28
2011
ESPN: Three Fixes For The Mets
An article by 
David Schoenfield of ESPN SweetSpot considers Three Fixes for Each NL East Team. Here are the Mets:
1. Shortstop: If not Reyes, who?
Likely solution: Sign Reyes, or give the job to Ruben Tejada. He’s never going to hit with any power, but he posted a .360 OBP last season at age 21 (in 376 plate appearances). How rare is that? Since 1980, only three other middle infielders had at least 300 plate appearances at age 21 and posted an OBP of at least .350 – Alex Rodriguez, Delino DeShields and Jerry Browne. If Tejada can handle short, maybe the Mets are better off spending their money elsewhere.
2. Bullpen: Who closes?
Only the Cubs, Rockies and Astros had a worse bullpen ERA than the Mets in 2011, and none of them had the luxury of pitching their home games in Citi Field. While the Mets could certainly use an ace for the rotation (only the most hopeful will believe in Johan Santana’s comeback), building a bullpen can be cheap and easy.
Likely solution: Ryan Madson? No, he’s too expensive. If the Mets don’t trust a guy like Bobby Parnell, how about a second-tier closer like Frank Francisco, who would cost about $30 million less than Madson? I’d also consider adding a second reliever like righty killer Octavio Dotel or veteran Takashi Saito. Hopefully the Mets learned their lesson with Francisco Rodriguez: Bullpen depth is more important than an overrated $15 million closer.
3. Power in the outfield
With Carlos Beltran gone, Jason Bay a shell and Angel Pagan apparently returning to play center, the Mets may be struggling to get power from the outfield.
Solution: Move in the fences! (Wait, this will help the other team as well?) Also: Don’t discount Lucas Duda, who presumably moves into a regular spot in right field, with the return of Ike Davis to first. Duda hit an impressive .292/.370/.482. His park-adjusted OPS was higher than Troy Tulowitzki, Howard, Shane Victorino or Carlos Gonzalez.
My Thoughts:
Shortstop – Tejada will get every opportunity to replace Reyes at shortstop and while there will be a huge drop-off, the Mets don’t seem too overly concerned about it. This is just the way many Mets decisions are made now – laid back, no sense of urgency, it is what it is.
Closer – K-Rod was a $13 million dollar closer… And as far as overrated, he would have led all Mets relievers in ERA, WHIP, K9 and K/BB. The bullpen tanked as soon as he was removed from it. This guy talks about how bad the Mets bullpen was, but fails to mention the Mets bullpen was ranked third best in the National League up until the K-Rod trade. I have to wonder what kind of baseball writers ESPN is hiring these days. The Mets will find even the secondary closer market too rich for their tastes. Ultimately they will sign anyone willing to the job for $3 million dollars or less and it won’t be pretty.
Power/Outfield – You all know my thoughts on Duda. He’s an exceptional hitter with enormous power and I see a breakthrough season for him in 2012. I wish I could say something positive and hopeful about Bay or Pagan, but honestly I would have relegated both of them to platoon roles a long time ago. Who wouldn’t trade either of these two for Jeff Francouer right now?
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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” Hopefully the Mets learned their lesson with Francisco Rodriguez: Bullpen depth is more important than an overrated $15 million closer.”
Where have I heard this before?
“Closer – K-Rod was a $13 million dollar closer… And as far as overrated, he would have led all Mets relievers in ERA, WHIP, K9 and K/BB.”
And? the bullpen sucked. That’s like being the smartest fan at a Yankee game.
” The bullpen tanked as soon as he was removed from it. This guy talks about how bad the Mets bullpen was, but fails to mention the Mets bullpen was ranked third best in the National League up until the K-Rod trade.”
Ya, I think that is why he mentioned depth being more important than one high priced player.
” I have to wonder what kind of baseball writers ESPN is hiring these days.”
Wow, really? You couldn’t just disagree? You had to swipe at him as a professional.
” The Mets will find even the secondary closer market too rich for their tastes. Ultimately they will sign anyone willing to the job for $3 million dollars or less and it won’t be pretty.”
Because all those big money players have been so easy to watch.
” I have to wonder what kind of baseball writers ESPN is hiring these days.”
Wow, really? You couldn’t just disagree? You had to swipe at him as a professional.
