New York-Penn League batting title last season with a .351 average, spoke with Adam Rubin and had some glowing remarks about his Cyclones teammate Cory Vaughn. “He’s got all the tools. He can hit for power, for average. He’s got speed, and can steal bases. And in the outfield he’ll make the plays. He’s always out giving it his all. The best thing about Cory is he’s always having fun”
Yes, spring training stats don’t matter or so we think, but Terry Collins took note of Scott Hairston’s two homeruns during yesterday’s intrasquad game, two of four blats in the game. “There were some good things,” manager Terry Collins said. “Obviously Scott Hairston shows us exactly why we brought him here.” Willie Harris also homered in the game.
And now it’s time for some real baseball… well almost real…Mets Baseball resumes today with the Grapefruit League opener against the Atlanta Braves this afternoon. Game time is at 1:10 PM and will be broadcast live on WPIX and WFAN 660.
The lineup is as follows:
1. Jose Reyes SS
2. Luis Castillo 2B
3. David Wright 3B
4. Angel Pagan CF
5. Jason Bay LF
6. Ike Davis 1B
7. Josh Thole C
8. Scott Hairston DH
9. Fernando Martinez RF
Jenrry Mejia will start for the Mets, and also expected to pitch are Manny Acosta, Pedro Beato, Taylor Buchholz, John Lujan, and Armando Rodriguez.
Interesting to see that Castillo is not only in the lineup, but that he is batting second, something we oftentimes railed against Jerry Manuel for last season.
Keep a close eye on Beato and Buchholz who have been getting a lot of raves so far in camp.
Friday Updates
It was the the Mets versus the Mets today at Port St. Lucie in the first game action of the spring. Scott Hairston and Willie Harris both homered in the game. Jordany Valdespin scored the winning run on a sac fly after a walk, and a stolen base that saw him take third after a bad pickoff throw. Igarashi picks up the W with 2 perfect innings. Final score Mets 3 – Mets 2. Perfect. 
Terry Collins had some high praise for 24 year old catcher Josh Thole who will be the Mets everyday backstop this season. ”Josh Thole has really improved as a defensive catcher,” manager Terry Collins said. “I saw him last spring for the first time, and the advancement he made from the start of the season to when he got called up was phenomenal”. Read more on this at the NY Post.
David Waldstein writes that Jason Isringhausen continues to impress the Mets, and that if he keeps throwing the ball the way he has so far in camp, he has a strong chance to return to the Mets 12 years after he was traded away. Manager Terry Collins watched Isringhausen throw live batting practice Thursday and came away impressed. “I thought Isringhausen was outstanding.”
David Lennon makes a bold prediction and says that Rule 5 selection RHP Pedro Beato is a lock to make the team out of camp and grab one of the open spots in the Mets bullpen. It’s still early, and there is a lot of competition in camp, but Lennon is one of many who are raving about the young fire-baller. Adam Rubin relays that pitching coach Dan Warthen has asked Francisco Rodriguez to help Beato refine his delivery which K-Rod agreed to do.
Andy McCullough tells us that David Wright is devoted to improving his defense this season after another below average season defensively for him in 2010. His 20 errors ranked third in the National League. For the second consecutive year, he finished last among all qualified third basemen in Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR), a metric that measures a player’s range in the field. Seriously, Wright has been getting a free ride on his defense from Mets fans, if it were anyone else playing 3B I wonder if that player would get the same pass.
TRS86 from the Real Dirty Mets calls John Stearns the most underrated Mets catcher of all time, and Gary Carter the most overrated catcher the Mets ever had. While I agree with him on “Dude”, no matter how I slice it, I can’t call Carter overrated. Not as long as he’s wearing that 86 ring on his finger. His first couple of years with the Mets alone, keep him from being tabbed overrated. To me the most overrated was Brian Schneider who was supposed to be like Master Yoda on defense, and instead looked more like Mr. Magoo.
