Jan
27
2012

Mets Sign Matt Tuiasosopo to Minor League Deal

Tuiasosopo hit just .226/.341/.394 in Triple-A Tacoma last year 14 homeruns and 77 RBI in 526 at-bats. Over eight seasons in the minors Tuiasosopo has a complete line of .263/.359/.405.

In his brief time in the big leagues .176/.234/.306 and has struggled immensely making contact striking out 33.3% of the time.

Tuiasosopo was a mega two-sport star coming out of high school who had great blood lines and was considered a first round pick by many. He fell to the third round and wound up receiving a $2,290,000. The Mariners liked him so much some of their scouts compared in some light to Ken Griffey Jr. In hindsight that sounds ridiculous, but it shows the type of raw talent Tuiasosopo has.

He was a top prospect for the Mariners for many years and as recently as 2008 ranked in the Mariners top 10 prospects according to Baseball America. Baseball America had this to say about Tuiasosopo that year:

Strengths: The Mariners rave about Tuiasosopo’s makeup, noting that he never lost focus despite near constant struggling. He got off to fast start with West Tenn in 2007 and ran with it, showing above-average bat speed and solid pitch recognition and plate coverage. His power is strictly gap to gap now, but he has the strength and athleticism to drive the ball once he learns to identify his pitch. A converted shortstop, Tuiasosopo offers soft hands, arm strength and agility at third base. He has good speed for his size.

Weaknesses: Tuiasosopo still uses an inside-out swing and takes most balls the other way, cutting into his power potential. He started to turn on inside pitches in the second half and in the Arizona Fall League. Tuiasosopo’s stroke is long and he has a high leg kick that throws his timing off.

Since then Tuiasosopo has simply made no improvements to translate his great athleticism and tools into major league skills.

He is still young enough to improve, but it would be a minor miracle for him to wind up resembling anything that was expected of him coming out of high school. If he manages to find a way to translate is his ability to take a walk to the major league level, Tuiasospop can still become a valuable piece off the bench.

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About the Author: Former Writers

46 Comments + Add Comment

  • ANOTHER guy who can’t even hit his weight. But no big deal according to some people….this is becoming a daily occurrence.
    It just keeps coming, and coming, and coming. The Mets are becoming the island of Misfits that was in Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer/

    But all hail Sandy.

    • Guys who are slick fielding and can take a walk have value off the bench and always find their way on a roster and while Tuiasosopo hasn’t walked yet at the highest level, teams are still going to give him a chance because of his age.

      It’s really not a bad signing, especially if you come to terms that these Mets aren’t going to go out and sign the Prince Fielders of the worlds for $200 mill for at least the time being and at least Tuiasosopo has a little untapped potential.

      • Nobody is saying they have to sign the Prince Fielders of the world. How many times do we have to repeat that. It’s about spending smarter and making the most of whatever little funds the Mets have and Alderson has done a TERRIBLE job of that since the day he took over.

        Oh yeah, i’m really concerned about how much the guy walks. That’s always the first thing I look at. I can’t tell you how many championships and great teams have been built by the first thing taking into consideration is how many times a player walks.

        And there goes that word “value” again.

        • “It’s about spending smarter and making the most of whatever little funds the Mets have”

          The problem is Alderson has almost NO funds to work with. So while going out and picking up an Oswalt of the world and looking to deal him at the deadline would be a ‘smart’ move, and I am almost 100% sure Alderson has thought about it, he just doesn’t have the funds to do it even if he wanted to.

          It is hard enough to be a GM in sports when you have funds, when there are almost no funds and your hands are practically tied it is almost impossible to look good. You should reserve judgment on Alderson until some real money has been freed up and Omar’s mistakes are off the books.

          Also if you consider getting Wheeler for Beltran when no one thought the Mets would get a blue chip prospect TERRIBLE then I don’t know what to tell you.

          I’m sure you’ll respond by saying that was one move, but I don’t think there will be anything I can say to convince you he has been anything other than terrible anyway.

          • Well when you refuse to believe that the money could have been spent better than nothing I saw will convince you. If you refuse to believe that maybe another GM would have gone about things in completely different way – with the same money – nothing will convince you of otherwise. When your mind is already made up that Sandy is making the only moves that could have been made, and we’ve gone over this ad nauseum on this site, and you can’t realize that by now – then baseball is second in your thought process.

