12
2011
Second Guessing Second Base?
An article by 
Decisions, decisions…
Terry Collins may have his work cut out for him when the time comes for him to anoint the starting second baseman for the New York Mets.
It will not be an easy decision. Despite more than six candidates in camp for him to choose from, all of them had their particular flaws.
Murphy was trying to learn the position on the fly, Emaus came over with a knock on his defense, Tejada couldn’t hit enough, Turner profiles as a AAAA player or a platoon player at best, Hernandez was never really in the mix, Hu profiles more as a utility guy, and nobody wants Castillo to succeed even though he may be the better option so far this spring.
Last week Collins said he wanted to reduce the number of candidates and focus the battle between 3-4 of the most likely candidates the rest of the way. According to Adam Rubin, that won’t happen now.
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.”
Was he referring to Ruben Tejada? Who was demoted yesterday by Sandy Alderson to Minor League camp?
Who knows… He didn’t say, and if I were him I wouldn’t have said anything either. In fact, Collins may have already said too much… Way too much.
I can hardly blame him though… Murphy made two errors in todays 12-0 loss to the Braves. Emaus already has registered two himself and it could have been three if not for a generous official scorer. Hu also committed an error in todays game. Things are just not going as well as everyone anticipated.
It may very well be that the Mets best option at second base may be somewhere else waiting for the Mets to trade for him?
I don’t like what I’m seeing. It’s not a very ideal situation.
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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“It may very well be that the Mets best option at second base may be somewhere else waiting for the Mets to trade for him?”
I agree as well. I have had this conversation with others that are not to keen on the idea but I still maintain this is a plausible possibility.
I wish I could tell you who. I’m gonna take a look this weekend and see who might be available. I know some will say Michael Young but he might be worse defensively than Emaus, although I love his bat Plus his cost makes it prohibitive.
No reason to trade for one when you can just Bring up Havens and fill the spot for the long haul.
2B is really only an issue if we are in competition and the 2B spot is holding us back.
And in that situation we can always bring Tejada up to make sure the fielding is covered and worry about the bat later.
Face it, Castillo will be the opening day second baseman.
hard to tell. At this point, it might be changing on the fly, without anyone actually nailing down an official starting job.
At this point, I don’t really see anyone better being traded for. My best hope, they mix/match to start with and keep the team in it, while havens has a hot (and healthy) start and gets fast tracked up to the mets to stabilize the position for years to come.
hey, a guy can hope, right?
Look remember last year when Ike Davis made 3 errors in Spring training. Davis has a good glove and it was blamed on the poor ST fields.Murphy has 2 errors and Hu has 2 errors. Hu is also thought as a good defensive player.Lets remember this is ST when we iron out the kinks. Murphy will do better.And hes hitting .303 and had a double and single today.
What’s wrong with Castillo? Bayonne and Maniacs’s favorite demi-God signed him for four years. He must be great. Their Swami couldn’t be wrong. Their perfectly happy with having the worst second basemen in the Majors every year. They enjoy having the worst hitting RFer in the Majors as well. Who needs offense when you have Perez on the mound anyway. Just eeck out a run and you’ll be fine.
If Ollie can’t finish just bring in Mota or Schoweweiss. They’ll shut the door. If they get into trouble you can always get Wagner out of the rehab to finish the game unless you want to take a chance on Putz’s elbow. Why not their Swami did.
If you wind up in a tight pennant race there’s always Alou you can count on with his .000 BA in August and September and don’t forget Bay will run through a wall for you, Green will turn a fly ball into a triple in the NLCS, the 44 million dollar man couldn’t even set foot on the field in that game, Church knows how to touch 1st, 2nd and home. Beltran, Delgado, Pedro, Alou, El-Duque and Valentin can provide sage veteran leadership from the DL, Cora, GMJ, Catalanotto, Jacobs, Feliciano, Tatis, Sullivan, Arias, and Hessman can keep us close if need be and Redding, Lawrence, Williams, Humber Sosa, Vargas and Chan Ho Park can always spot start if needed. Burgos and K-Rod will frighten the other team by their mere presence in the bull pen. Francouer, Barajas and Tejada get OB over 28% of the time. In fact 14 of Omar’s hand picked “offensive” players actually got OB LESS often than TWO starting pitchers.
Hell yeah. After all this Bayonne and Maniac are screaming for more. Why not?
Spoken like a true Pittsburgh Pirate fan. you truly are nothing more than a bitter hatier. You have problems in the grey area agee. Serious mental deficiencies. You don’t disagree with Minaya’s movbes. You have nothing but pure hate. You are a sick sick dude. Maybe instead of throwing your money away on beer at the wilpon morgue you should spend it more wisely on a shrink who might actually give you a chance to become a decent human being, something your hatred prevents.
You get funnier every day!! Thanks for that good laugh……..
“Beltran, Delgado, Pedro, Alou, El-Duque and Valentin can provide sage veteran leadership from the DL, Cora, GMJ, Catalanotto, Jacobs, Feliciano, Tatis, Sullivan, Arias, and Hessman can keep us close if need be and Redding, Lawrence, Williams, Humber Sosa, Vargas and Chan Ho Park can always spot start if needed. Burgos and K-Rod will frighten the other team by their mere presence in the bull pen. Francouer, Barajas and Tejada get OB over 28% of the time.”
You left out the part that Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado were hitting 3 and 4 in our lineup when we won our 1st division title since 1988 and having those two in the line up was why we had the best record in NL from 06-08. Oh and maybe if Jeff Suppan doesn’t pitch like Cy Young in the NLCS, they would have lead us to our 1st WS since 1986 – Two good moves by Omar.
Jose Valentin? the guy who was a 2B in 2006? I thought he did really good for us? That’s right he did, he hit .270 with 18HR from 2B, and he hit two of those home runs to clinch the division against the Marlins – He was a great signing. and I’m sure he did provide a lot of verteran leadership – good move by Omar.
El -Duque? the guy we traded Jorge Julio for? Yeah I remember him, he pitched good for us for the two years that he was with us. Yep, he was 18-12 with a 3.88 ERA during his two years here, and we got him for Jorge Julio…. another good move by Omar.
And Tatis? The guy Omar signed to a minor league contract, that truned out to split time in LF for us, and hit almost .300 with 11HR? ANOTHER good move by Omar.
I see you listed a bunch of backups there, Agee EVERY team doesn’t have good players as backups…you’re not proving anything there.
“who needs offense when Oliver perez is on the mound”? I guess you must be talking about how he pitched in the posteason of 06 (He almost got us into the WS) and in 07 and 08 he won 25 games and had a 3.91 ERA – Trading for him was good, but signing him wasn’t good lol.
As for Fracoeur, Barajas, and Tejada, well Francoeur hit .311 when he was 1st was traded over here, Barajas hit pretty good for his 1st two months here, he got a lot of big hits for us, and was one of the reason why we ended April in 1st place. Oh and Tejada, might be our future 2B, and he could be a pretty good one too.
you left those parts out Agee.
Collins: “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.”
Who was Collins thinking about?
REESE HAVENS
When he’s not hurt, he gives Fernando Martinez a run for his money on always being hurt, yeat that’s a good idea
My view of 2B is the starter will be Luis Castillo. Dan Murphy will at best be on the bench. I really don’t care what happens to Hu. Eventually a transition will be made to Reese Havens as the starter and Tejada as backup. Eventually may be late this year or certainly next year when Luis’ contract expires.
i want castillo to succeed. i dont harbor these absurd fan grudges like you guys do.