20
2011
From Left Field: Mets Have A Short Leash Early
An article by 
Though the season is a little more than two weeks old, the New York Mets have already shown that they are not afraid to pull the trigger if a player is underperforming.
The combination of Sandy Alderson and Terry Collins is attempting to light a fire under their players. Part of the way they’re going about this is by letting players know that if they don’t show up, they’ll be sent out.
The first instance occurred with Blaine Boyer.
Boyer pitched his way onto the Mets roster in spring training and looked to be a good find. His sinker was working great, which caused him to get a lot of ground balls. Such would be extremely valuable late in games if the Mets were in dire need of a double play.
Boyer pitched so well that the Mets asked fan-favorite Jason Isringhausen to go to extended spring training. Izzy did have injury concerns, which also aided in this decision.
However, things didn’t work out so well for Boyer. He appeared in five games and went 0-2 with a 10.80 ERA. He gave up eight earned in just 6.2 innings—not exactly what you look for out of a reliever.
Rather than ride out Boyer’s hot start in spring training, the Mets cut ties with Boyer in favor of Izzy. Boyer opted for free agency rather than accepting a minor league assignment.
In the most recent example, the Mets sent Brad Emaus back to the minors and called up the rightful owner of Emaus’ roster spot: Justin Turner.
After winning the second base competition basically by default, Emaus couldn’t handle major league pitching. He hit just .162 with one RBI in 37 at-bats, and his fielding wasn’t what it was hyped to be.
Maybe Emaus can turn himself into a Major League player, but it won’t be with the Mets.
Earlier last week, Terry Collins announced that he would give Emaus a set number of at-bats in which to evaluate him. Well, that number turned out to be just seven at-bats; Emaus was 0-for-7.
Daniel Murphy has hit well and surprisingly fielded well, turning in some highlight-reel plays. He and Turner will form the new second base tandem.
The moves of Boyer and Emaus show that the Mets will have a short leash this year. Since they don’t have the personnel or depth of the Philadelphia Phillies or Atlanta Braves, the Mets will need significant contributions for every member on their roster if they expect to compete.
One or two slip ups is all it takes for a fringe team—which the Mets are—to fall way out of contention.
You may be thinking that the Mets aren’t even good enough to be a fringe team. In my opinion, every team right now is a fringe team at least early on in the season.
The teams that got off to fast starts can fade, and the teams that started slow can get hot. That’s the great thing about baseball. That’s the reason they play all the games.
This homestand will prove if the Mets are serious. They play the Houston Astros and Arizona Diamondbacks—two teams that aren’t exactly knocking on the door of a World Series title anytime soon. If the Mets can’t take at least 4-of-6 from these teams, then it may be time to consider panicking.
Even so, we’re still in April, so panic really shouldn’t set in until the summer.
I do have to say, it’s a positive sign that Alderson and Collins won’t tolerate mediocrity. Though the team may not have the strength to make a run this year, the fruits of a winning organization are slowly but surely being planted.
Follow me on Twitter @JMMancari.
About the Author: Jim Mancari
Jim Mancari hails from Massapequa, N.Y. He recently earned a Master's degree in Journalism at Hofstra University. He is a devout Mets fan and takes pride in his team, despite their lack of success over the last few years. Like all Mets fans, Jim has plenty of hope. He also writes as the sports reporter for the Brooklyn Tablet newspaper and the senior editor of metroBASEBALL Magazine. Click my name to view my personal website.
5 Comments + Add Comment
Recent Comments
- Connor O'Brien: on Lutz Is The Easy Choice To Replace Davis, But Satin Is The Right Choice: Whatever. It doesn't matter if I convince...
- sarge69: on Cowgill and Nieuwenhuis Continue to Struggle in Minors: Agree with you paradise, Den Decker has...
- Metsie: on Collins Pulled Hefner Because He Was Excited For Him: So basically Collins pulled him because he...
- wjessereid: on Summer Clearance: Possible Trade Strategies For The Mets: I'd rather have two position players ...
- Metsie: on Lutz Is The Easy Choice To Replace Davis, But Satin Is The Right Choice: SO which is it Connor he was...
Need Tickets To The Mets Game?
Check Out These Great MLB Links!
Photographs From Gordon Donovan
5394 Fans Follow Us On Twitter!
1269 Fans Like Us On Facebook!
2341 Fans Read Our Feed!
1702 Fans Subscribe via Daily Email!
Well I think Xtreeme originally pointed this out but it was correct.
Boyer did not actually pitch his way onto the team. Isringhausen did but then had some tweaks in his arm that forced him to shut down for awhile and Boyer skated in. He had that one good showing in the K-Rod Blown save game against the Marlins but it was pretty much downhill from there.
The best way to look at Boyer is as if Izzy made the team got hurt and Boyer was called up from the minors to replace him. (another thing that proves the actual opening day roster is meaningless)
As for Emaus you can hardly say he won the 2B job in ST. I mean he won it about as much as LBJ won the presidency in 62 when the guy who earned it was assasinated.
Both Turner and Valdespin had better numbers than Emaus when they got demoted, Hell even Castillo was batting better than Emaus at the time he got cut. Murphy was hitting but he still had some fielding issues so was left out of the running.