            You see this guy making one bad signing after another while other teams are signing the types of players a broke team like the Mets can use to help them compete, and completely out doing Alderson – than I can’t help you. You are close minded. If ALderson was making good moves I would be happy, but he’s not. He’s making one bad move after another and actually making a bad situation WORSE.

            But you won’t see that. And that is your problem, you accept defeat without question. And if you’re going to point to one move in 2 years as the only good one than that’s not a good sign in and of itself. I can blame Alderson for that too because it was his terrible off season last year too, combined with Ike Davis’ injury that hurt the Mets last season too.

            But you absolutely refuse to acknowledge that and take everything Alderson does at face value as the right move.

            • Then I ask you to enlighten me and let me know what all of these bad moves Sandy made were.

            • I would also like to add maybe they are trying to compete because Sandy realizes they don’t have the man power or finances to compete with the power houses right now (which shouldn’t happen with a New York team, but it is and that is not on Sandy’s shoulders it was like this before he got here) and is actually trying to rebuild the team. It’s not a popular tactic in big cities, but with an underperforming David Wright and virtually nothing else you expect him build a winning roster? I’d much rather be irrelevant for a few years, draft/develop well, and come back strong than try to be relevant with failure (because that is what will happen with the Mets lack of talent) and set the franchise back another 5 years.

              This isn’t a team built to compete now so there is no point in trying to. If Sandy wants to pull on Donnie Walsh and wipe the slate clean by trading everyone I won’t be upset because I know there is no one on this roster who will be a difference maker. Granted the Knicks aren’t playing well right now, but they are one or two pieces away from being championship caliber and that is way closer than they were when they signed guys to try and compete like you want Alderson to do.

              • aren’t trying*

              • That’s just the attitude I’m talking about. That’s bad.

                What you’re saying is don’t even bother trying to get the most bang for your buck. It’s not worth it, we can’t compete for the W.C.. Yet you already have players under contract like Ike Davis, David Wright, Jason Bay, Lucas Duda, Ruben Tejada, Jon Niese, R. A. Dickey, Ramirez, Dillon Gee, and now Francisco and Rauch. And you just paid for the last 2. So by what you’re saying…..even though they just paid for Francisco & Rauch don’t even bother trying to make the best use of whatever money is left. Just get filler and move on with it cuz it isn’t worth it. That is EXACTLY what you’re saying.

                That doesn’t fly in my book and should NEVER fly in anyone’s book. This is about competition and in New York so nothing less than trying to get the best players with the money you have should NEVER be accepted.

                • Um I said a non competitive team should never be the case with a New York teams, but with what is happening with the Wilpon’s finances is also not a very common occurrence.

                  You list those players under contract like they are supposed to make me think the Mets are a few pieces away from competing so I should be ashamed to accept the fact the Mets would be better of rebuilding, but I feel like it proves my point.

                  As much as I love him Wright has not been the same player since 2008, Jason Bay by all means appears to be done, R.A. Dickey who is a journey man knuckle baller who is an amazing story and looking like a pretty damn good player but by no means is a franchise changing piece, and really Ramirez? You’re mentioning a setup man in this argument? The only real reason I believe the Mets acquired Ramirez, Rauch, and Francisco is to try and snag a couple of prospects for them, which is a good strategy based on what they have right now.

                  Then the rest of the guys you mentioned Davis, Duda, Gee, Tejada, and Niese are all young enough where if the Mets could get them signed would set them up to be competitive in 2-4 years from now when they get an influx of talent from the minor leagues, which is exactly what I am suggesting.

                  What it comes down to is the players on the roster right now have shown they don’t have what it takes to win a World Series so things need to change. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it, but when it is broke that’s cause for some serious overhaul.

                  Look at some of the best teams in sports right now with the Tampa Bay Rays, Detroit Lions, and Pittsburgh Penguins. The last two are some pretty big market teams and had to go through a few years of irrelevancy while building through the draft and TIMELY free agent signings to become successful and do you really think they’re fans are complaining right now? It would have made no sense for the Rays to sign Johnny Damon 4 years ago which would have been using their money to get the best players available (what you’re suggesting), but doing it last year made perfect sense and was a big boost for their team.

