21
2012
Get To Know Mets Catcher Mike Nickeas
An article by 
I had a chance to do a Q&A with NY Mets catcher Mike Nickeas the other day. Mike was nice enough to take the time to field a whole slew of questions I threw at him, regarding his defense, his hitting, working with Josh Thole, and lot’s of other stuff. Mike is working hard this off-season getting ready for what should prove a very big year for him, and his answers are very interesting indeed. Keep reading to find out what Mike had to say:
Petey: First of all congratulations Mike on a terrific year in 2011! Getting the chance to log extended time in the big leagues with the Mets, and even hitting your first major league home run! Happy New Year! Hope you had a very happy holidays, and thank you so much for taking the time to answer some questions for our readers at MetsMerizedOnline.com. Where do you live in the off-season these days?
Mike: My wife, Rebecca, and I live in Atlanta, GA.
Petey: When the Texas Rangers drafted you in the 5th round of the 2004 MLB Player Draft, out of Georgia Tech, how did you first hear about it, and what was that feeling like? Did you know the Rangers were interested in drafting you? What round(s) were you thinking you might be taken in the draft?Mike: I was with my parents and Rebecca in a hotel room right next to Georgia Tech, we were listening to the draft online with our fingers crossed. I had been in contact with teams throughout that entire season; there was really no way of knowing who was going to draft me. I remember feeling like the Rangers had more interest in me out of High school, but the draft is a crazy thing, anything can happen. I had heard a number of things, as draft eligible players typically do, but I thought I would be drafted between the 2nd and 5th round depending on the season I had, along with all of the other variables involved in the draft.
Petey: Is there one person, a coach, a friend or family member, or even another player, who you learned the most from, or who inspired you to chase your dream of becoming a major league baseball player?Mike: I’m assuming you mean as a child who inspired me? That question is difficult because I think there are a number of people who helped inspire me to follow my dreams including my Pop-pop (Grandfather) and my Mom. But if there was only one person I could choose it would be my Dad. He spent the entirety of his free time teaching, training and advising me about what it takes to become a professional athlete and I’ll always be indebted for the sacrifices he made for me.
Petey: You are widely regarded as the best defensive catcher in the Mets organization. What aspects of your defensive game do you still have to work on in the off-season? Are things like footwork and throwing, and blocking balls in the dirt things that have to be constantly worked on to keep those skills sharp?Mike: I continue to do blocking, footwork and receiving as a base for my offseason training. I believe it’s the same as an infielder taking groundballs: the more often you do it, the better. Building arm strength and becoming more flexible are also top priorities for me. Yoga has been the best way that I have found to increase my flexibility.
Petey: Going into spring training, as the Mets depth chart is configured right now, you are listed as the back-up behind Josh Thole. That is not just a reward for a job well done, but represents an opportunity for you moving forward as well. It must be very gratifying to you, heading into next year to know that after years of hard work and honing your craft, you have landed with an organization that appreciates all that you bring to the table, and has the faith in you to hold down a very important role in 2012. Do you look at this upcoming season differently than seasons in the past, with such a wonderful opportunity on the table? Or is it just another year that requires the same level of hard work and commitment as any other year? Are there things that you can work with Josh on next season to help him improve his defense?Mike: Thank you for the kind words. I really believe that all you can ask for as an athlete is an opportunity to play and show what you can do. I am in a great position to show what I am capable of doing as a player and a teammate. Every off-season presents new challenges to overcome, regardless of what is on the line. I try and work on sharpening my strengths and improving upon my weaknesses. In my opinion, Josh and I have always worked well together and I believe we will continue to help each other improve as much as we possibly can.
Petey: As you prepare for spring training, what sort of things will you be working on regarding your hitting? Are there specific things you were working on at the end of last year, that you have continued to work on this winter? What Mets coach, or coaches have been particularly helpful to you regarding your hitting?
Mike: I went into the off-season with the goal of improving my bat path. I have found that during this process I have also improved my lower half and the overall direction of my swing. Hudge has been a huge influence for me this off-season, we talk and email frequently. He lives in AZ and I am in GA, but I have been videoing myself hitting and sending it to him to review. He has come up with some great drills and advice for me and I believe it has helped a lot. I also have to mention Luis Natera, as we wouldn’t be having this conversation if he didn’t take me under his wing in 2010. He is a big reason I ever got an opportunity to play a big league game.