If Emaus was not a Rule5 guy he probably would not have made the team at all.
Emaus’ bat didn’t come alive until after all the competition was dispatch or DFAed and even then it was merely that he had a few hits that got the average up to .300
What is more disappointing about these guys not performing and being jettisoned is WHO picked them to be here and who else they picked which are not far from seeing the same door out!
The performers are all the guys we had last year, Beltran, Wright, Davis, Thole. Pagan is really the only one who has slumped out of last year’s bunch so far.
Other than Beato and Young none of the other new aquisitions have showed a damn thing since the season started and Beato while showing some signs of skill might actually be better served by sending to the minors (trade for him first I know) and maybe extending him to be a starting pitcher. I’m not sure he has the makeup to shut people down in relief but he might make a good starting pitcher if we tried to make him one.
As for the rest of the NEW GUYS, Harris has made some key hits and some key fielding errors, Hairston has showed nothing since the season started and also exhibit fielding errors! (on a side not does anyone else find it odd that a guy named HAIRS TON is balder than Kojack?) Emaus was no gold glove either and you have to wonder if their evaluation philosophy tends to ignore fielding which is common for those who subscribe to certain Sabermetric philosophies and bias’.
You need to look no further for a hint that this might be in the statement “We see 2B (the most important fielding position there is other than SS) as an Offensive position”
Well if 2B is an offensive position how little do you consider fielding in other places where fielding is actually less important?
But before anyone goes and runs with this as me slamming Sandy and the FO let me say this:
We had a lot of upheaval this offseason, Took a long time to even name Sandy as GM and an even longer time to fill out his staff which had hardly been set by the time the Winter Meetings started. That made any evaluations we made a rushed affair and when you rush you tend to not go as deep into the evals you would under normal circumstances.
And while it may be taken as a bad sign for our FO that the newest guys aquirred are the first ones to go out the door it really isn’t if you consider at least they are not afraid of admitting a mistake and moving quickly to correct those mistakes.
Pride be damned, performance is KEY! If Omar had operated with that sense of conviction instead of trying to hide those mistakes in the Minors and the pen we might not have had to deal with those two bad years of Maine and Perez and maybe he would have looked for a decent pitcher via trade to replace them if only he would have admitted his mistake and decided to fix instead of hide or repair it.
So yes it is bad that the new FO has brought in some dogs (add paulino to that mix) but be encouraged that they also were not afraid to send those dogs to the pound for not having any bite to their bark!
Very well said. “Pride be damned performance is key.”
I don’t blame the FO either. They had little time and less money to work with, with all of the talent diffencies this team always has.
I think they were taking some guesses hoping that we would hit on some of them and use those guys to “hold the fort” or for trades or even draft choices to infuse this team with some much needed talent, even if it wouldn’t pay off for 4 years or so.
This is something prior regimes should have been doing as a natural matter of job description. The fact that Alderson had to do exclusively this says more about what others before him didn’t do rather than about his own personal preferences.
Omar has put depth and some high end talent into this organization but the 7 years before he got here was always about nothing other than THIS YEAR.
If Omar had skewed his efforts and resources more toward future years rather than the other way around he might very well have had us fully stocked by now and we wouldn’t be trying out players culled from rule 5, waivers, ect.
It’s funny you mention Paulino, Metsie, b/c I have heard several announcers, including our SNY crew, talk about his return as if he’s going to be a major addition. Ha. Would be great if it were true, but pretty hard to see this now.
We all hope Bay will mark a big improvement, but God only knows if he can help. Pretty sure he will be a major defensive upgrade over the Hairston, Harris clown acts.
I wonder how much longer before we see Kurt Niuwen–can’t spell his name. ANyway…
Well the reason they are talking about that RZ is because of Thole’s BA against Lefties.
Look at Thole’s splits and it tells the whole story.
Vs Lefties he is batting NOTHING in 9 PA with 3Ks
Vs Righties he is batting .310 with a .356 OBP in 45 PA and 10 Ks
Now because of the low PA vs Lefties it could be said that Collins quickly PHs for him whenever the lefty comes in and if he saw more lefties he might get show a little more.
They are assuming Paulino who is supposed to hit ;lefties really good and righties not so good (pretty much the opposite of Thole) that it will allow Collins to platoon the two and get one good batter between the two.
Not sure how that will play out since I haven’t seen squat from Paulino and my other maybe more pressing concern is how will he be with the pitchers and calling the game. Right now our Pitching is the problem and I don’t know that Paulino could make them any worse but you have to wonder how good he will be with Pitchers he has hardly caught even an inning of.
Oh and in regards to Capt Kirk (easier to spell) I wouldn’t expect to see him until the trading deadline has passed and Beltran is likely wearing a new Uni.
No sense in bringing him up now with a crowded OF.
In fact don’t be surprised to see him AND Havens and maybe a new pitcher or two from the Minors after the deadline has passed and what is going to go has gone. They may however wait till next season to introduce them if they feel there isn’t a lot to do and wait till they get to browse what is there in FA. No need to rush them really.