6
2012
Okay, Someone Needs To Say It… Re-Signing Hairston Was A Stroke Of Genius
An article by 
I can imagine some of the stomachs churning already after reading that title. 
But as I was going through some of the Mets notes, it’s hard to ignore what an incredible impact Scott Hairston has made on this team so far this season.
Hairston hit a home run and scored three runs last night after entering the game in the eighth inning. He became the fourth Mets player in team history to come off the bench hit a home run and score three times in a game. Donn Clendenon (1971), Howard Johnson (1985) and Desi Relaford (2001) were the others.
Hairston has now hit a home run in two straight games and is now batting .563 (9-16) with eight runs scored, one double, five home runs and 10 RBI over his last seven games dating back to May 26.
Despite having almost 30 fewer at-bats, Hairston is tied for third in the majors in home runs since May 26 with five, one behind the Rockies’ Carlos Gonzalez and Angels’ Mark Trumbo.
Back when me and John Delcos did our 2011 Player Reviews in November, I said this about Hairston:
It’s hard for me to be too critical of players who were specifically signed for the bench. Of the two, I wouldn’t mind keeping Hairston and I’ll tell you why, he’s right-handed – first, plays a solid outfield – second, and the dude has some serious pop in his bat – third.
I took a look at his 132 at-bats last season and never mind for a second that he batted .235, but did you know if you prorated his numbers over 500 at-bats, Hairston would have hit 28 home runs with 96 RBI? Of course he won’t get that much playing time barring an unforseen disaster next season, but there’s nothing wrong with that kind of power and potential off your bench. Just don’t bat him against RHP.
Case closed.
About the Author: Joe DeCaro
I'm a lifelong Mets fan who loves writing and talking about the Amazins' 24/7. From the Miracle in 1969 to the magic of 1986, and even the near misses in '73 and '00, I've experienced it all - the highs and the lows. I started Mets Merized Online in 2005 to feed my addiction. Follow me on Twitter @metsmerized.
52 Comments + Add Comment
Recent Comments
- Des: on Mets Offense Comes Up Empty In 4-0 Loss To Reds: Unfortunately for Jordany, he's had problems on...
- Satish Ram: on Mets Offense Comes Up Empty In 4-0 Loss To Reds: Hey Neil, You'd be surprised how many players...
- Neil S.: on Mets Offense Comes Up Empty In 4-0 Loss To Reds: I hope the players and their families...
- alfred: on Mets Offense Comes Up Empty In 4-0 Loss To Reds: Though looking on the bright side Ike...
- Markcomic1: on Choo Could Be Impact Outfielder For Mets In 2014, But Would Cost A Pick: Choo is a nice player but, Citifield...
MMO Mets Chat
Need Tickets To The Mets Game?
Check Out These Great MLB Links!
Photographs From Gordon Donovan
5379 Fans Follow Us On Twitter!
1269 Fans Like Us On Facebook!
2341 Fans Read Our Feed!
1702 Fans Subscribe via Daily Email!
Just don’t bat him against RHP -> goes double for badly too!
yes, this was a very good move. Extending dickey (notice the pun?) when they did was also smart
and even though he is out now, grabbing Baxter has already been a success.
talk about a Feudian slip. “badly” was supposed to be “Bay”, but frankly Badly works just as well.
I have a strong feeling that the CORE will not salute me for this post. lol
oh, you are going to get saluted, they will just conserve energy by not using 9 fingers.
I’d say the best moves made so far by this new front office were:
Hairston, Capuano, Trading Beltran and getting a good prospect, Getting KRod off the books, Getting rid of Perez and Castillo, Acquiring Baxter, Taking Beato in Rule 5, Extending Dickey, Extending Niese, Signing Young this year, and possibly the signing of Quintanilla.
A lot of these moves you can fight with me days on I’m sure. I KNOW there are people who disagree on the Beltran/KRod stuff. I’ve heard it all before, we’ll never agree.