Petey: Let’s go back to the date April 21st, 2011, the day you hit your first big league homer in Houston off of J.A. Happ. Can you take us through that at-bat? How you felt that day before you launched it, and how it felt to go yard in a big league game? Do you remember what was going through your mind as you circled the bases?Mike: Honestly, it just feels like this big blur. I remember making contact, I remember the ball landing in the stands, the next thing I remember I was rounding third; it was a blackout moment and an indescribable feeling.
Petey: Your father Mark, was a professional soccer player in England, that is very cool! Did you ever get to see him play professionally? Does he get to see you play in NY? What was your favorite baseball team growing up? Your favorite player? Is there a major league player, past or present, that you think you are similar to in style? Or someone that you can see yourself playing like someday in the majors?
Mike: I saw him play professionally, but I was too young to remember, we have some of his highlights on video, and I’ve seen them quite a few times. He came to opening day last year in Miami, and has come to Citi a couple of times to watch me play. I grew up in Los Angeles and was a huge Dodger fan, Mike Piazza was the man, still is. I like to try and take bits and pieces from a lot of different guys, I think the best way to learn is to watch the guys that are doing it well.
Petey: That’s a great answer to any Mets fan, Piazza is definitely the man. What do you do to stay in shape over the winter, can you describe your workout regimen? What do you like to do during your time off for fun and recreation?Mike: I started working with a trainer named Ryan Capretta of Proactive Sports in Westlake Village, CA and I have had a love hate relationship with Yoga all off-season. Brad Andress has also had some great stuff for me, I try and mix it all together to keep from getting bored with any one thing. I love to golf, and I like to play and practice as often as possible. My dad recently won the California Senior Amateur, and I would like to try and be better than he is one day.
Petey: Pick one teammate, position player or pitcher, that hasn’t made his big league debut yet, who really impressed you with his play this year at Buffalo. Tell us what it was that made you take notice.Mike: I think Kirk Nieuwenhuis was having an awesome year until he got hurt, and I think he is going to be very fun to watch one day.
Petey: Ah yes, Captain Kirk is someone whom the hardcore Mets fans have been patiently waiting for to arrive. To finish up Mike, just a little personal info, not pertaining to baseball. What is your favorite movie?Mike: I like to read, and I like good representations of books in theatres. I thought The Lord of The Rings and Harry Potter were great. I prefer great television series to movies and my favorite is Mad Men.
Petey: Favorite musician or band?
Mike: I have always answered Incubus to this question but I really like the Black Keys and Kings of Leon as well.
Petey: Favorite food?
Mike: I love sushi and the best that I have ever had is at the Landing in my home town.
Petey: Thanks again Mike for taking time out for this interview. The readers and staff at MMO really appreciate it! Have a very happy, and healthy New Year, and we will be looking forward to seeing you in spring training!
It was really great of Mike to take the time to talk to us here on MMO. He gave us an interesting perspective, and a glimpse into the dedication and hard work it takes to play baseball at such a high level. It’s a full time job, 365 days a year, but the work will be a lot more fun in just a little over a month from now when ST begins. LGM!
About the Author: Peter Shapiro
The first time I went to Shea was not for a Mets game, it was for the Beatles concert there in August of '66. My first Met game was '67, a guy named Salty Parker was the interim-manager then. My first pennant race was 1969. As a 12 year-old that summer and fall, I managed to get to the park for 3 games. The first was the beginning of the Miracle which actually started on Tuesday July 8, 1969 with a day game against the Cubs. I was there a lot in '73. I saw games 3 & 5 of the 1973 NL Playoffs against the "Big Red Machine", from the upper deck behind home plate. It was from there that I witnessed the fight between Bud Harrelson and Pete Rose, and the mayhem that ensued. And that sweet victory in game 5! I saw a couple of WS games at Shea that year against that legendary Oakland A's club. I was there in 1985 for every single game Dr. K pitched including his two 16 strikeout performances, and the day he one-hit the Cubs on an infield single and the Mets won 1-0. I was there the day the Mets made that miraculous comeback against the Braves in the ninth inning by scoring eight runs. I saw a Banner Day in the '70's against the Phillies. The parading fans had to leave their seats in the 4th inning of the first game to get in line outside the stadium. The first game went 18 innings, before they were allowed to do their sign parade across the field. I loved being a Met fan in those days. Hopefully we are once again preparing to emerge from the darkness.
