4
2011
Chris Young Continues to Impress
An article by 
Do you guys remember the post where I discussed how Chris Young would benefit the Mets?
Well, Chris Young had another solid outing today and is well on his way to cementing the number four spot in the rotation. All told, Young has now tossed five innings without allowing an earned run in exhibition play. Today against the Marlins, he pitched three innings and allowed a pair of hits and a pair of walks while striking out one.
“Today I wasn’t as sharp as I’d like to be. Early on, the first inning, the first couple of batters it took me a few pitches to find my rhythm, my tempo. Obviously that’s something I’ll go through during the season too. I wasn’t thrilled with my ball-to-strike ratio today, but the results were good. Sometimes the results are better than the way you pitch, and sometimes the opposite. Most importantly, I felt good. I felt strong. The ball had life on it. It’s something to build on.”
Young has said his arm feels great since the start of camp and has even been working on a split-finger fastball to add to his arsenal. He hopes to use it against left handed hitters to induce groundballs. After todays game he said he was happy with the results.
He also mentioned that he feels so much better physically this spring than he did last spring with the Padres.
In his start today, Chris Young pitched 3 innings, while only giving up 1 unearned run.
I highly believe that Chris Young is going to be in the rotation, if he continues to put up the numbers he has been putting up in his last two starts.
Right now, Young may be on his way to a strong comeback season, which would be pretty impressive. Hopefully this pays off for Sandy Alderson!
About the Author: Brandon Butler
Brandon is currently a MMO Minor League Staff Writer. He is also the co-host of the Mets Madness Podcast on Talkshoe Radio. Brandon lives in Hornell, NY.
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So you hope the move pays off for Sandy Alderson!!! It seems there are too many posters here think this team is the NY Alderson’s. Sad, if a guy does good its good for Alderson, if a guy does bad it is because of former GMs. This site has real problems.
I think both of you are a little over the top. Look, I love the Alderson hiring, especially given the GM lieutenants, but I don’t think it took any great insight to see that signing Chris Young was something this team HAD to do, not should have done. That signing and Capuano were the classic “low risk, high reward” moves that a responsible GM has to make, especially when you have no depth in the rotation to begin with. The Young signing was a great move, but it wasn’t some kind of revelation.
The Mets have a nice lineup with a pitching staff that is suspect.There are no “low risks” here.
If the Mets are to contend, and I think they can if most everything falls into place (where have we heard that before?) then they have no room for error. That’s why there are no “low risk, high reward” signings here. Everything is “high risk, no reward guaranteed” signings.
I think it’s “low risk” in that these moves don’t impact the team only as far as 2011 is concerned. Unlike Oliver Perez for example that has impacted the team in a negative way from the day he signed his contract.
The Mets need a lot to go there way regardless if they were to contend. Their success did not rely solely on what a Young or a Capuano do.
The Mets signings of Young and Capuano are low risk for these reasons.
This team has operated on a high risk basis virtually since the Wilpon took over. You think it wasn’t high risk in 2006 when we had 13 guys 34 or older including 4 in their 40′s? Think Pedro, Trachsel, Glavine and El-Duque average age 37.5 weren’t high risk? They were, and we got away with it for a while.
The following year(2007) we had 15 guys over 34, 5 of which were over 40 including our everyday LFer and returning from injury Orlando Hernandez. Had we not gone so high risk with these two players it is highly unlikely we would have lost the pennant by 1 game. Resigning Mota after his only bit of success in his entire career had come when you flat out KNEW he was on steroids. Backing Valentin (37) with Easley (37) All low risk right?
The following year (2008) We dropped down to only 8 players 34 or older and only 1 over 40 but we counted on Alou AGAIN to be our everyday LFer. You cannot make this s**t up. Low risk? You have got to be kidding me. Then we count on Castillo (32, and needs surgery on BOTH of his knees) and back him up with Easley (38), Valentin (38) and CUT Gotay (25) Low risk? Are you kidding me. This in a year that we miss the playoffs by TWO games.
The following year (2009) I guess Alou was busy or something so we tried a rookie infielder in LF and just to make things as difficult as possible we traded away Endy Chavez for an injured relief pitcher who we never bothered to give a physical to and then shipped him off to pitch high stress innings in the WBC in March. Low risk? You’ve got to be kidding me….Again.
All these extremely risky moves in years in which we expected to win the division, managed to the first year but got bitten in the ass by the odds the next two years and then crumbled because of age, injuries and lack of depth in 2009.
