15
2011
Luis Hernandez To Be Named Starter At Second Base? Is Desperation Setting In?
An article by 
According to Mike Puma of the New York Post, a source has told him that manager Terry Collins is getting set to name Luis Hernandez the starting second baseman.
Disenchanted with what he has seen from Luis Castillo, Daniel Murphy, Brad Emaus and Justin Turner this spring, manager Terry Collins is preparing to name Luis Hernandez the starter at second base, a source with direct knowledge of Collins’ plans told The Post yesterday. The move will be contingent upon Collins convincing the front office to find roster space for Hernandez.
You may remember that just three days ago in this post, I wrote about Collins’ demeanor and body language when he was asked about the second base situation by reporters.
Collins tapped his foot and paused six seconds when asked if even giving Hernandez remote consideration signaled displeasure with the original second-base combatants.
The manager eventually replied: “I don’t know if I’ve added him. I think we forgot that he could play there because he has been unable to play there early in camp. … I’m still looking at the primary four guys, but I just know we’ve got another guy who can play there.”
As a matter of fact I wondered who he was referring to at the time… Some of the readers thought it might be Reese Havens, but who would of believed it would be 26-year old Luis Hernandez?
Puma said Collins came to this decision mostly because the primary contenders for second base did nothing to distinguish themselves at the plate or in the field or both.
Last night, Adam Rubin wrote that “there are rumblings around baseball that Terry Collins is firmly in the not-Luis Castillo camp for second base”. He also quoted a rival executive who told him that Castillo won’t see Opening Day in Miami. “I think he will be out before spring training ends,” the person said.
Hernandez only entered the second base picture after Collins brought his name up after the three error game by the Mets on Saturday. Two of those errors were by Daniel Murphy, the other by Chin-leng Hu.
What is odd about the whole situation is that for weeks Collins has stated that he saw second base as an offensive position, which many believed was a vote for Daniel Murphy. Hernandez is far from an offensive type and has always profiled as a utility infielder. In parts of four seasons he is a career .245 hitter and previously played for the Orioles and Royals. He is having a solid spring batting .417, but only has 12 at bats.
Truth be told, Castillo is having the best spring out of all the candidates, so clearly this is a signal that Collins wants nothing to do with him.
Rule 5 pick Brad Emaus was supposed to be the favorite, but he has underwhelmed at the plate and looked shoddy in the field.
Ruben Tejada, their best defensive second baseman, has already been dispatched to the minors.
This seems so uncoordinated to me and I don’t like the smell of it. I would even go as far as saying that it looks a little like desperation on the part of Terry Collins.
Furthermore, we haven’t heard a peep from Alderson on this yet, who might very well insist that Collins plays his guy, Brad Emaus.
It’s most likely that we haven’t heard the last on this. But at least we’re not talking about Oliver Perez this morning.
About the Author: Joe DeCaro
I'm a lifelong Mets fan who loves writing and talking about the Amazins' 24/7. From the Miracle in 1969 to the magic of 1986, and even the near misses in '73 and '00, I've experienced it all - the highs and the lows. I started Mets Merized Online in 2005 to feed my addiction. Follow me on Twitter @metsmerized.
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Can’t help myself but, I told you Murphy was never going to be a second baseman! Reyes stated a few days ago that Murphy had no clue where to go for simple cut-offs and that he would have drilled Murphy in the head had he thrown a ball to a base in a game last week. He spun to throw and Murphy was in the way.
Metsr1 — When and where did Reyes say what you personally like to hear? Smells fishy to me. Give us the source.
What a joke. I would rather have Luis Castillo than this guy. Damn the new front office for making me want Luis Castillo to be second baseman.
What does the new front office have to do with this? Blame Minaya for not having and depth at the position or a better option than Castillo.
Hey, happiest of metsies. isn’t it great to be able to blame Minaya for everything!!!!!! How long will you do it. will finishing last year after year change your mind….. Boy your sandy boy is a lucky guy. doesn’t have to do his job, jsut blame the last guym after all why would he make a deal for a guy when he can just have you blame omar. enjoy the cellar , just blame it on the omar. you little metsies are just brilliant analysts. lol..
You’re lost. Not even worth arguing with you.
Skipping school – again? LOL.
as well as medication……..
