27
2012
Random Mets Thoughts
An article by 
I’m John Delcos from newyorkmetsreport.com. I will be posting for Joe while he is laid up for several days following surgery. Joe and I have teamed up in the past and we will do again throughout the year.
I wish Joe a speedy recovery and hope you will do the same with your comments.
With a week to go before spring training, even despite their low expectations, the Mets aren’t a team without significant issues, most of them injury related:
SANTANA: Will he be ready?
Q: Will Johan Santana be ready for Opening Day?
A: By all accounts, this has been a progressive spring for Santana. However, in yesterday’s start, his velocity was down and with one more start to go he’ll just barely reach the pitch count prescribed for him. While a healthy, productive Santana would undoubtedly give the Mets a jolt, the last thing they need is a setback from him.
Given that, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Santana start the season on an extended spring training to build up his arm strength. This has taken the better part of two years, so what’s another two weeks? The Mets don’t need another setback with Santana, so I see him starting the season in PSL.
Q: What about David Wright?
A: Wright played yesterday for the first time this spring and got a hit. Good for him. Usually a week is not nearly enough time for a hitter to get ready. They could have back dated him on the DL, but that boat has sailed. He’ll be there barring a setback, but expect a slow start.
Q: Can Mike Pelfrey find it between now and Opening Day?
A: No. Impossible. Can’t be done. Pelfrey has had a miserable spring with no signs of becoming the pitcher he was two years ago. Unless he finds a switch to turn it on, the Mets will continue to send out this enigma every five days.
Q: Where’s Jason Bay’s bat?
A: It has been missing since this inexplicable signing and I have no hopes he’ll find it now. Arguably one of the worst signings in Mets history will play another year because nobody is willing to absorb that horrendous salary. The Mets’ best chance is to hope he finds his stroke and they can salvage the remainder of his contract.
Q: Anybody new coming?
A: Many teams grab somebody off the scrap heap the last week of spring training hoping for a bargain. The Mets just picked up Chris Young. I’m thinking that’s as good as it will get.
About the Author: John Delcos
I am an active member of the BBWAA and have covered Major League Baseball in several capacities for over 20 years, including ten in New York working the Mets' and Yankees' beat. I covered the Baltimore Orioles for eight years and the Cleveland Indians before that. I currently serve as an editor and senior staff writer for Mets Merized Online. Follow me on Twitter @jdelcos.
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NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braves | 42 | 30 | .583 | - |
| Phillies | 35 | 37 | .486 | 7.0 |
| Nationals | 34 | 36 | .486 | 7.0 |
| Mets | 27 | 40 | .403 | 12.5 |
| Marlins | 22 | 48 | .314 | 19.0 |
Last updated: 06/19/2013
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couple thoughts;
- Bay just reeks of toast. might be slightly better than last year, maybe, but not coming close to being a middle of the order run producing force. Best hope is he gets platooned by June/July, and does OK vs. LHP.
- Pelf does look terrible, but 2 years ago he was also horrid in the spring (up until his last start), and that was the year he started out great for 3 months or so. Reaching at straws, but hey, it’s all I got!
- I was predicting that Johan in extended ST was really a best case scenario at the beginning of ST. So while he does look close, if they go that way I have no problem with it. If they really don’t need a 5th starter for 2-3 weeks, let him get ready in Florida if that makes the most sense.
- If Johan does start in PSL, they can carry a 6th bench guy. Especially if a couple are starting slow and might need to get eased in, having another spare body would be nice. Could also go with a 3rd catcher to give more flexibility.
- But as always, 40 man issues will play a huge part in who they keep. Cold be a guy like Den Dekker, even if it is for defensive replacement duty mostly.
Will Johan Santana be ready for Opening Day? – Yes.. Don’t mess with the johan…
What about David Wright? – What about him? this team is ike davis and lucas duda. He might benefit from those 2 having a good year, but the expectations of him being the guy from, 2005-2008 should not be there no more, it’s not like reyes, beltran and delgado will walk through that door!
Can Mike Pelfrey find it between now and Opening Day? – Find what? his brain? Fastball velocity? Sinker? But hey, he’ll give us 200 innings so who cares if it’s 200 innings of pure crap..Where’s Jason Bay’s bat? – In beyrut!!! arguably the WORST SIGNING in the history of the NY METS in terms of position player..
Anybody new coming? The Mets just picked up Chris Young
THERE’S YOUR ANSWER, a guy who pitched nothing but 4 starts for us last year gets picked up again without even picking up a ball.. Awesome Front office
But keep an eye out for KIP WELLS, mets were looking at him…
I love you Alex but I have to say this
You are right it is not likely Reyes, Beltran and Delgado will walk through the door because most of them can’t walk.