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NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nationals | 26 | 17 | .605 | - |
| Braves | 26 | 18 | .591 | 0.5 |
| Marlins | 24 | 19 | .558 | 2.0 |
| Mets | 23 | 20 | .535 | 3.0 |
| Phillies | 21 | 23 | .477 | 5.5 |
Last updated: 05/23/2012
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Write Your Own Mets Post
I know many are down on Nickeas being our back up catcher this year. Given the money situation going into the off season though I think this handwriting was on the wall fairly early.
If he can call a good game, continue to play solid defense then any improvement in his bat this year would be welcome. Just get on base, Nick. Don’t make the lower 3rd of the order this black hole we’re all more or less expecting this year.
Yeah he especially needs to call a good game. make the mediocre lineup a little less mediocre. Even if only a little. Now if Thole would only stop backhanding balls in the dirt…
Well don’t count me ne of are unhappy to see Nickeas as our Backup he is right in line with what I have been saying regarding the saving of money and using the kids we have.
Kids who have learned all they can in the MiLs to hold us until such time as we can get real MLB options either via trade or FA.
If I’m going to reduce expectations of performance in the name of saving money I would much rather use the Kids we have at league minimum who have not panned out like we hoped they would, Give them a shot at the MLB which will save us money, be no worse than the KMart guys we bought, Might actually do enough to improve their value enough to make them tradeable or fill one of our holes.
And if not you lost pretty much nothing but the same year you lost buying the same type of guy at 1+ Mil!
I would love to see Nickeas have a good year that gave Thole some push for the start and/or good enough to be part of a trade for something else we need!
Thats what the A’s, Pirates and most especially the Marlins did when they needed to save money!
No one thought much of Dickey when we brought him here and promoted him, Look at him now!
Those ARE the players who have something to prove and by putting them in the MLB, they get the idea that if I don’t do it NOW my dream is over!
And that is powerful motivation to do well!
“Those ARE the players who have something to prove and by putting them in the MLB, they get the idea that if I don’t do it NOW my dream is over!
And that is powerful motivation to do well!”
That can be said for over half of major league rosters and most of the minors. Most of them have something to prove, the problem is most don’t have enough talent. Thole has had enough motivational examples, he just isn’t good.
Well it’s hardly HALF the MLB and even then most of those you talk about make twice as much as some Kid under control!
Tell me something you guys all put stock into WAR which compares them to some replacement player….
Isn’t a kid like Nickeas exactly what they are measuring them against?
Is paying a guy 2.7 Mil for the same or LESS performance as some kid making league minimum really better?
It’s not about how good or not the KID is! It’s about what your getting from the more expensive guy and is it worth paying TWICE even FOUR TIMES what you would pay some kid to get the same amount of nothing?
If a kid has the following statline:
.235 BA .303 OBP .470 SLG should he be waived for a guy who has the same numbers but gets paid 1.1 Mil?
We are reducing our production all over the field in the name of saving money. How much loss is worth saving another 512k and halving the salary of those numbers?
Torres gets paid 2.7 Mil!
His Statline last year was:
.221 BA .312 OBP .330 SLG
Is it worth it to save 2.2 Mil and play a guy who has:
.227 BA .261 OBP .455 SLG?
If not please tell me why?
I’ll tell you why? Cause we traded Pagan for a set up guy. Torres is a bookmark until Kirk, Den Dekker or Puello get up here. Torres does handle the parts of a CFers job that cause most guys to head for the corners and if Kirk does make it up can be an excellent 5th OFer and it’s our choice if we want to offer him a contract in 2013 plus your judging him on his worst year. Unfair. He may be on the way down hill but his 2010 was far better than Jason Bay’s and his 2011 wasn’t all that far away either. Add in GG defense at an elite position and our RFer needing all the help he can get, plus Ramirez in the pen and the move makes sense whether it’s for 3 months, 6 months or two years and this is coming from a guy that likes Pagan.
2.7 M and no future obligation sure as hell beats two more years of Bay at 16 M each.
Had we hit on Kunz, Rustich, Niessen or Clyne or kept Joe Smith we probably look to upgrade CF and make Pagan the 4th OFer. That would have been better but even after spending a supplemental round draft choice, a 2nd rounder and three third rounders on college relief pitchers we still had to risk getting worse in CF in order to get better in the pen.
Yep we traded .035 .013 .015 of everyday BA OBP and SLG to get a guy who gets three outs at best and one inning of contribution a game two maybe three games in 5!