Today’s video comes from the Hartford Courant who interviewed the 2010 Mets #1 Draft Pick, RHP Matt Harvey.
About the Author: Rob Johnson
50 Comments + Add Comment
NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braves | 23 | 18 | .561 | - |
| Nationals | 23 | 19 | .548 | 0.5 |
| Phillies | 20 | 22 | .476 | 3.5 |
| Mets | 16 | 23 | .410 | 6.0 |
| Marlins | 11 | 31 | .262 | 12.5 |
Last updated: 05/18/2013
Recent Comments
- Major Mofongo: on Prima Donnas and Clubhouse Chemistry: A Met Perspective: forget the fact that its America... its NEW...
- Judge Holden: on Internal Discussions Of Ike Davis Demotion ‘Intensifying’: YES! YES! YES!!! Finally. This crap has...
- Timothy: on Internal Discussions Of Ike Davis Demotion ‘Intensifying’: You can send him down for 10...
- Timothy: on What Do We Have In Lucas Duda And Is He The Solution At Left Field?: He has been hitting the ball really...
- Major Mofongo: on Prima Donnas and Clubhouse Chemistry: A Met Perspective: The one thing this team is scared...
MMO Mets Chat
Need Tickets To The Mets Game?
Check Out These Great MLB Links!
Photographs From Gordon Donovan
5357 Fans Follow Us On Twitter!
1270 Fans Like Us On Facebook!
2341 Fans Read Our Feed!
1702 Fans Subscribe via Daily Email!
Nice Video clip find of Matt Harvey there Hojo.
I almost fell off my chair when I read that Gary Carter jab. Yes he got worse as he aged as does any catcher, but for two years he was our MVP and an All Star and we dont win in 86 without him. Underrated? Hell NO!!!
You do know he played for the Mets for 5 years right?
Yes I’m well aware, but my point was his first 2 seasons with Mets trumped your opinion of him as being overrated.
Overrated underrated are always subject to opinion. In my opinion because of his previous stats and 85/86 many fans believe his entire Met tenure was HOF level and that’s just not true. He will always be remembered for his contributions in 85 and 86, great. However his tenure as a Met is overrated. Does not mean he was junk, just overrated.
the problem with under/over rated debates is everyone has their own baseline. When doing this type of post, you almost need to define the guy (rate his ratedness?) as the benchmark before declaring him over or under!
in Carter’s case, I believe the overrated idea is geared toward people that think he was the HOF caliber for his met tenure, as opposed to a very good but not quite what he was guy for 2 years, than pretty much average to below for the last 3.
Also, outside of his numbers, Carter’s contributions to the mid to late 80s Mets was immeasurable as far as leadership, ability to hit in big spots, handling of pitchers, his arm and just his presence and the exuberance he brought to this team.
And when you’re one of the 700 or so major league ballplayers in the world who are already talented enough to play MLB, his type of leadership & presence is incredibly important
We could use a guy like that now, the last time we had someone similar to him albeit to a lesser degree talent-wise (off field incidents notwithstanding) was Paul LoDuca.
I also remember how disgusted I was at the fans who booed Carter during his last couple of years with us when he his talents started to wane. I thought that was disgusting and totally ungrateful.
yeah. he was the most overrated hall of fame catcher we had and one of the most overrated hall of fame players we had – right up there with the other 1 or 2 of them.
what a joke, especially from a guy who calls himself trs86. if it wasn’t for carter, that guy’s name would be trs69, or he wouldn’t even be a met fan to begin with.
LOL, yeah so me calling a guy that was instrumental in winning a WS overrated means that he is junk and has no value. Again, looking at his ENTIRE tenure with the Mets he had 2 good years out of 5. Those were 2 GREAT years but they in turn cause the rest of his tenure to be overrated.
You guys don’t understand what overrated and underrated even means. Overrated does not mean throw the guy away, he’s junk. It just means that his Met tenure may not have been as good as many people make him out to be.