YET YOU DO THE SAME AND IS OK?!? joe, i hope one day you see the light and get this instigator out of here…
It’s one thing to call out reporters for being lazy and using silly old cliches like “anonymous sources report that maybe this might have happened” or to have obvious double standards.
It’s another to attack someone as a professional or a person because you simply disagree with their assessment. Especially when doing so requires you to disregard most of what was actually said or written.
Once again you do this all the time, you start instigating or throwing some snark comments outs there, is really amazing how you have survived here being the person you are…
Alex, stop using hypocritical statements to derail form the conversation. How about once, just once, you discuss baseball without attacking the other person?
“It’s another to attack someone as a professional or a person because you simply disagree with their assessment.”
Huh?!?!?
When did ESPN start hiring Professionals???
This is the same organization that sat on a recorded tape given to them by a victim of pedophilia/rape of Laurie Fine(wife of Syracuse Coach Bernie Fine) admitting to the victim that she witnessed her husband sexually abusing him as a child. And how she also contributed to messing him up as a human being by having sex with him herself when he turned 18.
Really??? I always thought they outsourced work to Temp Agencies…
That has nothing to do with what we are discusing
My reply was geared towards you insinuating ESPN had professionals working for them. After which I merely argued my point by pointing out a situation that wasnt handled as professionals.
I had no intention of interjecting myself within your conversation which is clearly based on the history between you two, which I know nothing about.
There is no way I want to get into that mess. I really haven’t followed it and have no desire to.
ESPN has some excellent baseball writers and disagreeing with them doesn’t mean you have to swipe at them as professionals. The actions ESPN itself took with regards to the Syracuse issue has nothing to do with that.
” I have to wonder what kind of baseball writers ESPN is hiring these days.”
Wow, really? You couldn’t just disagree? You had to swipe at him as a professional.
HOW IS THIS BASEBALL RELATED THEN!?!?!?
How was Joe’s original statement? How come you ignored everything else?
Please, stop trying to distract from the baseball discussion. If it is too much for you to keep up with, maybe you should keep quiet and try to learn.
you’re the worst person here donal, seriopusly, you go being a db into most of your post, now you’re trying to defend some goon in ESPN who had no idea what he was writing and joe D called him up on while being on joe D’s blog? why don’t you then do us a favor and go to ESPN and blog over there? first of all, imo, if you’re gonna write an article do the best job at getting all the information needed instead of just half ass it. second, joe D called him out on his mistakes by providing information, just because sandy saved 17.5 million on krod doesn’t mean he’ll spend it on someone good, i hope one day joe d sees what you do here to instigate situations, you have done it with maniac, bayonne, metsie and others and never have you been banned for it, i hope he gives you a week off so you can think about the person you are.. seriously, you are the worst along with those other 2 jesse and tlagee..
That’s good baseball talk, alex.
Alderson is a God.
“I wish I could say something positive and hopeful about Bay or Pagan, but honestly I would have relegated both of them to platoon roles a long time ago. Who wouldn’t trade either of these two for Jeff Francouer right now?”
Bay for Frenchy? Sure. You’d get a younger, cheaper, more athletic version of Bay on a better contract.
Pagan? Not really. They fill different roles and I think Pagan’s 2012 will be closer to his 2010 than his 2011.
Joe, claiming K-Rod would have led the Mets bullpen in ERA, WHIP, K9 and K/BB is more an indictment on the rest of the pen as opposed to a boon for K-Rod. The Mets pen was terrible, with and without him. While K-Rod’s totals would have led the Mets, he finished 38th in ERA, 86th in WHIP, 23rd in K/9 and 41st in K/BB. I’d like to reiterate the 86th best WHIP in baseball among relievers. He was overrated and overpaid, whether he made $13 million or $15 million.
K-Rod last year pitched 71.2 innings and had a 2.64 ERA, 79K’s and a 1.29 WHIP – That’s pretty good if you ask me.
While our bullpen still wouldn’t have been good with him, and even though he was overpaid, it still hurt us a lot not having him for the rest of the season.
It hurt more being unbalanced. And, as has been pointed out, Rodriguez wasn’t that great compared to other guys who also had his role.
Oh, absolutely,
What really killed the Mets bullpen was losing Takahashi and Felciano last year. They should have kept Taka, and found a better replacement for Felciano. For most of the year the Mets only had one lefty in the pen, which is just a terrible idea.