Yep thats a plan that wins everyday now isn’t it?
And paid .35 Mil more to get it to boot!
Tell me something What is he going to be setting up if we are behind because we don’t have an offense that can get the lead for him to set up the closer we also don’t really have either?
I’m glad we didnt go out and spend money on another useless catcher like Ronny Paulino. I’m looking forward to seeing Nickeas get more playing time and I’m sure he’ll do better offensively in 2012. I’m not a big fan of Thole because he brings little to the plate offensively and defensively, but with Nickeas behind the dish you know you’re always going to get a strong defensive performance all around.
Yeah, you’re right since we suck so g-d much and you all are glad about it, we should have just put career minor leaguers in ever position. Why stop at catcvher? The logic of the, sandy legion of fewer and fewer gets more incredible by the post. When the few of you go to the city morgue this summer bring a calculator so you all can help fred and son calculate their growing losses.
Omar is gone. Kaput. Stop with your hate.
Omar traded Victor Diaz who we got from the LAD for Burnitz to get Nickeas.
I thought Diaz was going to be great. The winter before his first minor league season I saw him hit a couple of lazer beam HR;s to RC in the DWL and thought we had a 2B for years to come. Unfortunately he ate him self off 2B and never got his strikeouts under control and Omar wound up making the right call but if he could have stuck at 2B things could have been different for us because that kid could hit when he made contact.
I don’t think it’s possible that Nickeas hits .250, gets OB .300 and has 15-20 doubles and with his good defense that’s all you need to get out of him. We’re already sacrificing D on the right side but the middle’s different and the confidence the staff will have in him is probably night and day over Josh.
I’d really love it if we had an emergency catcher so we could bring Nickeas into the game in the late innings when we have a lead in games he doesn’t start.
Turner in a pinch if Nickeas got hurt?
Victor Diaz was a Right fielder….
At the time of the trade (July 2003) Diaz had never played the OF in the minors and when we got him he played 2B in AA and was playing 2B for Aguilas when I saw him for the first time.
The following year he was made into an OFer/1B in Norfolk.
No prob Alex. I checked his page on baseball-reference to see if I had it wrong and saw his nickname there which I had forgotten about. Man, Little Manny. Back then I was really dreaming that we had gotten a stud.
Agee, right… i went by his nickname of baby manny, and remember him playing 1B as well.. my apologies..
* mean’t I don’t think it’s impossible for Nickeas to hit .250, .300 OB and 15-20 doubles.
I like giving him a shot here and at 28 he’s got a chance to be one of our two catchers long term because he takes care of a catchers primary duties very well. If he can just carry his weight with the stick we have a capable competent backup catcher at least and that’s an important piece especially with so much riding in the future on Mejia, Familia, Harvey and Wheeler.
Their success is going to be partly dependent on the guy behind the plate and I have a lot of confidence in Nickeas ability back there.
this guy is the definition of scrub. Hits at an A-ball level if even that lucky. Gonna be a looooooooooooooooooooooooooong season
You know Rudy, and Omar, you guys are total frauds. You claim to be Mets fans, yet you trash your own players for absolutely no reason. A player like Mike works his butt off for his whole life to get where he is and you guys, in all your “infinite” baseball wisdom, can tell after 56 lifetime big league at-bats that he is no good as a player? That the team isn’t better with him on it than it would be if we had signed someone else to play the position? You two stink. And you are hardly Mets fans at all, if you are trashing your own players that are new to the big leagues before they have had any kind of opportunity to show their stuff. I am disgusted by the fact that you to THINK you are Mets fans. You are certainly NOT one of us, and never will be. Get a life, the both of you.
Those are the worst kinds of Mets fans. You should just ban them. Anybody who would put down a player like they did shouldn’t be allowed to comment.
Nickeas sounds like a great kid who is focused on improving his game. I hope he goes out and makes these two eat their words this season. Good luck Mike, 99.9% of Mets fans are 100% behind you!
why,countless people talked trash about reyes.all of that crap was allowed.