Any you got it. Carter was a great catcher, HOF no doubt but as a Met he had 1 great year, one very good year and 3 not so good.
Not good compared to what though?
Compared to Carter Career?
Of like say Luis Castillo?
The problem here is that you like many people have differing levels of NOT GOOD and it changes from player to player!
Pagan had a great year last year….for HIM!
But would it be a great year compared to someone like Pujols?
Why would it be a great year for Pagan but NOT Pujols?
Could it be because you EXPECT more from one and didn’t expect it from another?
This is a problem with how most people (who are not pros and some who are) have when they go evaluate talent. The evaluation is RARELY ever based on just what they did it is always salted and biased based on what they EXPECTED them to do.
If a guy is expected to hit .300 but only bats .283 he had a bad year…
Yet a guy who is expected to hit .270 hits .280 then he had a good year…DESPITE the fact the guy you say had a bad year hit better than the guy who had the GOOD one!
What you need to start doing is stop EXPECTING and trying to predict what a guy SHOULD do and make your decisions based on who had the better numbers overall and constantly replacing the guys who didn’t have them regardless of what you expected from them!
If you expect a guy to hit .220 and he hits .280 one year, he may have had a good year (for him) but that doesn’t make him a keeper. More likely it makes him trade bait!
UH… not sure I follow. Have you looked at Carter’s Met stats other than 85, 86?
.231 .288 .363 .650
Those are not good for any one. Again, I loved Carter and he was a huge reason for our success in 85 and 86. However, I feel that because of those 2 years his TENURE gets overrated.
What is overrated? Thinking something was acceptable when it wasn’t as good as could be?
Did we overrate carter’s contribution and production or did YOU simply think it was bad because you expected more from him that you SHOULD have!
Everyone here knew Carter was not the HOF guy he had been.
But he had a dangerous bat and provided enough to protect and help the guys who bat around him!
The point I am making is Over or Under rated is largely a mistake of EXPECTATIONS not actual results.
If he does better than you expected you UNDER rated him.
If he does under what you expected then you OVER rated him.
You think he was over rated but thats only because you EXPECTED more than anyone else!
Not because we think he did anything better than he actually did!
About the only time a player is NOT Over rated is when he has his career year. Which usually leads to him being OVERRATED for the next few.
And everyone says he was UNDER RATED before that career year…
It all starts with the intitial EXPECTATION which is usually the part that was dead wrong not the actual performance.
The performance is what it is. It is the expectation that makes that performance a good or bad one.
If Tejada had the same numbers as Carter did in his worst year here he would be considered to have had a decent year (for him) and would be the starting first baseman!
And for no other reason that because he wasn’t expected to do even THAT much!
Err correction 2B not 1B
Whatever you say buddy.
Ridiculous! Gary Carter brought more to the Mets than just those numbers. His enthusiasm was infectious and he was a superb leader. That maintained his value in his later years even as his batting productivity waned. Today’s team could use more of his dedication and fire. You would be better off searching for improvements in today’s Mets than sitting back and criticizing our past heros.
I actually think the most underrated catcher on the Mets was Jerry Grote.
Gary Carter was in the right place and right time, and the shined with al the right pieces that year. The guy is in the HOF, he can’t actually be too overrated right?
Marla, as I recollect your sentiments were, in a way, seconded by none other than Johnny Bench, who I recollect saying after an ASG where he dealt with catching the phenomenal “stuff” Seaver & Koosman were delivering into a comment that went like, “if he(Grote) were in Cincinnatti, I’d be a third baseman” I’ve ONLY my recollection as I’ve been unable to locate the quote on the net because my recollection has faced many challenges. I don’t recall the national pubication source(direct or AP); but I certainly remember the commentary making me proud as a very young?(teen) Met fan with little to be proud of at that pre-’69 period.