That being said who was in the lineup the last time Wright hit a decent amount HR and netted a decent amount of RBI? Sure wasn’t Beltran or Delgado. Do I expect him to return to 2008 numbers? Nah, nor did I expect Reyes to have a career year last year. Do I think he can return to something between 2008 and 2010, I think so, who knows?
Agreed on Bay and Pelfrey.
Chris Young we know we disagree but do you know that he had not picked up a ball yet? As for scouting Kip Wells? Shouldn’t they scout guys like that at all? The Redsox and Yankees do.
Wright will have an injury riddle season, forcing him to have a down year, or, have a good half then be traded because the team might be out of contention..
Wells was checked by the mets, and he pitched for him, he was back at his 90+ fastballs from years back.. so he might be someone who can pitch and add some depth to our SP
Wright will be Injury riddled? Is that your hope? Are you actually a Mets fan?
Ike and Duda have the potential to be great, but THEY are the team? Ike has yet to play a full season, but the is the team? Having a lousy ST, but he is the team. You are a clown for sure.
Love even more your reference of Beltran, Reyes and Delagao are not here for Wright. Did you actually watch any baseball when they were here? Did you just forget how Degado was awful in 07 (.225 at home), or the first three months of 08 when he was boo’d and couldn’t hit out of a paper bag? Reyes the king of first pitch pop outs. Oh wait, he won a Batting title last year, while playing the 2nd half as safe as can be to ensure his contract with the Marlins.
Beltran, when not hurt was probably the only one that did help Wright in the lineup, but since he spent more time on DL then off…….
Crawl back under your rock of selective memory dude, come back when you learn what baseball is actually all about.
“Beirut” not “beyrut”
Actually, to keep this Met centric, it should be “Bay rut” Get it?
Get well Joe! Get rested, and get ready for Opening Day!
Please send Joe all our best and sincere wishes for a speedy recovery.
Again, best of luck Joe.
Johan: I said all along I expected him to not be ready opening day. He looks close but velocity/stamina not where it should be. I would have no problem if they waited 2 weeks to bring him north but the drop off from him to Batista/Schwinden is big. With all the talk of getting off to a good start, wonder if the temptation will be too great?
I have more faith in Wright getting it done than I do Pelfrey. I’m willing to bet I’m not alone in that thinking.
We’re stuck with Bay so anything better than what we’ve gotten out of him so far would be an improvement.
The plan I heard was a 5 man rotation with starters going ever 6 days. So if they take Johan out of the mix, it would be a 4 man rotation on normal rest.
Didn’t they do the same thing last year? Rolling with a 6 man bench until they needed a 5th SP?
I think that was the plan last year, but remember them changing their mind. I could be wrong though.
So if they left Johan behind for a couple of weeks, they could either roll with the 4 man rotation or use a spot starter once or twice.
SRT, there was a great article on here exactly one month ago (http://metsmerizedonline.com/2012/02/the-mets-5th-starter-should-be-johan-santana.html) discussing the option of leaving Johan behind for a couple of weeks and what kind of rest that would permit him, and also who would be utilized in his absence. Turns out, Batista and/or Schwinden wouldn’t even be needed. Kudos to the author on a tremendous suggestion and analysis. That guy’s got a future.
Being you are a Met fan, I am surprised you didn’t pull an Oblique patting yourself on the back so hard.
I’m sure I don’t have the foggiest idea what you’re talking about……..:-P
Nice. Could go with a similar plan and not miss much of a beat.
“Inexplicable” is a great word to describe the Bay signing. Made no sense then and obviously still doesn’t.
Xtreem,
Could it have been even Omar moving toward the emphais of on base percentage? Even though Jason hit just .267 with Boston, his on base percentage was .384 and early in his career it had been a few points on both sides of .400.
If Omar hadn’t had a history of guys like Frenchy and Barajas, I’d say that it would be something to consider, but Omar’s history doesn’t lend itself to a focus on OBP. Omar signed Bay more because he needed a big name and a big splash to keep the turnstiles clicking than any winning baseball reason. If winning baseball reasons had been accounted for, Omar would not have gone after a righty power bat that plays marginal defense to be a left fielder in expansive Citi Field.
Let it be known that I’m not convinced it was Omar’s autonomous decision, but winning games wasn’t the driving force behind that move regardless of who made the call.