I agree with you Pete, 150%. The problem is there are too many people that consider themselves Mets fans, but would just rather be so dang negative and hateful than root the team on. Rudy stated, “Hits at an A-ball level if even that lucky.” What??? I think it’s hilarious to read stuff like that. These are people that forget that baseball takes a lot of hard work and even more hard work from draft day to MLB debut day. If those two want a multi billion dollar ballclub with superstars then go to the Bronx, I’ve said it before. Then they would go and complain that this multi billion dollar payroll doesn’t have chemistry and is horrible and blah blah blah. Heck, be Mets fans. Support the players, have hope for the players. If you don’t, then stop watching and hop on the bandwagon. Go be a Yankee fan, it’s much easier to be one of those. Pete, this interview is great and it’s even better that Mike is such a great guy. People dog on Thole as well. I met Thole at the end of last season in St Louis. He’s from around that area and his whole family came in for the game. He was out on the field taking pictures with his little grandmother in a wheelchair and all sorts of stuff. Afterwards he came over to my wife and I who were standing near the dugout and signed an autograph and shot the breeze with us for a few. Let me tell you, Thole is one HELL of a NICE guy! Some of the fake Mets fans might say, “well being nice doesn’t win ballgames” or something to that negative affect. You know what? It’s refreshing to have a ballclub with players that have top notch personalities that children can look up to and root for. We all have dreaded meeting our childhood heroes one day and finding out that the guy is an egotistical, arrogant a**hole! At least a child can look up to Thole and Nickeas and know that they are great guys who love the game! I’m off my soap box!!!
Those guys are just angry we didn’t bring in Figgins, Dunn, Lackey Rowand, Church and Schowenweiss to make us instant contenders.
Yep, instead we got carrasco, hairston, thayer, eamus, hu, paulino, boyer, byrdak, bucholtz, chris young and nowhere near ready brandon nimmo and zack wheeler while giving away or losing reyes, beltran and krod..
Alex, if memory serves, Beltran, K-Rod, and Reyes played together for us for two years. What exactly did they accomplish for the Mets? I love the baseball talents of Beltran and Reyes, so please don’t misunderstand me, but they are gone, and we have got to balance ourselves between the reality of the starless 2012 Mets with our optimism that some of our younger players are going to do good things and try to make us competitive.
“What exactly did they accomplish for the Mets?
Well how about three meaningful septembers and FULL seasons of good baseball to watch?
Tell me you weren’t just as excited to watch them play that last week in Spetember before they eliminated as you were the first week of the season.
THATS what they accomplished!
It seems to get thrown under a bus a lot around here but lets face it it was more than this team might accomplish!
Sure they choked! Would you prefer more seasons like 2009 or last year instead?
How about the 15 years before those guys got here?
Too many are looking a gift horse ion the mouth here!
They did a lot for the fans and the team, If it wasn’t enough it’s only because people aren’t willing to look at all the crap years that were worse than those years.
Would you prefer to see another 2007 and 2008 or rather see another 1994-1998?
I hear you Metsie.
Sometimes in the disappointment of the way things did work end up we forget that we did have a lot of fun (overall) watching those teams but let’s not pretend that there wasn’t a litany of listless play stretching on for months at a time in 2007 and 2008 either.
88 and 89 wins is really just marginally above .500 when you come right down to it. Those teams under achieved or they would have been setting up their rotation the last series of the season.
It was a go for it now team that got nipped at the wire. Exciting to watch the season unfold but infuriating at times as well and the fact that we’ve gone the same route twice before, with the same results each time followed in short order by a crash just makes it all the more infuriating.
When you have the largest payroll in the entire League and win one division and two Wild Cards in 23 years and then claim three near misses (’88 too ) as among your best seasons, as Jerry Manuel would say, “that’s poor.”
Tag I get people are dissappointed over the chokes and that has as much to do with how successful they were as anything!
Everyone thought it was a sure thing (goes back to my sure thing we were out of it last year rant! LOL)
Point is today we would all be ecstatic to have that kind of performance from them playoffs or no!
it’s all relative!
Good point Metsie.
This team winning 88 or 89 games would create a lot of excitement.
Disappointment and Excitement is always more about EXPECTATIONS than actual results!
Think your getting a car for christmas but get jewelry it doesn’t matter if the jewelry was worth more than a car you WANTED a car!
Your disappointed!
If this team makes the playoffs you know who will be the MOST excited?
The ones who never expected it!
The ones who did would basically just say SEE I was right!
hardly an exclamation more of a state of fact and vindication!
Eienstein was right it’s all relative!
Metsie,
Sadly, you didn’t read my question carefully: I asked about the Mets since those three players played together. Results: three dismal losing seasons.
I know–injuries, beating up relatives…those things take their respective tolls, too.