Trust me, I’ve no reason to lie & Bench had a ton of respect for Grote after that ASG, perhaps other than that evaluation, my fondest Grote recollection was not as a Met; but as a Dodger whereby he personally gave ‘Boss George’ apoplexy in thwarting successive attempts @ sacrificing runners to 2B in the WS throwing both out @ 2B, camera panning over to ‘Boss’ showed dire near heart attack levels of explosion, should he have had a BP cudff on @ the time most assuredly we’d see a cartoonish explosion of the device. good stuff, great recollections of a very underrated backstop who managed an extremely ubertalented staff of topnotch competitors.
I remember that quote ’62 about Bench saying he would have to play 3B. You really have to hand it to the talent evaluators we had back in those days.
Grote, Harrelson, Jones, Seaver, Kooseman, Ryan, McGraw, Kranepool. We also had so many of them here for a decade or longer.
Smart trades, good platoon matches, someone really knew what they were doing. Weiss, Devine, Murphy, Herzog, Hodges, Walker, Pignataro, who knows but that was some collection of talent.
I can attest to that quote as well. It is quite a testament to the player that Jerry Grote was. We are fortunate as oldtimers to be able to look back upon that ’69 team as our own.
Hojo, you ain’t kidding Wright gets a free pass from Mets fans. Not only his D but he gets a free pass for a lot of things.
All I’m going to watching for as far as Wright goes is his performance in big spots..for each game, his HUSTLING.
His hustling out of the box on infield groundballs is the worst on the this team yet I sense a giant proverbial “Look the other way” from his this fan base AND the media.
He was on Mets Hot Stove yesterday talking about how Chip Hale was the one who got him to field the ball off to the side last season and is a work in progress. Bad advice, he was a better fielder when he kept the ball in front of him and I think he should go back to that.
All in all maybe Collins will have a new positive affect on Wright so we’ll see. I have said before that as much as I criticize and think he is way over rated by his fan base that maybe a new manager would affect the way he plays the game in a positive way. And maybe just one day Wright will be the golden boy his fan base has already anointed him to be, without ever creating one Met memorable moment. We’ll see.
So the fact that he’s been money the whole time, performing at All Star levels no matter what the situation is irrelevant because your flawed memory can’t conjure up a “Met memorable moment”?
David Wright has never been money.
He is durable though.
You’re durable too. LOL
So, the fact that he put the team on his back and tried to drag them to the post season kicking and screaming in 2008 means nothing?
I have no idea why you need to disparage the best player the organization has.
Donal want a cracker. Hey come back when your mommy , daddy or big brother gives you something to say besides chirp chirp… mets are perfect. that’s why we are irrelevant in NY.. chirp chirp…. Or better yet, tell them to take you Oz and maybe ther is a brain waiting for you there. Doanl want a cracker chirp chirp….
Didn’t you know? It’s all about Met memorable moments.
Those 25hr 100 rbi seasons all came from padding stats.
Bayonne How can you say he is getting a free pass? A Free pass from WHAT?
Name a player who has played better than him on this team?
Who was the best player we had last year? Pagan? Compare BA and tell me you think the BA isn’t important!
The guy is an All Star who has never been hurt bad enough to miss a ton of time, He had one bad year powerwise in his ENTIRE career!
How can you say the guy is getting a free pass when he has done nothing you need to PASS on to make him sound good?
Lets face it if Wright isn’t getting called out for ANYTHIN the reason is much more because everyone else is doing far less than they are expected to do that Wright is.
Sure he had two extended slumps last year but thats what happens when Francouer and Barajas are the only other dangerous power guys in your lineup!
It’s one thing to be critical of a player and I have done that calling him out on that stretch where he would swing at anything low and outside last year, But you can hardly say he is being overlooked on criticism when he has as little to criticize as he does when compared to the rest of the team.
Everyone has a bad year and everyone has a yearly slump or two.