And losing K-Rod just made everything worse.
I don’t think not having Feliciano last year hurt too much. They could have had Takahashi, but he signed with Anaheim like 3 weeks after Alderson took the job. He still had infrastructure to build.
Bucholtz went down with an injury and there simply wasn’t much on the farm to call up.
Besides, you really haven’t pointed out why it was a good idea to pay front line starter money to a middle of the road closer.
This isn’t about money, this is about their production on the feild…..and I actually did say he was overpaid, but that’s not the point here.
The point is, the Mets bullpen was disaster last year. And I’m saying losing three good picthers like K-Rod, Felciano, and Takahashi was a big reason why the bullpen was so bad.
“This isn’t about money, this is about their production on the feild”
It’s about whether or not his performance on the field justified his salary. Yo uand I agree it didn’t
“The point is, the Mets bullpen was disaster last year.”
Ya, I know. No one has disputed that.
” And I’m saying losing three good picthers like K-Rod, Felciano, and Takahashi was a big reason why the bullpen was so bad.”
They had Rodriguez most of the year. Feliciano was done before Opening Day. And Takahashi was gone almost immediately and he didn’t really perform up to the deal he got anyway.
The point of that particular segment of the article is that dropping so much money on a role player is pointless when you have such a weak over all bullpen and a limited budget. you’re better off signing a few cheaper, reliable guys and developing your farm.
I told you that I’m not talking about money, ok? But keep on insisting that it is, even when I’m telling you that’s not what I mean
And if you read my comments you would have seen that I said that the Mets should have found a better replacment for Felciano – I didn’t want him last year…….and HOW we lost him doesn’t really matter, if it was injury or because of FA, it still hurt not having him.
Same thing with Taka, how we lost him is irrelevant. We didn’t have him last year, and it hurt us – That’s the point.
We lost three good pitchers, and that was the biggest reason why our bullpen was a disaster – How we lost them, or how much they made, isn’t the point…..
“I told you that I’m not talking about money, ok?”
Then you are simply in the wrong conversation
Sure it hurt, because he was the best there, but therein lies the bigger problem. I also think losing Buccholz has been greatly overlooked at why the pen dropped off a cliff. Buccholz completely outpitched K-Rod through the two months he was healthy and he’s not given a second thought.
You’re just handing us that line of BS because Sandy picked Bucholz. The fact is you have absolutely NO IDEA if he would have suffered through bad stretches or given up game winning hits. Bucholz was spared all that because he was out almost the whole year. He’s been lousy more than he’s been good in his career.
You couldn’t be honest and objective if your life depended on it because you’re too busy kissing Sandy’s toes, feet, & heels to be objective.
If Sandy signed K-Rod and Omar signed Taylor Bucholz you absolutely would be looking at this the complete opposite way
LoL. Thanks for your insight.
Bucholz only pitched 26 innings, so who knows if he would have kept it up or not.
K-Rod didn’t pitch well early on, but he finished the season strong. He had a 1.68 ERA pitching for the Brewers.
K-Rod’s a good pitcher, but not paid accordingly, and not close to the best. Losing a good pitcher always hurts, but if a decent/good closer is the BEST you got, there’s more to worry about than just losing that guy.
Right, losing him, on top of losing Takahashi and Felciano from a year ago killed our pen.
Tomato, tomatoe. There’s roughly six guys in the pen at any given time. The Mets pen didn’t pitch as well in 2011 as it did in 2010, but you can’t point to one guy and say “see, losing him killed them.” Losing Buccholz hurt just as much as losing K-Rod did. Maybe it hurt more, because Buccholz was pitching better and was out for longer. But Acosta was better than in 2010. Byrdak had a .222/.271/.300 against lefties in 2011 while Pedro had a .211/.297/.245 against lefties in 2010. So really, was there that significant a drop off? Taka was a good find in 2010, but certainly wasn’t lights out in the pen for the Angels. I can’t pin the demise of the bullpen on the fact that Takahashi’s replacement wasn’t as good as he was last year.
” Losing Buccholz hurt just as much as losing K-Rod did. Maybe it hurt more,”
Oh you’re out there man. If that statement doesn’t give the readers an insight into how whatever mind of your own you have left operates than nothing will. Unbelievable.
