May
3
2012

Morning Grind: Why Are Acosta and Batista Still On The Roster?

An article by Clayton Collier

Why are Manny Acosta and Miguel Batista still New York Mets? With ERA’s of 9.69 and 6.92 respectively in a combined 26 innings of “work” –if you can call their awful outings work–, they do not deserve to be at the major league level in any way, shape or form.

In an offseason centered around creating a strong and formidable bullpen, Sandy Alderson and the Mets are letting that effort go to waste by leaving these two in the major leagues while plenty of guys in Triple-A are more than capable of putting together better relief outings than these two. The work of guys like Jon Rauch, Tim Byrdak and Bobby Parnell are being ruined because of Acosta and Batista’s lack of effectiveness coming out of the ‘pen. They get themselves into trouble without being able to get themselves out. They cannot hold runners on let alone a lead when it’s late and close.

In Buffalo, Fernando Cabrera and Chuck James both have ERA’s under 1.00 in a combined 20 innings of work. If James and Cabrera had been hurling their 20 innings in place of those unfortunate 26 innings pitched by Acosta and Batista, maybe the Mets would be atop the NL East right now.

Though I respect Acosta and Batista for their effective 2011 campaigns, this year is a completely different story. They have a .351 and .340 BAA in 2012. They both have a 2.23 WHIP, a combined 24 walks, five home runs and most importantly an 0-3 record. That does not deserve to be on any major league ball club.

Sandy, get these guys off and give someone else the call, I’d rather have DJ Carrasco up! He can’t do much worse than these two…

About the Author: Clayton Collier

Clayton, a Long Island native and die-hard Mets fan, started writing online about three years ago. He is currently a Journalism major with a minor in Broadcasting at Seton Hall University. Although very disappointed with the current state of the team, Clayton remains hopeful that the young prospects in the farm system will bring the Mets back to a respected franchise in baseball once again. Besides writing for MMO, Clayton is also a staff member at 89.5 WSOU, Seton Hall's modern active rock radio station. You can contact Clayton by following him on Twitter: @Clayton_Collier or E-mailing him at MaybeNextYearMets@yahoo.com

10 Comments + Add Comment

Amazin May 3, 2012 at 9:45 am

I think you are blinded by the fiction of Alderson and his genius. In case you missed it, which you did, that closer Alderson brought in sucks. Really big time Sucks. These two guys you want out aren’t doing anything to take away from that.
- BTF May 3, 2012 at 10:53 am
  
  If you know anything about the game, you would also know that aside from the great Mariano in his prime, all these closers are hit and miss or have a short shelf life. What about the fact that we’re not paying K-Rod $17 million this season? Would you rather we were? I love when people pick apart who was signed without ever including who they should have signed in their rants.
  - alan May 4, 2012 at 10:10 am
    
    Thanks for being rational about this subject….Much like in fantasy baseball, all the so called experts really know very little about the game but feel free to throw around millions of dollars of someone else’s money. When the Wilpon’s decided to hand over the reigns of the organization to Sandy Alderson it was an admittance that …
    
    a) they had financial problems
    b) that the quick fix of signing free agents to long term and high salaries is far too risky because of injury
    
    Sandy, believes in strong starting pitching and he has the nucleus of that maturing in the minor leagues right now. The plan is to not rush them to the majors and build a team of younger players that will stay together for a 5-10 year run.
- jerseymet May 3, 2012 at 2:11 pm
  
  Sandy’s “Genius” is being patient. He is letting the farm system do its job. Omar is currently being praised by revisionist bloggers. The man Sandy chose to stand by was Collins. TC goomed all these kids that are working out now. So expect more kids from the system to evolve.
  
  Sandy is the leagues’s man. He is here to cut the payroll.
trs86 May 3, 2012 at 9:47 am

I expect to see some changes very soon.
jdon May 3, 2012 at 11:04 am

Acosta sucks. Batista is at the end of the line. These are throwaway relievers, easily replaced by other mediocrities. No one expects them to really contribute to wins. Now Shwinden–he sucks BIG TIME, and he is losing games for us. I know it is too early for Harvey and Co. Maybe they are hoping he can last til Chris Young is ready. But the fact is, Young may not last long either. Time to scour the dumpsters of the league for a better-than-Schwinden starter. Live with it. It is part of the rebuiding process. Amazingly, this team is over .500.
Metstheory22 May 3, 2012 at 11:14 am

Young, Hefner and Edgin come up eventually and take the places of Batista, Acosta and Schwinden.
- Metstheory22 May 3, 2012 at 11:27 am
  
  Sorry, I meant Jack Egbert not J. Edgin.
  - jerseymet May 3, 2012 at 2:15 pm
    
    @metstheory22: Edgin looks good too.
John Herling May 5, 2012 at 12:32 am

Acosta was very bad last year. This year he’s atrocious.

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