I have a picture of Marv fielding a ground ball with his chin up and his eyes closed. Sorry you weren’t around to be there at the beginning. It was great and spontaneous. Even Marv’s erratic play came not from limited talent but by trying too hard.

Joe

You said that, not me. LOL

I affectionately refer to Daniel as “Marvelous Murph” because his misadventures both with the glove and as a base runner remind me so much of my first Met hero – “Marvelous” Marv Thronberry. I still can’t forget that game I was watching on TV when Marv hit that famous triple in which he was called out on an appeal play at first. Not quite eleven years old, I had no idea what an appeal play was. Murph and Marv – both marvelously funny, unintentionally of course.

Now back to the topic. I never said that defense up the middle wasn’t important or that I would rather have an all-offensive guy there. My point remains 100% true. MANY teams are now choosing more offensive minded 2B and are sacrificing defense at that position while 3B has become a less offensive and more defensive position. You don’t have to like it or agree with the premise, however GM’s around baseball are starting to change that notion. How many light hitting defense first 2B you see out there on competitive teams?

The reason guys like Duda and Murphy have moved around is that they have no natural or strong position, but can hit, so they are trying to find a place to play them.

Satin and Turner are playing different positions because they are bench guys. AKA utility players. And they have to be able to play multiple positions to have any chance of holding down a ML job.

Oh, and Turner was a SS early on (and played there in the minors). It isn’t something new they were trying.

Valdespoin is an interesting idea. Not that uncommon to take a MI and try them in CF either. And it isn’t going to derail his development trying it out in ST (the natural place to try new things). Could also be a chance to get him a job in the Majors, if there isn’t a starting gig available. And most reports indicated that SS was not going to be a real option for him.

Players in the minors are usually willing to play anywhere if it can get them to the show.

One catcher in the top 3 rounds by Minaya, Zero by Duquette and zero by Phillips.

One CFer in the top 2 rounds by Minaya, Zero by Duquette and one by Phillips.

Two MIers in the top 3 rounds by Minaya, zero by Duquette and one by Phillips.

Phillips signed Carlos Gomez and Jose Reyes, Duquette no one and Minaya signed Tejada, lagares a SS at the time, now a LFer, Valdespin, Tovar, Gamboa and Puelo

Fern was never going to stick in CF and Flores was never going to stick at SS.

NY Mets = multiple injuries & players playing out of position to compensate…also stunt a promising young prospects(Valdespin’s) growth by playing him out of position when he’s supposed to be honing his skills and improving at (2B & SS)his natural position(s) .

And Mets fans wonder why this farm system doesnt produce talented hitters that can field there positions…..See Duda(LF,RF,1B), Murphy(3B,LF,2B),Meijia(call up way too early and was worked like a govt mule out of the pen),Jose Reyes(moved to 2B to make way for the immortal Hall of famer Kaz Matsui),Satin(every infield position except C,SS), Turner (1B,2B,3B now SS…Disaster waiting to happen)….

This team doesnt surprise me anymore, if they brought up Nimmo (whom is 3-5yrs away from mlb)to play CF opening day I wouldnt be surprised….

NY MESS its always something….why cant this team get anything right???

Now I’m the one really LMAO – you send posts agreeing with yourself???

I see a lot of the players out there as stop gaps anyway. Part of the clean up process or whatever you want to call it. I’m not willing to say that the FO just doesn’t give a crap about whether guys can play in the field or not. More like they inherited a number of guys and are making the best to cobble the team together right now, to figure out who can play and what to do with them.

I see Thole and Murphy as being on make good deals right now. This is their shot to show they can handle the job, or they will be moved (out or over). Whether Wright is around is still a wild card in this too.

a big problem with catcher especially is, it is not easy to find a LT option if you didn’t groom it yourself. And the BUs available that have a good reputation with the glove were all really limited to being a BU, and mostly old, so not going to help much. If Thole doesn’t develop this year, he will be gone.

Murphy won’t stick at 2B unless he really shows he can be at least average. And what the hell. no one gives the team any chance this year, so might as well find out.

and Torres was brought in because he IS a glove man (and of course, plenty of people just dumped all over his offense!). So yes, Sandy had to find a guy to play for a year until a prospect was ready, and he got a D first guy.

Probably better to look at new players being brought into the organization if you want to see if the FO values all around play (including D). The organization already has plenty of DH all bat types.

anyway, I highly suspect that within 2 years there will be a new catcher in place, a young CF with a good glove (Kirk, Den Dekker) and havens/valdespin (of the current crop) at 2B with Tejada at SS. Making the team perfectly fine up the middle.
Tejada, better hope he is good enough to stick at SS.