How much more solid this team would be with Francoeur and Barajas now. Would have been a much better team with those 2 last year too
I would rather have Duda in RF even with his shaky glove than have a guy like Francouer who swings at everything. The only reason why I’d take Barajas over Thole is because it’s an upgrade defensively. Barajas will give you a hot stretch maybe 2-3 times a year but will be an automatic out for the most part. The offense was dreadful with those 2 guys in 2010 except ofr a 5 week stretch for Barajas and a hot start by Francouer. After that 20 inning game with St.Louis Frenchy didn’t hit at all until he got benched and had a little streak mid to late July.
Right, but we sold Barajas for cash in 2010 and we would have had to bench Beltran.
Good thinking.
Francoeur last year had 20HR’s, 47 2B’s, 87 RBI, 22 SB’s, .285 BA – That’s pretty good if you ask me. He’s also just entering his prime, he’s going to be 28 this year. Plus he plays good defense in RF.
Plus one of the best arms in RF. He would have helped us win a lot of games last year i don’t care if he swings from his knees as long as he’s seeing the ball well.
He would be hitting low in the order anyway so i don’t care about his OBP cuz his job would be to drive in runs, same with Barajas.
These people also fail to realize that you can not and you never have a statistically perfect team filled with players who all perform at relatively the same levels. You just get who you need to help your team win. A great example is the 1999, 2000 Mets with guys like Turk Wendell, Rick Reed, Dennis Cook, Daryl Hamilton, Jay Payton, Masato Yoshii, Benny Agbayani, etc. coupled with the right MGR for these guys.
Those teams’ success was due to the sum of it’s parts because when they all went to different teams after that they barely had any success for the most part. That’s what people in these forget in their statistically induced haze.
You know what’s coming next right? After-the-fact, after-we-lost-World series-second guessing-fictitious draft pick scenarios by the Abbie Hoffman of MetsMerized.
Unless you were replacing Bay, Frenchy wouldn’t have helped win many games. Beltran played much better than Frenchy and Duda picked up Beltrans slack after the trade. He wouldn’t be capable of handling CF, so where was he playing. And I wouldn’t bet the ranch Frenchy repeats the nice year he had last year. Pitchers in the Al will figure him out sooner or later.
That’s the fantasy world this guy lives in, devoid of real baseball. Frenchy would have helped? Doing what, mowing the grass? Because he certainly wasn’t playing over Beltran.
You’re the one who shouldn’t be talking about fantasy since you run a Fantasy league I presume?
The point was you saber clowns spent the better part of a year DESTROYING Francoeur simply because of his approach. Any team can use a guy that hits .287, 20 HRs, 85 RBIs or so and he has one of the best arms in the game today and we all saw how many runs he saved because of that.
You’re all backwards dude cuz I hand your lunch to you almost every time and you’re angry about it. Hey while we’re at it let’s keep Duda and Tejada in the minors the entire 2011 season and say that before ST even starts that year. Who am i quoting here?
Sounds like something I would have said, which proves how pathetic you are. You were hanging onto that for over a year waiting for me to say something so you can counter with that? And how wrong was I? Yeah, they both finished real strong, but it took Duda till the middle of July just to get his average to .250 and Tejada certainly benefitted from the extra time in the minors, didn’t he? Came up raking, didn’t he? And I don’t know what you’re trying to prove since I’m the biggest Tejada supporter on this site.
Also, that lie about handing me my lunch is so blatant, since I actually dared you to try on multiple occasions and you ran off. Every single time.
Also still, your fantasy of getting Frenchy’s numbers involved is just that, a fantasy. Sure, those numbers would be nice, but who was giving them to you? Not Frenchy, obviously. Where was he playing?
You can keep trying, but the fantasy draft is starting in 5 minutes, and that’s actually more challenging than talking your fantasy baseball with you.
Now you’re the biggest Tejada supporter on this site? When did this happen Mr. Fantasy?
Agree definitely would have been non tendered but what is the rationale on selling Barajas when he was a cinch type B FA with just 5 weeks to go and making just 500 G’s. No way he accepts.
That pick was sold for peanuts on the dollar to save the cost of signing a top prospect.
Dodging the question again, Where would Frenchy have played? I am guessing you would have expected Beltran to play CF again?
Now if you said keep Frenchy and not waste money on Bay? Maybe. Hell you do that and you could STILL have Frenchy in RF and Beltran in LF but obviously Duda would have never gotten the opportunity to play.
Frenchy had a nice year last year. Nothing special but pretty good. He was horrendous for us outside of a hot start in April and a nice little streak during June when the team played well. He couldn’t get the ball out of the infield in July and August. I could probably live with him as a platoon strictly facing Lefties, nothing more than that. I can’t take hitters swinging at anything the pitcher throws, it drives me absolutely nuts. Same with Barajas. He starts off hot then goes into hibernation for 2-3 months. He’s okay as a backup catcher but not an everday player.