This just show how little you know about the intricacies of baseball. You lose Buccholz, who was the best pitcher in the pen at the time, you promotoe someone else to his role, which now weakens two spots because Parnell and Beato clearly weren’t ready and Carrasco sucked. Which is why Buccholz had the role in the first place. You do this at the end of May, when the Mets were 6.5 GB of hte wild card. K-Rod was traded July 8 when the Mets were………6.5 GB of the Wild Card. But 7 weeks had passed. So when you weaken two spots by doing the same thing after trading K-Rod, you’ve alread gone through almost a third of the season with two previously weakened spots. Not to mention Herrera pitched very well in a small smaple size to offset some of the loss.
Very creative, I’ll give you that.
Creative? yes. Real? no.
It’s always nice having “baseball” conversations with you. I back you into a corner and you have nothing else to say so you pretend what I say has no merit when it so very obviously does. Either that, or you go and cry to someone else about me. But one thing you never do is actually bring up a good baseball point. Ever.
But, X, you have no idea how Bucholz would have finished the season – He only had 26 IP.
To say losing an unproven pitcher who had a a good 26 IP, hurt more than losing a proven good pitcher, is just ridiculous.
Not even a little bit. Buccholz was pitching better than K-Rod was. You can’t deny that. The last full season he pitched, he was lights out. He had a track record. You can’t tell me that he WOULDN’T have kept it up. You’re GUESSING he might not have based on the fact that K-Rod is a higher profile player. I’m not about profiles. I’m about performance and winning.
backed into corner? What? Are you nuts?
You ARE nuts. Backed into a corner? You’re really out there man. I’m not gonna fall for this BS because that’s your game man not mine.
you’re just a dishonest game-playing jerk.
I don’t waste my time getting into the type of fantasy scenario because it could have went a MILLION different ways, that’s why i didn’t address it and I’m NOT going to address it because any reader can look at that fantasy scenario and come up with different things. Like you wouldn’t know how Beato or Parnell would have done to begin with and that scenario is so full of holes and what ifs depending on other things you can write an entire blog just for that.
So ridiculously STUPID. And that’s why debates with you never end because you keep coming up with these stupid fantasy scenarios and then wind up wasting people’s time here with a game of gotcha that has NOTHING to do with the original topic. You can have the last word cuz i see where this stupid thing is going.
There’s no way you can say losing three quality pitchers, and only replacing them with somebody who was medicore at best, didn’t hurt our bullpen a lot.
The Mets bullpen would have been much better if they had kept Taka, found a good replacement for Felciano, and didn’t trade K-Rod.
Sure losing Bucholz hurt us, but to say losing him hurt more than losing K-rod is ridiculous. Bucholz started the season good, but we have no idea how he would have finished the year….And after we traded K-rod he had a ERA under 2 – So we know for a fact, losing him really hurt us badly.
You know what it is Vinny,
It’s that these saber goons pro-rate numbers just for the sake of pro-rating numbers without taking anything else into account. In other words for arguments sake:
Both Ike Davis and Scott Hairston could both be injured and out for the year with both have 150 ABs, hitting .290 with 7 HRs, & 30 RBIs. I’m not gonna add OBP because everybody know Ike Davis has a good eye while Scott is a free swinger so for the OBP heads just add 60 points to Ike’s avg and add 30 to Hairston’s.
So anyway, baseball sense will tell you that Ike Davis was most likely on his way to a 35 HR, 270-300 AVG, 100 RBI season while Scott Hairston most likely would have tailed off and finish with about 200-300 ABs as a backup because that’s what he does.
They just pro-rate numbers based solely on numbers. No baseball sense is used at all and it’s an indictment of people these days who live and die by numbers.
Funny how when Omar was lauded when he first acquired K-Rod & JJ Putz after the 2009 collapse. The general consensus here was whether you liked Omar or not he went right out and immediately addressed the bullpen issue which was a contributor to the 2008 collapse.
Since then The Mets have had injuries derail any chance they’ve had to compete the next 3 years and all of sudden K-Rod is overpaid.
Oh and I remember all the people here constantly screaming bloody murder during the latter part of the 2008 season for the Mets to get K-Rod.
So in essence, because the Mets have suffered major long lasting injuries to it’s biggest start K-Rod has become overpaid. Lots of short memories and 2nd guessing now 3 years later.