Beltran is in the twilight of his career. K-Rod is unlikely to be as good as he once was, and that leaves Jose as the truly dynamic man. He is one of the best players in baseball and one of the best ever to don a Mets uniform. No argument.
Collectively, when the three played together they were part of three dismal losing seasons. Do you understand?
QED
Russel yes I did mistake K-Rod for Santana…
But I will point out that in the years you mentioned you can hardly say Beltran played with them in any of them!
He missed two half seasons in 2009 and 2010 and was traded halfway through 2011!
You point is taken but as I said you still got those good three season by spending money to get stars!
And no matter what you think of Beltran’s future we might not have lost him as much as we did if they had allowed him to get operated on when he first got hurt instead of making him wait until he couldn’t take it anymore and had the operation just before the season started!
We lost a half a season of his production and if it was anything like last year’s production 2010 could have turned out VERY different! We were ahead of the Phillies in the div in July (despite no Beltran) and the Braves collapsed!
So who can say what might have happened if Beltran had the surgery right away and was there from the get go?
Russell, fair enough.. it’s hard for me to get into mets baseball when the GM doesn’t care about winning, the fans now seem to care more about draft picks than good major leaguers and no real star on the team.. sorry if i am a little inpatient here, but even on those years where we sucked there was at least a player on the team you rooted for or wanted to see play, now? not so much.. i mean, i like ike but he’s no reyes or beltran, or even a delgado yet for me to be real happy about him, i want him to do good and drive me to the ballpark to see him PLAY, but now, it’s more like i rather see beltran in st louis uniform or/reyes in a marlin uniform than to watch david wright strike out in a big spot..
Alex68 — “…it’s hard for me to get into mets baseball…” Maybe you should take a breather and come back when you can help give the Mets a solid fan base. Also, already Ike is a better defensive guy at 1B than Delgado ever was. Delgado movement at 1B was slightly better than the Statue of Liberty.
Not with the wind above 10 knots Des.
Your selling the lady a little short here.
Des, seriously, after reading what you said about reyes and his background i refuse to even engaged with you, it was offensive and insesitive, and coming from the same country as reyes does and seeing your POV on it i find it odd you try to engage in any conversation with me, you even had the chance to detract from what you said and instead you try to prove you were right, i am not sure if you have noticed but i haven’t answer to any of your post lately, and that’s the reason why. save your comments to me, save your smartness ok. thank you!
alex, is this helpful or do you already have all these sites bookmarked?
https://www.google.com/search?q=marlins+fansite&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&safe=strict#hl=en&safe=strict&client=firefox-a&hs=nAG&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&sa=X&psj=1&ei=fuFDT6naMbGn0AGbmrjvBw&ved=0CBoQBSgA&q=marlins+fan+site&spell=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=e497b0ef37f63d8f&biw=1280&bih=860
If hudge turns him into a productively ML hitter, it will make me more annoyed that hojo lasted so long!
yes, we all know that he was not Mike Piazza in the minors (with the bat). But, most BU catchers don’t hit much to start with. and many posters here were getting on Sandy for not signing an aging one to get their defensive (handling pitchers?) skills.
Well, if that is the strength of Mike’s game, why bother to get a fossil that can only play a few games per week at best just to have a glvoe guy? Just don’t expect huge production out of him with the bat. Hopefully though he can imporve enough to at least hold his own.
Is Nickeas the back up or is he platooning with Thole?
I have no problem with Nickeas going out there every few days. He plays good defense and calls a good game. If he keeps his hitting above Mendoza levels, we’ll be ahead of a few teams in that area.
I think that distinction sorts itself out largely dependant on how well Thole plays. Defensively mostly.
and catchers need a lot of rest anyhow, and I really can’t see thole as the type of guy to handle a 150 game load behind the dish. So the BUwill get plenty of time, evenif it stops short of an official full platoon.
Alex68 — Are you suggesting that all the ballplayers shouldn’t be treated equally? What does the country of birth have to do with anything? Your view of offensiveness and sensitivity because he comes from your country sounds a bit bizarre to me. What do you mean about his background? I’m mystified that you want special treatment for Reyes. As I’ve said many times, he has been a great player. So what’s up with you?
Also, my friend, like every other person who posts here, I will address any post which I think warrants a response. If you want to not respond, that’s your prerogative but you really don’t have to tell anyone else what they can respond to.
P.S.: After the way you have savaged David Wright for years, your comment is even stranger.