I think Young and Q obviously still have a bit more to go before their acquisition proves me right but I think Q could be a valuable bench infielder on this team and I just love the way Young fought his way back into the rotation and he fills a huge need.
These are moves that aren’t flashy. You don’t always need flash to be good. We’ve seen the Mets make countless flashy moves and have them blow up in their face. It’s easier to be right when you’re throwing money around, than it is to find guys like a Hairston who prove valuable.
But you’re right Joe, Hairston was a great move. There’s no denying it.
When he cuts and runs on Bay then I’ll entertain his propensity for cutting wasted contracts despite what they are owed a trait he has…
Until then anyone would have cut Perez and Castillo then!
Beltran is still a to be determined until Wheeler makes and does something in the MLB, Looks promising but then again so did F-Mart for a good long time.
He’s been good with some of his filler but for every name you mentioned there there IS a corresponding failure to go with it.
Cutting Castillo and Perez were no-brainers. Everyone knew at that time they had nothing left, so I don’t know why he gets praised for cutting them.
Cutting Castillo and Perez was going to happen no matter who the GM was Alderson, Minaya or even M. Donald Grant. The credit for cutting them goes to the Wilpons who ate their contracts anyway.
If Alderson wants some credit, let me see him cut Jason Bay or eat all his salary and trade him. He cant and he wont.
However next season, his final one in his contract, he’ll be as easy to cut as Castillo and Perez were.
Sandy would impress the hell out of me if come August 1st, and we are still in the race, Bay is not on this team one way or the other!
I don’t care if we pay the full boat and get a Class B kid for him, or just cut him and move on!
Now watch he goes on hitting tear and makes me want to change my mind!
LOL
Here’s the problem though, if he’s healthy, he’ll be on pace for 600 PAs, which kicks in the vesting option. No team is going to pick that up.
If he’s not healthy or so terrible they can justify benching him for extended periods, then they will either have to eat his entire contract or swap for another bad contract. Even that is a long shot.
In Fact it was one of the Knocks on Omar for not cutting them a year sooner and wasting a Roster spot on both.
Doing it in the last year of a contract doesn’t require anything special.
But having the guts and the confidence to do it when there is more than a year left shows me at least you are not afraid to admit mistakes and move onto making the team better!
There is no limit on how much you can spend so take the loss and invest in something better!
If your best move is signing a backup OFer, that’s not anything to brag about.
Precisely!
If your best acquisition isn’t good enough to play everyday then how good is it relative to what others have done?
Trade Torres and Bay and make hairston the everyday guy and maybe then I can give it it’s proper due!
“A Stroke Of Genius” Really? I hope you’re kidding right?
Hariston has been great off the bench this year…it’s nut, if anyone hangs him a curve ball or throws a high Fast ball, he’s all over it…it it seems like that’s happening every AB he has. But I seem to remember having a conversation about this with someone else, We only have a small sample size on Hariston, while I think he’ll continue to be a solid contributor, I think his final numbers will remind everyone that he is only Scott Hariston.
Remember, this guys was many people’s odd man out once Bay returned from the DL
As a Met
251 appearances, .260 hitter, 15HR, 48 RBI, .537 SLG, .856 OPS
You really cannot ask much more of a backup OF than those numbers offensively.
and why some guys really should be strictly platooned.
bay too though. A guy that Hairston makes redundant.
Excellent production and a great weapon against LHP especially when Wright is the only productive righty in lineup. Hairy should be in a strict platoon not used one AB at a time.
MF, I actually looked at it as Bay was the guy that should go for Hairston!
Hairston has been a solid bench guy, but I reserve genius for moves like signing Dickey of the scrap heap and becoming the ace of the team.
“5. Cut Hairston When Pagan Comes Back – Hairston has already left a bad taste in my mouth and all the spitting in the world cant get rid of it. When Angel Pagan is activated from the DL, keep Jason Pridie as your Endy-Chavez-Type fourth outfielder, and kick Scott Hairston to the curb. We already knew Pride was one of the best defensive outfielders in the system, but we’ve now learned he has surprising pop in his bat like Endy did.