Have no fear Mets fans, Moneyball is here. This is what you get when your favorite is a player name Emaus who couldn’t break into the majors in seven years with the Blue Jays. So our starter will be sloppy seconds from the worst two teams in baseball. Try and have agreat day depite this news because on the bright side we still have plent of great young players from the Omar Minaya era to look forward to this season. Dont let moneyball ruin your day.
don’t worry k, these happy little metsies don’t care.. they think willie harris and Carlos Beltran are equals. why would they care who plays anywhere? anyone that plays they say is great because sandy approved!!! SAVE THE WILPONS!!!!! enjoy the cellar little metsies!!!!
(Said in a Little Girls Voice)
Awe, is Chase Utley’s knee all banged up. Maybe his Mommie can rub some ice on it to make it all better.
What’s that, a little bird just told me that the Phillies have no mo money to spend, awe shucks. But who can play in place of Chase, we have no mo money to go out and get anymore players.
Maybe the Phillies will trade for Castillo to play 2nd base.
Booo – Hooo – Hooo
You do understand the concept of “value” right? That if you are paying little money and getting no productionl, it defeats the idea of “Moneyball”?
This looks like another non-story being pushed by a hack writer that has a deadline to meet.
Another moron that has no idea what they are talking about.
This is what spring trining is all about. You have a competition and the player who performs best wins. I dont understand what all the commotion is about. Hernandez is young and up and coming lets give him a chance and see if he surprises all of us. Remember lst year with Dickey?
Not sure where you get that Luis Hernandez is an up-and-coming young player. Young, yes, 26 going on 27. Up and coming, no. The Mets are his 4th organization (Braves, Orioles, Royals being the other 3) and has a CAREER minor league line of .255 / .302 / .331 = OPS of .633 in 9, count them NINE, minor league seasons. His one asset is his glove as he can play 2B, SS, & 3B. He has average or less speed, little power, and doesn’t hit for average. With the amount of experience he has to this point (3324 plate appearances in the minors & 290 in the Major Leagues) Luis Hernandez is not going to get any better than he is right now. He would be an adequate bench player who can play defense, but that’s about it.
This is just another example that the Mets are playing for 2012. That’s what this tells me. Lets face it, it’s not like they went all out trying to bring in some worthy people to wrestle the job away from Castillo. They all assumed Castillo would fall flat on his face so they could cut him. Well guess what, that didnt happen he played the best. So now they were stuck with someone they didnt even want. That is why Hernandez will get the job. Is it desperation as you say? Just a tiny little bit, but what did you expect them to do show up on opening day with Luis Castillo?
You have to root for Luis Hernandez just on his last at bat. It just can not be Luis Castillo for his sake and fans sake. Let Hernandez play defense for now and see what he does with the bat. Maybe he does not make the whole year, but you never know.
Oh hey, I just got a tip from a VERY important source who is familiar with the thinking of the Mets organization, and OLIVER PEREZ WILL BE NAMED OPENING DAY SECOND BASEMAN!!!!
It’s a very important source, too, so everybody go ahead and act like this already happened and talk about how stupid Sandy and Terry are for doing this! I mean, he’s a PITCHER, but my anonymous source says OLIVER PEREZ WILL BE NAMED OPENING DAY SECOND BASEMAN!!!!
It is a shorter throw on some plays:)
Berb, I won’t believe you until you publish your tip in a rag like the Post. Only then will I know for certain it’s 100% true.
I’ve already got the NY Post title for it:
“OLLIE OLLIE OXENSECONDBASEMAN”
You do know some people are going to believe you. Not realizing Ollie IS a LEFTHANDED pitcher.
It would sorta make my day if I saw someone on another comment thread say something along the lines of “dude, I read somewhere even Ollie was in the 2B mix!! Hello Kansas City Mets LOLGETIT?”
Why can’t this be true? Murphy isn’t a second baseman to begin with, Emaus is bad on defense, and he isn’t that good of a hitter – his minor league numbers are inflated because of that park. Castillo hit .230 last year, and isn’t great on defense either – Hernandez is a better fielder than all those guys, and they really aren’t much better hitters either.
I can see Luis Hernandez being our opening day second baseman.
Because they already have Hu, a better hitter and at least as good a fielder.
Again, I say non-story by a bored media monkey.
Well lets see. I think it’s possible that Luis Hernandez is our opening day 2B. All our other options are VERY weak, I don’t see how they are any better than he is.
Hu fields and hits better. That generally makes a guy a better player.
He hits better? I don’t know about that… His feilding is probably better, but I haven’t seen Hu in the field that much so I really don’t know.