From the “worst team money can buy” to the Vaughn, Alomar, Burnitz, years to the mess we find ourselves digging out of now it’s all been high risk. One high risk move after another instead of any kind of a coherent long term plan.
Here we go again, the history of the Mets with every response. I didn’t even bother reading this. I really have no time for it…just get to the point.
The point is ever since the Wilpon showed up here the entire strategy (if there’s even been one) has been high risk. And your just noticing now?
Ahhh…now you got it!
I would agree with you if it not for the fact that the Mets have had a history of heart breaking defeats on the field that have set back their chances of playoff contention for a number of years going back to the 80s that have forever changed their destiny
Yeah, after all that then NOWWW i can go back and say well if the Wilpons did this and that. I don’t like the Wilpons either but a lot has done down on the field over the years. I’m not gonna go back and revisit our scouting and drafting processes with each post just because Yadier Molina had a big HR, or Beltran struck out, or 2 September collapses that are the players’s fault.
Or even a big HR by Terry Pendleton.
If all of these things went the other way i dont think you’d be here revisiting our scouting and drafting methods with every post.
It’s OK with me if you or anyone else doesn’t want to see the big picture but I am going to point it out because it is an idiotic business practice that the Wilpon has been running on us for two decades.
They treat us like we’re monkeys and will run down to the box office as soon as they sign another big name regardless of how much they have left in the tank.
Every team has their share of heartbreak, even the Yankees. They could point to Sandy Alomar Jr.’s HR, Gonzalez’s bloop or Beckett’s dominant game 6. It happens. That’s what sports is about but they also have 5 World Championships and have been to the post season 15 out of 16 years.
No one should try to emulate the way the Yankees do things because they live in a different universe but there has to be a process that we could employ that would lead to better results than the one we have been working under.
One HR didn’t keep us out of the playoffs those eleven times we we’re under .500 in the last two decades. Our thought process did. The way we went about our business failed.
A different process that has been successful elsewhere needs to be integrated into our philosophy. Less paying of guys for what they did elsewhere and more paying of guys for what they do here.
More prospects, more IFA’s, more scouts. A real plan for prospect development that goes beyond “lets try him there.” and most of all less future options flushed down the toilet in favor of guys on their last contract.
Lets face it the team with the highest payroll in the NL over the last 2 decades shouldn’t have only 1 less losing season than Montreal/Washington without there being something seriously wrong. Long term wrong, not just a big HR at an inopportune moment.
You don’t read, yet you can’t help but comment on it.
That’s great.
the phrase “low risk, high reward” refers to inexpensive (well “inexpensive”) contracts of guys with a lot of potential upside. I understand an reclamation project is a “high risk” to come back to form, but the phrase refers to the contract.
to berbs,
I know that it refers to the financial aspect. I understand that, but it’s more about winning games. Cap & Young may have cost little but it’s still “high risk, no guarantees”
If one, or worse..both falter it’s gonna have a high impact on the mets season. The Mets are in a very precarious situation so it’s high risk. It doesn’t matter how much money is involved. I’m not a moneyballer so I look at what i have to do to win games not count what’s in my bank account….relatively speaking of course cuz i know you guys would take the last part of my statement and run wild with it.
How exactly should it be interpreted? How exactly can you spin saying we’re more worried about saving money than winning?
again bayonne where are the mets hopes riding on young n capuano?
the mets season rides on a lot more than those 2.
more important are what pelf,dickey and niese do. then add what you hope to get from davis thole bay beltran and pagan to name a few and u start to see how many bigger things the mets have to worry about. i respect your opinion but imo i do not agree.
You are the only person I know that enjoys having a dialog with a brick wall.
You spend more time trying to have a conversation with someone who will never respond to you, than with the other readers who are willing and able to actually engage you in a bilateral conversation.
I have no idea what you are saying here? It’s low risk because you didn’t risk much money, bt the payoff could be bigger than what you paid in.
RA Dickey was a low risk/high reward that paid off. Maybe it happens again with Young, we will have to see.
Last year Dickey was signed to a minor league contract, not part of the Mets plans… the Mets last year were still considered contenders also. The Mets got lucky and that was good.
This year is an altogether different story. The Mets are in a precarious situation and have no room for error. Everything is a high risk.
Well you could say that whether we signed Young or Cliff lee if that’s the way you want to look at it. Right?
No.
If we signed Cliff Lee, he’s not a risk.
Now before anyone goes crazy I DO understand that was not gonna happen. I’m just answering KMaxx response as if it were a hypothetical, which is fine.