Barajas would have been great as the 51st pick of last years draft though if we hadn’t sold him to the Dodgers 5 weeks before the season ended.
Dodgers weren’t even in the race. The wilpon’s just sold him to avoid having to pay the signing bonus of whoever we could have drafted. Maybe Bichette Jr,, Austin Hedges, who knows.
Offering arb on Francoeur would have been rough with a 5 M dollar base and really just a platoon/late inning guy. Definitely would have been non tendered.
Pretty unlikely they offer arbitration to Frenchy for the fear of him excepting it. He may have turned it down feeling that the OF was set for 2011 with Bay, Pagan and Tran but that’s a chance I wouldn’t want to take.
Well isn’t that quite a 2nd guess……….
I’m sure it wasn’t the plan but don’t forget that the 2010 Mets had two starting pitchers who got OB more often than 13 of our hitters so I’m not sure that OB was a huge priority in regard to fielding a baseball team.
More like “who can we get” than a deliberate plan.
Attacks like this is why I defend Omar all the time now.
Guys like GMJ, Cattalanttto ect, didn’t get any significant playing time. So, when you realize most of those 13 guys didn’t have any significant playing time(or were just backups, and their main value was their defense, like Blanco), it’s really not a big deal at all.
Facts are only considered attacks when they point out the shortcoming of the 2005-2010 Mets.
Among those “hitters” who got OB at a lower percentage than two of our starting pitchers (RA Dickey and Jon Niese) were our starting catcher Rod Barajas and Right fielder Jeff Francoeur They weren’t backups but most of their backups managed the same feat. (Blanco, Nickeas, Fern, and Feliciano. At SS we had back up Alex Cora, 2B included AAA Justin Turner and a guy we traded for in Joaquin Arias. 3B (AAA) Mike Hessman and veteran utility guys Fernando Tatis and Frank Catolonotto. Our opening day starting CFer Garry Mathews Jr., and September call up and 1B/Corner OF Lucas Duda.
Four more guys were dangerously close to that milestone themselves Mike Jacobs our opening day 1B man, Luis Hernandez AAA depth at 2B, Ruben Tejada 20 year old AAA depth at 2B, and Chris Carter who we traded two #1 picks for.
That’s 14 guys that got out On Based by two starting pitchers and 4 more who almost did and quite a few were terrible on defense as well and played such traditional hitters positions as LF, RF, CF, 1B, 3B, C.
The only guys who comfortably beat Niese and Dickey in OB were Reyes, Pagan, Wright, Beltran, Ike, Bay, Castillo, Evans and Thole.
So 9 comfortably were over .317 OB, 18 under .317 and 14 under .296 including 2 everyday starters. That’s terrible and we wasted a great year by the pen and rotation too.
Every once in a while a pitcher might out hit or out OB a few guys on a team but two pitchers doing it to 14 hitters on the same team, and almost 4 more?
That’s historic.
I’m sure if you consider Dickey and Niese had .300 OBP’s, and your counting backups and september callups, I’m sure there are teams that have had a bunch of players with lower ones.
What you basically complaning about is that our backups and defensive minded starters had low OBP’s. Who cares? And you don’t even factor in the injuries to our starters, like Beltran, reys, Murphy, and Bay? if those guys don’t get gurt, many of the players your talking about never make it that year.
jesus Felciano was like the 6th guy down on our depth chart. Not many teams are going to have good OBP’s from their 6th OFer.
Interesting fact by the way: The 2010 Mets had a higher OBP than the 2011 Atlanta Braves.
Low OB wasn’t even the only problems we had offensively. Few doubles, fewer still HR’s and poor D at some positions as well and it’s not like this was year one either.
If you say Minaya’s rebuild hadn’t reached the upper minors yet, fair enough. I’ll agree but by year 5 you would think there would be some all around talent even if it was from other teams systems.
Other than a handful of guys he inherited or spent huge bucks on no one could get OB over .300.
Sorry but I was expecting better. Credit for Davis for sure but after that anyone who did out OB the 2 pitchers was poor somewhere else.
You also have to factor in injuries to Beltran, Reyes, Murphy, and Bay.
You saw what a healthy Beltran, reyes, and Murphy can do at the plate last year. So, if those three guys were healthy, the mets wouldn’t have had a bad offense. At worst, IMO, it would have been about average.
Of course you can and should factor in injuries but what I’m talking about is other than the guys Minaya inherited or signed to big free agent deals, just exactly who did get OB at a semi reasonable clip?