Hu is a better fielder, but I was wrong about the hitting. Hernandez has a better line. The sample size for both is pretty low.
The reality is, neither of them hit well. Since they already have an all glove no stick guy, why bother with Hernandez? It certainly doesn’t explain why you would start Hernandez.
Well I have a source that Says Charlie Sheen will be named second baseman AND starting pitcher…
FASTBALL
WINNING!
well, he did train with the UCLA baseball team a few weeks ago. Probably has more pop than Luis…
“I turned that double play…
WITH MY MIND.”
LOL He just tweeted that Perez is a troll….could explain a lot!
“I am a Vatican assassin knuckleballer”
Sheen would be a bitchin’ second baseman from Mars!!!
You mean Mercury.
He’s a warlock w/ tiger blood as long as he’s still bangin’ 7 gram rocks
This looks and smells like last seasons first base situation. At the end of the day this team is going nowhere. I think that when its said and done… we will see tejada or Reese Havens by May. So why not now? Murphy is a player with out a position. Hernandez is a complete stiff… Castillo , no more seen enough. Emaus on the bench I guess.
Tejada is 5 years younger with a better glove and his bat is no different… Btw ,
Hernandez can’t make it with the Orials or Royals, but he is good enough for the Mets?
How far can we sink.
When are the Mets going to come to their collective senses and let Reese Havens get his experience this year at 2B in the bigs? Every other candidate has either offensive or defensive flaws!!!
Ya, rush up another prospect with little service time in the minors and a history of health issues. That’s never gone wrong before.
This.
There is absolutely no good reason to bring up Havens to start the season.
What is your fascination with a guy that’s been constantly hurt?
It’s been over six hours since this story first broke and the beat writers have been following all coaches and manager around all through the day, and not one Met is denying this story. As Howie Rose would say, put it in the books.
And how many Mets have confirmed the story?
Disappointing that Luis Hernandez seems to be the winner by default because Murphy, Emaus and Turner couldn’t muster up enough fielding OR hitting (didn’t even have to be both). If one of the three would had even outplayed the others in fielding or hitting it would be their job, but it seems as if they went “ok, what did he do, 0 for 3 with an error? I’ll go 0 for 2 with an error.”
Then again this isn’t a done deal. I can’t exactly blame Collins if he does have Hernandez starting though. I wasn’t convinced that 2nd base is a offensive position. A double-play is a pitchers best friend and if you handicap yourself there, you’re screwing yourself up your own ass.
From Adam Rubin’s chat this morning
NM (NJ)
Uh… Luis Hernandez? No way that can be true, could it? Hernandez owns a career slash line of .245/.286/.298 over 290 plate appearances in the Majors. This is Hernandez’s triple slash line for his career in AAA: .249/.286/.314 over 755 plate appearances. Yikes….
Adam Rubin (11:37 AM)
I ran into Terry Collins this morning. He said unless you hear something from me, don’t take it as gospel. Actually, he said it a little more bluntly. Terry is a very straight shooter. And he’s said as recently as Saturday on the record that Hernandez is only on the periphery of the race. We’ll see how it plays out. One interesting dynamic is who has the most sway when they sit down in a room to sort it out. We can’t know that yet because this is the first spring training they’re all assembled.
Did someone ask: Hu’s on 2nd?
Pops
Sorry but Hu is on first
Apparently IDONTKNOW is on second!
i dunno what joe even means by “desperation”. how is choosing x over y a desperate move?
I think it was all a smoke screen to defuse Collins comments on Castillo. Now Mets Blog says no decision has been made by TC. But it certainly got alot of fan comments.
My prediction: Castillo starts and Murph is on the roster as a utility guy. His bat is too valuable to lose, and Castillo does provide leadership and experience. Maybe he can make Murph into a real fielder… Here’s the full argument:
http://sportstatistics.blogspot.com/2011/03/spring-training-spotlight-new-york-mets.html
I just don’t get the Luis Hernandez move. He seems to have all of Castillo’s weaknesses, without the few positives: leadership, playoff experience, bunting/2-strike hitting. Is the taint of the Minaya regime really that bad to outweigh all other rational considerations?
“leadership and experience” Ya, thats what Cora was getting paid $2 million a year to bring to the team. He still sucked.
Luis Castillo will be the opening day starting 2nd baseman for the 2011 New York Mets.
Lifelongmetsfan has spoken, you can all go about your business now.