Those five fixes should be no-brainers for the brain-trust running the Mets right now and hopefully they can move swiftly on them and not waste anymore time.” — April, 2011
Guess who said it?
Bayonne Mets Fan October 30, 2010 at 9:55 pm
“they acquired Reggie Jackson, Dave Henderson, Rickey Henderson and Ken Phelps, all of whom fit the walk-and-homer profile. The result? Four division titles and three pennants from 1988 through ’92.”
…James K quotes Alan Sch…whatever his name is.
Ken Phelps-
1988 played with Seattle & The Yankees
1989 – 9 ABs with A’s. Had 1 hit.
1990 – Had 59 ABs w/A’s. Hit 1 HR, batted .186
Did not play with Oakland in 1991 and 1992.
Reggie Jackson-
Retired in 1987. His last hit was a broken-bat single Oct. 4, 1987 (source – Wikipedia)
“they acquired Reggie Jackson, Dave Henderson, Rickey Henderson and Ken Phelps, all of whom fit the walk-and-homer profile. The result? Four division titles and three pennants from 1988 through ’92.”
…James K quotes Schwartz and believes it.
Well, Ricky Henderson…he was already a hall of fame player but hey…James K says sabermetrics determined that the A’s should get him back. Would ANYBODY need sabermetrics to tell then that they would like Rickey Henderson to be their leadoff hitter in the 80s? I don’t think so
….Me.
Dave Henderson? He did a good job for Boston too in 1986, remember?
James Kannengieser on Aug 1, 2010 9:15 PM EDT…..on Jeff Francoeur and Nick Evans:
2. DFA Jeff Francoeur when Jason Bay returns from the DL
It’s time to end the Francoeur experiment. His second half of 2009 hot streak has basically been canceled out by an embarrassing 2010 performance. Remember all that talk about how all he needed was a change of scenery? A chance to get away from the pressures of playing in his hometown?
Career numbers with Atlanta: .266/.308/.424
Career numbers with New York: .271/.311/.430
He’s the same player, both north and south of the Mason-Dixon Line. The spring training excitement, generated mainly by a toothy grin and aw-shucks demeanor, has long since worn off. Apologists really have nothing else to lean on. It’s great that he puts on a laser show during batting practice but any work he’s putting in isn’t manifesting itself during at-bats that count.
The corresponding move should be calling up Nick Evans to the big club. Nasty Nick is hitting .295/.366/.523 between Binghamton and Buffalo this season. The major league equivalency for that line is just .229/.285/.388, but you know what? Terrible as that is, it’s actually better than Frenchy’s current major league line.
Jeff Francoeur in 2011:
601 AB, 22 HRs, 87 RBIs, .285 – arguabley the the best arm in RF in game today
Jeff Francoeur in 2012 after a very, very slow start:
208 AB, 5 HRs, 16 RBIs, .279 AVG. .433 SLG
Nick Evans is not in the major leagues:
He’s hitting .197 at AAA w/2 HRs in 80 or so ABs – but HEY!!!!!!!!!!! his OBP is over .260!!!!!
Whooooooooo Nick Evans!!!!!!!
I can’t quibble with the fact Hairston has been a much better player this year than last…
But what should be disappointing about all of this is “the best Acquisition so far” (in two offseasons) is nothing more than a role player!
I hope Young manages to change that fact.
Only thing I’ll say at this point is….NO SHIT!
Sure, it was a good move, but calling it a stroke of genius IMO is way over the top because he’s still just a backup.
Joe D why do you say signing Hairston is a stroke of genius? Why? This kind of move has never been done before in Mets history? is acquiring Donn Clendennon a stroke of genius? Or did it just work out?
Is signing Todd Pratt while he was working as a pizza delivery boy a stroke of genius?
Is signing Benny Agbayani a stroke of genius? Was it even called a stroke of genius at the time?
c’mon Joe…what the hell is wrong with everybody that when a gm makes a good move, depending on who the Gm is it’s conveniently called a stroke of genius?