            • BAY, WHY CASN’T U GET IT INTIO YOUR HEAD THAT IMPROVING THE TEAM IS NOT A PRIORITY OF THIS OWNERSHIP AT THIS TIME & ANY, EVEN TINY, INSIGNIFICANT ATTEMPT AT ADDING INSTEAD OF SUBTRACTING IS A POSITIVE. WAKE UP U AREN’T ADDING ANYONE THAT ANYONE ELSE WANTS AT THIS POOINT SINCE TYHE MOMENT COMPETITUION OR BIDDING IS SNIFFED SANDY’S GOT TO RETREAT OR A WILPON WILL FREAK
              IT’S A NEW WORLD; BUT CERTAINLY NOT A BRAVE NEW ONE WE’RE FACING.

              I FORONE DON’T COMPREHEND THE CONFUSION OVER MOTIVATION COMMENCING WITH ’02′s VUYOUT OF DOUBLEDAY UNTIL THE ’05 EMPLOYMENT OF OMAR, THE ONLY MISSION POSSIBLE ALLOWED BY OWNERSHIP WAS IMPROVEMENTS MEASURED ONLT BY A MICROMETER. BIGGER NAMES CAUSED CREATION OF BIGGER EXCUSES SUCH AS 25+1 &z BAD BACK CONCERNS.

              JUDGE OMAR AS U WILL; BUT NOTYHINGF CAN CHANGE THE OBVIOUS FACT HE MANAGED TO GET WILPONS TO STICK THEIR HEADS OUT OF THE SAND & CONSIDER EXCITING MOVES, RIGHT OR WRONG EVEN OMAR’S BAD MOVES INVOLVED RECOGNIZABLE NAMES(ALOU, FOR EXAMPLE)

              FOR ALL THOSE WHO COULDN’T WAIT FOR HIS EXIT; YEA HAVE REAPED WHAT YOU’VE SEWN & YEA WILL HARVEST THE WHIRLWIND OF MEDIOCRITY & DISSOLUTION

        • Bayonne, havent you ever heard about the Walk Heard Round the World?

          • Maniac,

            Today was about as indicative of any day I’ve seen here in a long time of proving that baseball and trying to compete is the LAST thing on all of these disgraceful people’s minds.

            The Mets GM is clearly being outdone by other teams almost on a daily basis because they are signing guys continuously that the Mets could have used to help them compete. And Alderson is making one terrible signing after another. Competition is the last thing on this guy’s mind and trying to get the cheapest filler without even TRYING to find competitive alternatives is all this guy is doing.

            And these people are DEFENDING HIM!!!!! What about Mets baseball? They should be just as angry as we are but no. They would rather defend a GM then try to compete. And it’s evident that there are plenty of players out there that could have been had going back to last year – that could have helped the Mets in a very good way.

            Alderson is clearly making a bad situation worse with this awful, “i give up” approach.

            • Most people that speak against what you are saying are not defending Alderson. You are just so extreme in your position there is just no other way to go but more to the side of Alderson than yours. Plus you are the one that continues to bring up Alderson. Anyone that discuses any kind of move, you just yell “Sandy Saves” and bring the GM back into it.

          • Oh and to go back to what you were responding to – we have people here like the author who the first thing they mention about this .226 hitter is his ability to walk!!!!!!!

            That is unbelievable! I honestly cannot believe what I’m reading here.

            And then we have 2 fools making fun of basically the only 2 things right this guy has done!! He’s driven in 77 RBIs while hitting .226! HOW DO YOU MAKE FUN OF THAT?? That tells me the guy made the most of his hits and if he was hitting down in the order he was driving in the middle of the order power hitters most likely! And 14 HRs for a .226 hitter? I’ll take it.

            Very, very sad. People have lost their minds.