And to add to it, not only would Lee NOT be a risk but he instantly improves our chances and makes the team better. That’s not a low risk, high reward signing lol. It’s no risk – he makes you better, period.
end of hypothetical.
How is spending 150 million on one player not a risk? A huge risk?
Well if u sign a guy like Lee for that much you have a budget you can work with. It’s all relative. He’s a sure thing and you’re making that commitment because you have a team you believe you are going to win with.
Now the Mets situation is different they only had 5 million to spend and a lot of question marks, 2.6 of that was for Cap & Young, 2 reclamation projects. It’s a gamble. Can it pay off? Maybe. But it’s a roll of the dice that can pay off and if it doesn’t if has a chance of affecting the Mets season big time.
That’s the difference. You could equate the “Lee hypothetical” to the Mets signing of Santana. Great pitcher, sure thing. Unfortunately we had some other players who decided to not show up in September when we needed them the most in Santana’s first year with us.
September 2008
Beltran .344
Delgado .340
Wright .337
Murphy .290
Schneider .260
Reyes .243
Church .209
Alou .000
Alou was remarkably consistent in the 2007 pennant race, he also hit .000 for us down the stretch.
September 2008
Easley .241
Castillo .111
again, those are only numbers. If everything was judged by numbers than we win the division.
The actual game and how it unfolded is entirely different story
sigh…
sigh..
and not only are those just only numbers and have not much to do with what actually happened during the course of that race but your commenting on something that had nothing to do with what KMaxx and I were talking about.
Just because I mentioned 08 doesn’t mean we now take the debate into different territories. So i’m done here. We’ll talk 08 another time.
the relief pitching is what destroyed us in september 2008.
luis ayala was our closer and the middle relief was awful. not to mention maine couldn’t get past the fourth inning.
we blew like 5 big leads in innings 3-6.
wagner going down was a killer, just as in 2007. you can ask last year’s braves about wagner, and they’ll tell you something similar.
“again, those are only numbers. If everything was judged by numbers than we win the division.
The actual game and how it unfolded is entirely different story
sigh…”
Hold on, let me check the numbers…..
Nope, the Phillies still win the division. They had a better numbers in two insignificant and little know stats: wins and losses.
Everything with this team is high risk. Always has been. You don’t think it was high risk hopeing Maine and Perez could start 30 games last year? Not adding an established starting pitcher? Signing Dickey and Escobar and hopeing Niese could establish himself?
Think it wasn’t high risk bringing up a 20 year old with one pitch who had only 40 IP above A ball?
Every move is risky when you have no depth and no high ceiling IFA’s or draftees banging on the door.
You simply cannot get guarantees from free agency (obviously) or anywhere else, what you can do is not lock yourself into long term deals with ageing players and provide as many options as possible through your farm system but to do that you have to look beyond just this year.
So, you probably didn’t hear, but Sandy Alderson was hired as the Mets GM. So, basically, the personnel decisions he makes, affect the Mets. If the players he picks are successful, it is good for the Mets as a team.
Brandon, Young’s talent isn’t the problem. Sure he can benefit from playing for the Mets & playing at Citi Field BUT the $64,000 (or should I say, $1.1 million) question remains….can he stay healthy? He has yet to log 200 innings in a season thus far in his career. Can he finally do it this year? He feels good physically this Spring? Good. Let’s see how long he lasts before we’re ready to say that this move ultimately will pay off for Sandy.
Who the hell cares about it working out for Sandy! This whole post is warped, so Young has 5 innings pitched. A comeback season??? What comeback is that? That he pitches less than 200 IP again? SMH Lets get rid of “Lets Go Mets” and go with “Lets Go Sandy” everybody! Gimme a break!
Your (ridiculous) rants never cease to amaze me…
…Er what…?
We’re just trying to be positive here. I am rooting for Chris Young and the author just notes that it would be doubly good if it works out – because it looks good for Alderson and obviously it helps our team.
Hitman, you hit the nail on the head. It’s not the talent, it’s his fragile body. If he can make it through 200 IP, which he has never done…Absolute and utter steal.
My concern with these “He Impresses” statements is impresses you compared to what?
What we have pitching at StLucie or to Major League pitchers in general.
I mean Ollie impressed them for about a day and a half too! LOL
I would love for Capuano and Young to come back strong and make the rotation but my concern about them has much less to do with their performance and everything to do with their durability.
Sometimes when your busy trying to impress your new boss you tend to overdo it and then wind up blowing out your arm.
sad when posters have to sell chris young as a all star to get people excited, the mets are run like a corner lemonade stand