So it’s cool to complain about injuries from your basement, but I’m attacked because Buccholz actually was the best reliever the Mets had through the first two months. Funny how your short memory and double standards really shine through when you open your trap. Keep quiet and let the adults talk.
Xtree — Let’s examine K-Rod’s career by looking at his performance over time, comparing his performance for the Angels over 7 years and for the Mets over 3 years. In general, Frankie’s numbers went down but his salary went stratospherically up. Thus his performance per dollar went down significantly. Having said this, I want to point out that I don’t blame Frankie for getting the best deal he could. He should have.
His WHIP rose from 1.114 to 1.280.
His H/9 rose from 6.1 to 7.5.
His ERA+ deteriorated from 190 to 129. (This is the normalized value — very important — for the league.)
His SO/9 deteriorated from 11.7 to 10.0. (Still good)
His SO/BB deteriorated from 2.96 to 2.48.
I know all that Des, but thanks for clearing it up for the people who can’t see past the tip of their nose. K-Rod was still a good pitcher and losing him hurt, but keeping him wouldn’t have made them any better. Give me a young kid like Herrera and the salary relief anyday. If Buccholz stays healthy, maybe the Mets are closer than the 6.5 GB at the break and they keep K-Rod.
Amen, Xtree. Danny Herrera is a lefty specialist and a good athlete. His lack of size hasn’t hurt him getting guys out. He’s the real deal.
(P.S.: For those who haven’t read about his past, spend some time and you’ll learn to appreciate this unique athlete.)
Yep, Herrera and all of his 8 innings pitched for the Mets is the real deal. Sure I like what i saw too….in 8 INNINGS PITCHED.
Now back to the real world, the HONEST world. Sure I’d like to see Herrera succeed but let me see what he does over a longer period of time. IF he makes the club out of spring training.
real deal…unbelievable.
You really struggle to be civil. But your street level immaturity keeps getting in the way. Adolescence is tough to leave, isn’t it?
P.S.: Don’t put words or implications I’ve never used. You don’t have the intellectual artillery to fire off anything more than a pea shooter.
drop dead,
you’re about as objective as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. At least I come from the angle of what I think is best for the Mets in my opinion regardless of who is in charge. Sure I have my favorite GMs, favorite managers and all of that but you couldn’t give an honest opinion about what you think is best for the team if your life depended on it. Everybody here knows you are nothing but a HUGE Sandy apologist and ALL of your assessments have to be taken with that in mind.
People may not like me or think i’m rude and know I hate Alderson but at least i give my honest opinion no matter who is charge and there is NO WAY in hell anybody could predict what Bucholz would have done. And based on his past history he could have had his ups and downs regardless of how he started. It’s about how you FINISH if you want to win.
If you were honest and not a unobjective excuse-making machine for Alderson you’d realize, like most people who understand baseball, that ANY one player can have a good 2 months and almost anybody can wind up carrying the team for awhile. That’s like me saying..because My favorite GM is Steve Phillips that Benny Agbayani can have a great 2 months, get injured..than I come out and say Agbayani would have kept it up had he stayed healthy. That would be completely disingenuous and shortsided on my part.
I disagree with you Bayonne. I’m with Xtreem on this, losing Bucholz cost the Mets the pennant last season. He was on his way to a Cy Young campaign. :-O
It just goes to show you how baseball talk has degenerated here on this site (and probably others as well)
We now have people here evaluating players based on who picked them!! That is where they are coming from! How unbelievable is that? What happened to talking about what it takes to WIN regardless of who’s charge?
Baseball talk only degenerated when those like your self and your teenage clique are so shallow and narrow minded to even discuss anything out of your comfort zone of something you don’t fully understand, so you just hate for the sake of hating, it’s much easier to take that road then to actually invest some time in others opinions and see if maybe the others may be something insightful, even if its in part.
Instead, complain about others and their snarky comments, while posting your own snarky (more do as I say not as I do) comments and insults about others that don’t agree with you word for word.
Hey, I thought we made a deal? ‘-)
So did I Maniac – but it’s a two way street Maniac. I guess you haven’t been reading all the venom from your friends, like “stay out of it, leave it to the big boys”. I too am tired of snarky comments and lies being made up about me, the name calling etc…… the double standards and hypocrisy of some is overwhelming. The same have the NERVE to then complain about the lack of baseball talk.