Only two guys. Davis and Josh Thole. Sure Murphy would have had he not gotten hurt but he would have been playing 1B with Ike in AA or AAA so again that leaves two guys, one of whom spent 1/2 the year in the minors.
Vinny these guys are supposed to be hitters. RFers, 3B man, LFer’s, veteran utility guys, younger AAA veteran types as well. Duda and Tejada I can understand, A back up MIer with a great glove sure, even a great defensive catcher with some pop but almost everyone?
Then when you add in guys useless in other ways that were over .300 in OB like Bay, Castillo, Carter it’s not a good situation. Not a good offense.
And Cattlontto and GMJ as well as Cora, Jacobs, and Tatis didn’t play much cause they got cut mid season and Francouer and Barajas were salary dumps in August one of which cost us a supplemental round draft choice last year.
Trading Barajas didn’t cost us a draft choice.
He was available to us last offseason. We could have signed him then, if we wanted to. And Omar wasn’t the GM then.
And remember I was killed for saying to bring back Barajas? Turns out, he would have been better tha Paulino/Thole AND would have left us with a draft pick on top of that.
It certainly would have been easier to resign him if we hadn’t traded him and he was signed about 3 weeks after Alderson was hired. If we hadn’t sold him in August we could have had that pick in the 2011 draft which was one of the best draft in the last 25 years.
Probably pick somewhere around #51 and what did we sell him for? Cash, probably 100 G’s and don’t go whining that I’m “attacking” Minaya cause we both know he wasn’t in charge at that point. Barajas was sold simply to avoid the signing bonus. he wasn’t even making any money in 2010. 500G’s so the Wilpon’s netted 200 Grand and we lost a pick.
Spin it anyway you want that’s what happened.
Nope that was Omar moving towards always appeasing the fans. Most believe he only had about 20-25M to spend that year and he spent almost all of it on Bay as if that was the only hole.
IMHO, I think Mike Pelfrey will have a good year. Last start showed if he continue to throw his sinker harder, he may be decent
I’d feel much better with Barajas as the starting catcher instead of Thole.
Barajas is tied 5th in HR’s among catchers the last two seasons. And that’s despite playing under 100 games both seasons. Barajas gives you good defense and and good power from the catcher postion, so I can live with his low OBP. He was also signed him to a minor league contract too – He’s what I would call, a “good vlaue” signing.
“Unless he finds a switch to turn it on, the Mets will continue to send out this enigma every five days.”
What does this mean exactly?
If he DOES find a switch to turn it on, he WON’T be there every five days?
LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Get well SOON Joe!
I always liked Frenchy but do admit he was fizzling with the Braves and continue to do so (except for a hot beginning in 2010) with the Mets. I did not expect him to bounce back so well with Kansas City and glad to see that he did and that he is enjoying himself. He was always the gentleman. Should have realized his career as a Met would resemble hitting into a game ending unassisted triple play when during the broadcast of his first game as a Met, Gary Cohen said we now had a gold glover in right and the very next pitch was hit to Jeff and he dropped it.
Frenchy was one of many who said he did not like hitting in Citi Field but had to accept it and then this past winter Jeff commented that the dimensions really did mess up some of his former Met teammates. Though last winter Sandy said there were no plans to change the dimensions at Citi Field – something I forgot to mention in another forum when alluding to his statement that the Mets would have to learn how to hit home runs there – I’m glad now that they did. Lowering the walls and moving them in is a much better decision than signing a big hitter because this in turn allows many in the lineup to reprieve the power that was taken away from them. For sure, with David’s power to right, ridding us of the Met equivalent of death valley has to be an added plus in our favor. And even though he has hit them onto the Shea Bridge, Ike Davis certainly hit a lot that went for long outs as well.
I think the Pelfrey experiment is over. Did anyone see Larry Bowa’s thoughts on Pelf ont he 30 in 30 show? How he has all the stuff but just can’t………got away from his 2 seam etc…
Santana – no reason to hold him back at this point. Let Santana be Santana.
Bay – disappointing to say the least, but stuck with him for now I guess.
Wright – no reason to believe that he can’t return to being a very good player. The reports of his decline are dramatically overblown.
I notice some new guy posting 100 comments in one day to be seen out there… SMH.. and of course, going after the ones who have been known here the longest… Pathetic attempt to be recognize..
Oh I am sorry, do you own this site?
Alex my friend, I think that in the cocoon of ridiculousness that this place provides for the “Core” sometimes you do not realize how absolutely and completely ridiculous some of you appear to be to just about everyone else—here AND elsewhere.
Venture out to Metsblog or our site for a day and see the kind of reaction you or Bayonne get from everyone.