            • Bayonne, I haven’t left, I’ve just grown tired of arguing with some of them. If you recall a little over a year ago when we had that chat room and DePo had gotten hired after Alderson became GM. I got into it hot and heavy with Hitman and that one dude you used to argue with during the game chats, I cant even remember his name anymore. I said they were not so much going to just go after high OBP guys but anyone who had a high walk rate in general. You may remember I shared links with you about quotes these guys made that they wouldnt promote anyone unless they had a high walk rate in the minors and some of their coaches jobs were threatened because the players werent walking more. So if someone was batting .320 in AA but only had 30 walks in 500 AB they would be left behind in favor of the .240 hitter who racked up 70 walks. This is how the Mets think now.

            • There first thing I mentioned is his ability to walk?? Cause I think I listed his basic stats then said “…has struggled immensely making contact striking out 33.3% of the time.” Yeah clearly bragging about his ability to walk and not making it known he has a big issue with making contacting.

        • 2004 Red Sox? Sure they had Manny and Ortiz, but they don’t drive in all those runs without the other guys getting on base…and they didn’t do it by hitting. Besides Manny and Damon, and if you want to count Ortiz at DH, most of those guys couldn’t hit the broadside of a barn.

          • To say a player doesn’t drive in all those runs without the people getting on base is the weakest argument in the world and completely diminishes the talent that people like Manny and Ortiz have and that’s the ability to drive in runs and deliver big hits in big spots. That’s what they do and that’s what they get paid for.

            To take THAT away from that and give the credit to the no-name, no-face argument about people getting on base in front of them (it could be 3 pitchers on base for all i care) is criminal and disrespectful to the accomplishments and talents of hitters who are supposed to be your middle of the order power hitters.

            Anybody, regardless of level of baseball knowledge, can say you have to get on base. Learning how to hit comes at 5, 6, 7, year olds for a lot of these guys so le’ts get past that.

            It’s like – just because any computer program from Word to Pro Tools has File/Save/Save As or Edit/Undo or any other common Menu Bar command that is basically on all softwares – it doesn’t mean you know how to use that software either.

            That’s how I see it. Just because you want somebody to get on base or you like to talk about that doesn’t mean you know a thing about baseball.

    • Is that how you exchange ideas? Insult people before they even chime in?

    • Seeing this is all you say, can’t you just come up with a acronym to save you time. Everyone knows what you are going to say on each thread before you do.

      How about just typing “Sandy Saves” after every acquisition?

      I think this is a great idea. We all know you hate Sandy, hate people that don’t hate Sandy and there is no in-between, so why re-type the same bloated response on every thread. “Sandy Saves” is quick to enter and everyone will understand the sarcasm since it’s coming from you. Now you don’t have to see the doc about carpel tunnel.

    • BAYONNE, WE’RE NOT ALONE, NOT MENTIONED HERE; BUT ACTUALLY APPEARED ON MLB-TV’s SCROLLING TICKER UNDER NEWS CATEGORY WAS BOSTON’S SIGNING RHP JOHN MAINE TO A MiLB DEAL W/INVITE TO MLB CAMP AT LEAST ‘TUSSEY’S’ SANS INVITE & WOULD NEED TO GATE CRASH.

  • Cool name though.

    and he did have 77 RBIs last year, and that really is all that matters.

    • HR’s matter too!

    • 2 very, very, very short sighted and UNEDUCATED comments by 2 people that think they can understand the game by looking at numbers. – 2 complete misanthropes here making fun of HRs and RBIs.

      Boy it sure is a different world now and the collective baseball IQ for not only those 2 with those ridiculous comments but for a lot of people who feel they’ve learned the game just because they NOW subscribe to new ideas that appeal to them that were not there before.

      It Tells me they never had a good grasp of the game in the first place.

      This guys stinks but if there is ANYTHING good about him is the ability to drive in 77 runs while hitting only .226. That’s not too bad and 14 HRs for a weak, good glove defender..at that level is not bad either.

      If these fools and that’s what they are..are gonna make fun of the fact that the guy, while he stinks, still had 77 RBIS and hit 14 HRs while only hitting .226 than WHAT THE HELL ELSE DO YOU LOOK AT FOR A HITTER LIKE THAT? You don’t even know if he was a clutch hitter or not and having 77 RBIs in 526 ABs while hitting .226 is not that bad where I come from. That’s how I learned baseball.