Hairston was resigned, it was a good move that most of us liked and it’s working out better than any of us (including the principles involved) ever could have imagined…that’s good.
Yeah, and more recent examples under the last GM, like Dickey, Takahashi, Pagan, Endy Chavez, Fernando Tatis(comeback player of the year in 08), Jose Valentine(took over as the starting 2B in 06), and Easley( in 07 had 10HR’s, 26 RBI, .280 BA, .466slug% in 76 Gms).
I believe those guys signed minor league contracts, except for Pagan who was traded for two minor leaguer who never made it to the majors.
So, if signing Hairston is a “stoke of genius”, what would you call those moves? Because some of those guys started for this team and played well, and Hairston is just a bench player.
BTW, nice job finding those quotes by James K. lol.
Right you would think the signing of RA Dickey – even as many of us (including me) made fun of it at the time…it may turn out to be one of the biggest “genius” signings of Mets history!
But even in jest ….. to suggest Hairston’s signing is “genius”….even in jest…is still stupid and a waste of everybody’s time – if you look back at some of the most inspiring signings in Mets history.
Bingo! So what the word ABOVE genius we should apply to the Dickey Signing?
What’s going on is that everyone is lowering the bar for these signings to the point where if they aren’t completely useless, it’s a good move. I mean someone here a few weeks ago called Willie Harris and Ronny Paulino good moves, while they weren’t good at all – Paulino hit .260 with no power, and terrible defense, and Harris didn’t hit well, and didn’t field well either.
Or even with Capuano. Some people are making it out to be a great move, when he was mediocre last season – He had a 4.55 ERA and 1.35 WHIP and he couldn’t pitch effectively deep into games.Yes, he’s pitching good this year, but the Mets signed him to pitch last year, and he was mediocre.
I’m not saying it’s a bad move, but to act like signing a guy who gives you a 4.5 ERA is something special is ridiculous……And now we are going crazy about a bench player, who’s a on a nice hot streak? Come on.
“What’s going on is that everyone is lowering the bar for these signings to the point where if they aren’t completely useless, it’s a good move.”
Precisely!
And a lot of it has to do with folks jumping out in front and staking their reputations towards becoming a cheerleader for a GM for no other reason than his name was not Omar Minaya.
Others were excited to see the sequel to Moneyball…
And by Moneyball standards all these deals are sheer genius! The Best you can ever hope to get!
Anything that costs under 3 Mil per and doesn’t suck as much as Perez and Castillo is a GREAT acquisition…
And considering Castillo hit .302 with a .387 OBP in 2009 and had as much range as anything Murphy has it’s amazing what a difference a GM makes!
Castillo in his met career had:
.293 BA, .370 OBP only 21 errors in his 4 years here.
Murphy in his 4 years?
.291 BA .342 OBP 11 Errors in a half a season (78 Games at 2B)!
People think we hate Sandy and nothing could be further from the truth!
Our responses are directly due to the Over abundance of love showered on him before he has accomplished a damn thing and the incessant attempts at selling chop meat signings as a Steak Dinner!
As for Capuano if they had signed him to a two year deal at the reduced rate they might have a point.
To me we got nothing from him last year worth crowing about and all we really accomplished was giving him a venue to reclaim his career with nothing in return. We didn’t even get a draft pick out of it!
Do you guys not realize that Joe said “genius” as a smack at you guys? LOL. It was clearly tongue in cheek. It was a good signing, obviously not a genius signing.
Doesn’t matter if it was tongue in cheek. Posters in this thread are overreacting to a bench player that’s on a hot streak.
Vinny, it shows how BAD some of this people wanna praise alderson, all they got going is a backup player on a hot streak vs lefties and capuano doing good in LA as the greates acquisition for the GM and they wanna “tongue and cheek” pegged him as a genius.. How Sad..