If you manage as you claim you know that is a product of relying on the phyisical condition of human beings who can’t just go to the garage and repair and replace parts while you wait!
If the watermain breaks in your house and floods it and it causes you to drop the open milk container you don’t worry about the spilled milk! You should be worrying about the thing that caused you to spill the milk not the milk itself!
How the hell is the guy given a free pass, when every time he does screw up we hear about it for months on end and you bring up everything he’s done wrong for the past 5 years.
Definately areas of improvement in his game, and he knows it more then anyone, but for a guy that is consistently hitting 100+ RBI’s and 30 hrs every year, they aren’t ALL for nothing, despite the fact you say you SAW the game.
Consistently an ALL star – but you go out of your way to find every flaw.
Overrated/underrated – irrelevant
Under appreciated – Absolutely
And according to him, in his own words Omar “put together a good team.” OK.
“Wright has been getting a free ride on his defense from Mets fans, if it were anyone else playing 3B I wonder if that player would get the same pass.”
If they put up the same numbers on both halves of the innings, they would get a free pass too. Plus, David is a good citizen in the community and he doesn’t hog publicity.
The only thing bigger than Carter’s contributions was his incessant need to feed his ego. Gary should go away and come back when he can be part of a team, not just the guy who wants the headlines.
I’m looking forward to watching Castillo tear the cover off the ball and make all the fans who hate him for no reason and want him gone, whether he is the best option at 2B or not, cry when he wins the job.
It’s already been established, by all observations, that he’s the best fielder of the three candidates and if he goes out and out hits them then the job should be his. Unlike most I just want the best 2b option, Castillo or not but people seem to want him gone even if he outplays the others. I’m cheering for him because the fan base is throwing so much unjustified hate at the guy, that he doesn’t deserve and I hope he makes fool of them all. Besides Murph has options, he can be brought up at any time if Castillo doesn’t perform or gets hurt and Emaus can back up Castillo and not have to be offered back to his old team.
Castillo would need the jaws of life and a blow torch to tear the cover off the ball.
He WILL win the 2B job.
As for Wright and UZR looking at it one year at a time is useless to say the least. Castillo’s UZR last year was 2.8. The year before it was -11.2. Anyone want to think that Castillo’s defense actually improved 14 points last season? Or that he had more range than David Wright?
Most of u are probably too young to remember before Political Correctness overcame common sense when the then lowly, inept Braves’ mascot was a guy dressed as a Native American, who before every single home game @ Fulton County Stadium woyuld perform a choreographed by ‘Pale Skins’ version of a WAR DANCE around the pitcher’s mound then run full tilt to the LF corner where his teepee home was for the game which he’d recreate said ‘dance’ on a platform after each Atl HR hit. One day after completing his silly dance about the mound as he bolted towards his ‘home’ in LF a sudden greyish road uniformed streak took off after the running Brave, catching & tackling him ‘off camera’ before he reached his safe abode. That erstwhile tackler? John ‘Dude’ Stearns. the first ‘un’caged Met for his valiant pregame play, he stands alone as underappreciated in Met lore.
And that was Chief Nokahoma by the way.
Mask r u sure it wasn’t KNOCKAHOMER? lol
Loved that remembrance ’62. Remember when they took the teepee down and the Braves lost something like 13 straight and they went and put it right back?
T, actually I don’t recall dismantling; but I do recall those Braves didn’t require any explanation for losing streaks of that magnitude, blaming the teepee was tantamount to painting the “Galloping Gertie”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacoma_Narrows_Bridge bridge & calling it safe for pedestrian & auto traffic lol
’62, I’m pretty sure it was when Torre managed the team, had ‘em in a pennant race and it was decided to take it down and the Braves immediately went on a double diget losing streak and they went and put it back up.
Good stuff.