      You would be happier if he only had 35 RBIs and 2 Hrs but walked 80 times? I guess if you want to sign a guy who bats lower than 6th and does that be my guest. Not me.

      • why are you even a Mets fan?

        It’s sports, you’re supposed to have fun and not act as though your life is on the line. Relax over there, you’ll enjoy life a lot more

      • actually I was just making fun of you.

        and at least be consistent. The first comment was you railing against this signing, basically callingthe guy trash Sandy scraped off the bottom of his boots.

        but now that someone (in your mind) defends the move,you rush to say he is a valuable bat?

        • No, i was just saying that at least those were the things he did that were good. I still wouldn’t take him and feel that this is a waste but at least, relatively speaking, he did something good down there. And growing up the thinking was the 77 RBis he had hitting .226 is good, that the the HRs were the only 2 things he had going for him offensively. You prefer a .226 hitter with no power to drive in 77 runs to instead walk? I think not. What good is a useless .226 hitter with no power? Than you have Alex Cora.

          I was just talking about the stats, of course I don’t want this signing.

          • …and 2 posters here actually made fun of the 2 best things about this guy.

            That is unbelievable and shows you how backwards things have become. It’s incredible how bad the judgement is getting.

  • So they dump 1 “can’t miss 5 tool player” in Martinez and sign another in Tooey. Yup. Good move.

    • Down goes Frazier!

      • Actually I would prefer Fernando Martinez when you think about it. And they save money to boot. The just wasted even more money – but I’m going to get attacked for saying that.

        That’s how it’s become around here.

        • there is actually a big difference between them. Martinez was eating up a 40 man roster spot, this guy isn’t.

          Certainly can debate about who they kept on the 40 man instead, but it is pretty much a guarantee that if martinez wasn’t on the protected roster, or if he had cleared waivers, he would still be in the organization.

        • I think Alderson is doing bad job overall on the big league club and I can’t stand his small market mentality and penchant for circumventing questions by blabing his way around it with a bunch of bull intellectually delivered for manipulative purposes. So I overall agree he’s not the right GM for the here-and-now, I’ve felt that way nearly since his first weeks here, and his handling of Reyes was a disgrace, but why get all bent out of shape over what clearly is filling AAA roster with a move such as Friday’s?

          • My previous post was for Bayonne.

    • Lmao this was a great comment.

  • He hit .226 and struck out 132 times in 116 games in AAA – I don’t see how he could a valuable piece off the bench.

  • I wouldn’t worry about this guy.He’ll be lucky to survive the 1st cut.The only way he sees Citifield is if 2009 repeats itself and everybody goes done.

  • goes down

  • Start printing those playoff tickets!!

  • Why didn’t we just re-sign Hu to a minor league contract instead? His name would be easier to pronounce and other than that – what’s the difference?

  • I really dont see the harm in this move and don’t understand the grief by a few of you. All teams take shots on players like this. And on many occasions one or two of these types of signings do pay off in a big way. I mean take a look at R.A. Dickey for example, they guy was left to rot on the scrap heap and we took a shot and now he’s the surest thing in our rotation.

    • Same thing with Rick Reed.Sometimes these under the radar signings work out.

      • Almost every move Sandy makes is an alleged “under the radar” move so what’s different about this? This is like almost every move he’s made since coming here. And if you think this is under the radar and none of the 29 other teams knew about this guy well…….

        • If your response is to my comment I wasn’t only referring to this scrub,I’m talking about all these non-roster invites. Every once in a while you get lucky.

          For all we know with all the bitching and moaning going on they may think that guys like Niewenhuis,Harvey,Familia,etc… make their way up to the bigs this year and contribute.That could be their thinking in the way they went about this offseason.We just don’t know.So before you give yourself a coronary,let it play out first.

      • Now if you want to say that Sandy THINKS he sees something different in this guy than the other 29 teams that’s different. This is not under the radar – all 29 teams know about this guy.

NL East Standings

TeamWLPct.GB
Braves4230.583 -
Phillies3537.4867.0
Nationals3436.4867.0
Mets2740.40312.5
Marlins2248.31419.0

Last updated: 06/19/2013

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