Right, and they lower the bar for all of his signings, so when you get a guy like Hairston that plays well, and gets on a hot streak, everyone goes crazy and overreacts. Whereas if it was any other GM, it would just be viewed as a nice move and nothing more.
Can you name them?
Sure I can. Jessep and Even Flow.
Do you not realize that some took that as wrong as others and Ran with it?
If it was meant in Jest maybe you should point that out to the other folks who agreed with the statement not the ones who pointed out it’s rediculous hyperbole!
I happen to agree Joe was looking for a hefty debate…
Now that we have it whay are you trying to squash what Joe was looking for in the first place hwne he made the statement?
You Run a blog you should understand why things happen on them and why Admins set topics!
So let me see if i’m understanding this – signing a guy to a contract who was actually working delivering pizza – he makes the team – becomes one of the best backup catchers in baseball, delivers timely hit after timely hit as a sub then wins one of the most famous Mets postseason games ever with a dramatic walk off HR – that’s not genius. And it wasn’t referred to genius at the time because we all cumulatively had more common sense than to say stupid things like that.
But now signing a guy who is off to one of the hottest starts of his career – in June – for a team that can still finish in last place because it’s early – that’s genius.
yeah, okay.
“And it wasn’t referred to genius at the time because we all cumulatively had more common sense than to say stupid things like that.”
PLUS PLUS PLUS!
It’s also because we were too busy and more interested in giving props to the Players who did well as opposed to the GM who got them!
and Excellent point by both you and Vinny in pointing out if Hairstion is a stroke of genius whats the label we should use for the Dickey acquisition?
I think it’s clear he said genius with his tongue in his cheek.
Clearly designed to get a few rilled up lol. No doubt it was a good move. I just think genius was designed for flack.
Hey Joe D, I would of sworn when I saw the title to this post had the word Genius that you would reel in way more than 28 comments by days end.
Next time bring out the big guns like Santana No-Hitter that’s good for at least 170 plus.
He posted it too late in the day. Something like this has to go up just before lunch time.
Wow joe D, this is when the Dark Side force takes over in you, seriously?? What about boof bonser, carrasco, thayer, the bullpen this year, willie harris etc?? Were those moves consider what then??
The biggest acquisition of a GM is to put a TEAM together that can compete, we’re posting an article about ONE back up player who hits amazing against lefties. that shows the kind of GM we have in the front office. Bragging about a back up player… We should be having like 6 or 7 hairston with sandy at the helm, i mean, wasn’t he supposed to be a genius about this kind of stuff?? finding value on cheap players? should we act surprised when he does? he has done a terrible job as a GM of helping this team out, last year pretty much every single player he got either under perform, perform to their subpar/mediocre level, or plain and simple got hurt, this year so far….. NOTHING to write about, his bullpen have been ATROCIOUS, torres has been, well torres, Yet we’re posting articles about one back up guy.. AMAZING!
This blog, which is an opinion piece is about Scott Hairston, not yet another debate of every other player good or bad. Why do so many have to make every thing an argument.
Every GM in the history of MLB from the start of time have signed some good deals and some bad deals. Selective memory?
Does it really have to get regurgitated every time something positive is written the names of guys that didn’t make it?
Hairston has been a very bright spot in a trying time as a Mets fan.
End of story
Joe D – how DARE you use the word genius in an article YOU wrote on YOUR site? Where do you get the nerve?
Oh stop complaining. All you do now is complain about what other posters talk about. It’s annoying.
So what if people like to argue and debate all the time? Why do you care?
And no one said Joe couldn’t say the word genius, we just simply disagree with him.
yadda yadda yadda
Just so much irony in your post lolol
Your right. I shouldn’t have went down to your level. I shouldn’t have said anything.
“Oh stop complaining. All you do now is complain about what other posters talk about. It’s annoying.”
….too easy.
Ok, so I slipped up and made a mistake. You got me. Big deal. If you comment as much as I do, your bound to slip up and say something you might regret later somewhere along the line. It happens to everybody.
………..now back to baseball.
So, was Scott Hairston a good pick up. Id say yes.