T, if u recall when Torre took them over they set a tHen record for blistering season starts with 13-0 start in ’82 from your recollections I was intrigued to see if it was the same season, thinking it served them right bact to about .500 & in my research I located this tidbit some may find amusing,interesting;
http://www.ballparksofbaseball.com/past/AtlantaStadium.htm
The Braves were really America’s first SuperStaion team(TBS) & as they had the near entire South to themselves No MLB teams in SC,NC,AL,TN,KY,LA, Ted often stole the Cowboy’s moniker of being “AMERICA’S TEAM”, when in fact it was clearly Southern Anmerica’s team Amazingly though they competed for decades from the cellar of the Western Division as the first yr of Div play(’69), like our’s was their first taste of playoff competition & it remained the only such experience until the mid 90s,. NOW THAT’S A DROUGHT! We’ve much to thank the Bravos for, #1 Seaver, #2 playing dead in ’69 post (3-0) and they’ve certainly claimed their pounds of our flesh in return! esp those Jones’ boys!
A little known fact I discovered a while back is that prior to Rockies’ innaugral season the Atlanta Fulton County Stadium had the record height in feet above sealevel for a stadium in MLB(any wonder it’s unofficial moniker was “THE LAUNCHUING PAD”. Turner was cionstructed adjacent to the old park
62, Nope it’s Nokahoma. I googled it and here’s the link to a story about the tepee. http://georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/nokateepee.htm
The LAST THING I wanted to see in this first game is Luis Castillo at second base!!! Thanks for nothing Terry Collins!!!!
Wah, thanks for nothing Collins – wth is that? Grow up, the guy is in ST everyone plays – you must be new or something. SPRING TRAINING
If castillo is starting at 2B and hitting 2nd on opening day, I will likely join Harry and Bayonne in their bunker.
but until then, I can only hope that this is giving him the chance to prove that he is old, shot and just plain sucks.
it was bad enough when his lateral range disappeared (meaning balls just went right by him, and sometimes he couldn’t even get over in time to cover 2B on a GB to SS, unless he just couldn’t be bothered), but his straight ahead mobility seems to have gone too. THere were a few timesthat balls were hit right to him and the batter still beat it out, since he wouldn’t (couldn’t?) hustle in to get a slow roller.
having a slugging % that most of the pitchers make fun of doesn’t help either.
he needs to go away. Especially if you believe the mets are not serious post seaosn conteders this year, he serves no purpose being here.
Even if he is hitting .300 at the time right?
I mean what is the point of determining which move you don’t like before seeing why the decision was made?
Then you WOULD be just like Harry!
Doesn’t matter if they make the RIGHT move just as long as it is the move you wanted to happen before it happened and regardless of WHY it happened.
Count on being in that bunker. He will be the starting 2B. The Wilpons will not pay him to stay home so learn to like it. You have one more year ahead of Luis. It could be worse if he had 2 more years on his contract. What happens with Beltran is more important so forget about Luis at 2B and just learn to like it.
Mask, my friend, I believe u may have missed the paradigm shift. While what u say is certainly a statement of incontrovertable facts from last ST. Since Selig just bailed the chagrined elder Wilpon out of potential default on something, I truly doubt the oldman has the balls to stick it to Selig’s “GIFT” SELECTION as GM as easily as he would have plunged the dagger through Phillips & into Minaya’s ‘HEART’ OF HIS PLANS. It’s very doubtful Sandy will be forced to endure periods of being shorted on useful roster players Alderson signed Edmunds for 12M to play for typically financially strapped SD yet released him entirely just 45 days later, will HALF THAT AMOUBNT ON HALF THE POTENTIAL PLAYER IN A TWICE AS IMPORTANT POSITION CAUSE SANDY TO THINK TWICE? See what I mean?
62, Oh yes, I certainly do and I hope that Alderson actually has the independce to act as you think. We will see how it goes. For the time being at least, I am of the mindset that the owners still call the shots and haven’t changed their stripes. Hopefully, they don’t wind up in striped suits in a padded cell LOL.