Kay, for a long time I was gentle and polite, despite some incredibly rude and belligerent comments made by one or two people. No more. A fragile schmuck will be treated as such. I think the juvenile, antagonistic behavior will not stop until it is not permitted. They are so narrow minded, fragile and juvenile that it’s a lost cause. Besides, it’s not our job to be therapists to the misanthropes.
Kay, I saw the big boys comment and you may have missed it, but I called out Bayonne for it and even told him he should apologize for it. Of course he didnt, but I did my part. I understood the sexist nature of the remark and even though he refused to apologize, maybe next time he’ll know that racisim and sexism should have no place on a baseball site. We’ll see. Anyway I haven’t gone off on anyone since that day in the shoutbox when we spoke.
Drop dead really? I realize this is a message board, but what are you six years old?
believe it or not adults say it too. As a matter of fact i don’t think i’ve ever heard a 6 year old say that. But president Gerald Ford said it to New York once.
Breaking News: Mets part ways with bullpen ace!
September 9, 2010: Selected off waivers by the Toronto Blue Jays from the Colorado Rockies.
November 15, 2010: Selected off waivers by the Boston Red Sox from the Toronto Blue Jays.
December 2, 2010: Granted Free Agency.
January 3, 2011: Signed as a Free Agent with the New York Mets.
November 15, 2011: Granted Free Agency.
Reply button isn’t working,
X, Bucholz had one good year 3 or 4 years ago – That’s not much of a track record.
And he was pitching better than K-Rod…..but that was for only 26 IP. I’m not guessing that he wouldn’t have kept it up, I’m saying that since he pitched so little, we have no idea how he would have finished – He could have finished the season with a 2 ERA, or he could have had a 5+ ERA the rest of the way, who knows?
he had one good year 3 or 4 years ago, and had a good 26 innings last year. there’s no way you can say losing him hurt more than losing a guy, that was good his entire career, and had an ERA 2 after he was traded.
I think after a certain number of replies, that function goes away to avoid indenting the post too much. I’m not concerned with K-Rods numbers in 2009, or 2004 or whever. Just because he’s been good in the past doesn’t have any bearing on this season. This season, on May 29, the Mets lost their best reliever when they were only 6.5 games out of the Wild Card only two months in. It weakened two bullpen spots. 7 weeks later, the Mets lost what was then their best reliever, but their chances had slimmed so much since they had gained no ground at all in almost a third of the season. It also weakened the pen, but in return was a good looking kid and some salary relief. K-Rod’s save record all those years ago has no bearing on the 2011 bullpen.
Saying Bucholz was the best RP because of 26 innings would be like saying Ronny Paulino is the Mets best hitter if he went down with an injury when he was hitting .350.
You can’t judge a player based on 2 months – Anybody can out pitch anybody for 26 innings. Like in 2010 Pelfrey outpitched Santana for the 1st two months, right? But he couldn’t do it for a full year….and I highly doubt Bucholz would have outpitched K-Rod for a full year….And you have to keep in mind that K-Rod finished very strong.
and by the way, Bucholz gave up 6 runs in his last 6 innings before he got hurt, so he was already coming back to earth anyway.
MY FIRST ISSUE WITH THIS ESPN POSTING IS WITH THIS REDICULOUS STATEMENT;
“If Tejada can handle short, maybe the Mets are better off spending their money elsewhere.”
AS I GUESS ESPN LIVES IN A TOTAL VACUUM INWHICH ALDERSON’;S CLEAR STATEMENTS THAT MONEY EARMARKED TO RETAIN REYES WILL NOT BE REALLOCATED ELSEWHERE.
IMO, OUR ISSUE IS THAT ALDERSION HAS NO PRESSYURE TO WIN BEING EXERCISED FROM OWNERSHIP & AS SUCH HE HAS NOTHING INVESTED IN ANY OF THE PREVIOUS REGIMES’ ACQUIRED PLAYERS BE IT WRIGHT, REYES, PERLFREY,SANTANA, DAVIS, DUDA OR ANYONE ACQUIRED BY THE FRANCHISE PRIOR TO 2011.
MORE THAN LIKELY HE COULDN’T HAVE PICKED ANYONE OF THEM OUT OF A LINEUP PRIOR TO HIS HIRING.