30
2012
MMO Fair or Foul: Demoting Nieuwenhuis Was A Mistake
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This edition of Fair or Foul examines the following post by Toby Hyde of MetsMinorLeagueBlog who says that demoting struggling outfielder Kirk Nieuwenhuis was a mistake. As usual, here is part of what his post, followed by my own thoughts. Remember to read his full post by clicking the link above.
Sunday, the Mets optioned OF Kirk Nieuwenhuis to AAA Buffalo to replace him with Mike Baxter. This is a mistake. The team is keeping no fewer than four players inferior to Nieuwenhuis on the active big leaguer roster….Nieuwenhuis, strikeouts and woes against lefties and all, is a better option in the big leagues in 2012 than Baxter or Valdespin. The only viable explanation for sending him to AAA now is developmental. However, expecting production on both sides of the ball, from Valdespin and Baxter, that exceeds what Nieuwenhuis can provide is not reasonable. Nieuwenhuis has a far better chance to contribute to the next Mets playoff team than Baxter, Torres and Bay. The last two months obscure this fact, but Nieuwenhuis has a chance to be part of the future.
Nieuwenhuis needs the exposure to big league pitching. In his last tour of duty in Buffalo, he beat up International League pitching at a .298/.403/.505 rate in 2011.
While the bullpen draws much of fan ire around the 2012 Mets, the outfield’s woes are nearly as severe. As a unit, the team’s outfield is 22nd overall in wRC+ and 29th in UZR. Put simply, it’s a bad offensive unit, and one of the worst defensive groupings. Removing Duda will improve the outfield defense moving forward. Removing Nieuwenhuis will not solve any problems and does not move the Mets appreciably forward to their next playoff team.
To begin, regardless of whether you think demoting Kirk was a good idea, I believe it’s undeniably an upgrade when his replacement is Mike Baxter. And while it’s difficult for me to make heads or tails of some of the advanced metrics Toby cites to prove his case, my eyes tell me that Baxter is a far more advanced hitter than Kirk. Baxter strikes out less, walks more, has a greater percentage of extra-base hits and has a considerably higher rate of driving in runs.
Baxter may not have Kirk’s defensive prowess, but that alone is not a good enough reason not to make the switch.
I get the sense that Hyde sees Kirk as a player who has nothing left to prove in the minors. I strongly disagree. Kirk was leading the team with 98 strikeouts, and with a full compliment of 600 plate appearances he would have eclipsed 200 K’s. That’s unacceptable, especially from a player with a .376 slugging percentage. Baxter incidentally was producing a .523 slugging before he got injured. Unsustainable for sure, but radically better than Kirk’s even if he were to lose 100 points.
Andres Torres being cut to make room for Baxter at the expense of keeping Kirk on the roster sounds tempting, but it is still a bad idea. Believe me, I’m no fan of Torres, but he does give Terry Collins a speed option when he needs it, and he can be relied on for solid defense. But the biggest case for keeping Andres Torres, is his splits against left-handed pitching against whom he’s posted a .294/.423/.412 slash in 85 at-bats. The Mets could ill afford to lose his bat in the lineup against southpaws.
Jason Bay is not going to get cut, and considering that as an option means you haven’t been paying attention this season to what Sandy Alderson and Terry Collins say about him. He’s as useless as an air conditioner in an igloo, but he’s also a fixture on the active roster if not the everyday lineup, and that won’t change until next spring at the earliest.
We don’t know what we have yet in Kirk. All he has proven is that he can rake at Triple-A, but not so much in the majors. The same could be said about Val Pascucci. Kirk’s destiny lies in his own hands. He needs to change his approach which is far too aggressive. If he doesn’t, than you are looking at a classic AAAA player and the Mets have too many of those types on their roster already.
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.
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I’m a big Kirk guy…but he needed to go down. He wasn’t hitting well enough to deserve playing time, he wasn’t hitting in pinch hit situations and was K’ing way to much. Especially now that MLB pitchers know that they can just pitch him up and in to get an out.
Kirk as a ton of talant and potential, but he needs to learn plate displine and he won’t done that sitting on the bench for the Mets. He’ll be back sooner or later and he’ll be better for it.
Very well put…..Kirk got off to a tremendous start which got so many Met fans excited but major league pitchers learn quickly what a hitter’s weakness’ are and they will take advantage until the hitter makes an adjustment. Kirk never managed to curb his aggressiveness and became a strikeout machine. Being sent down will not hurt him at all and if he listens to the coaches, he will come back a better player.
He will be back!
I really do believe the moves in house that the mets are making is half ass once again, This is what i mean how the owners suck, All we need is a few pieces to help us get to the wild card. But here we are again caught up in the cross roads. Like i said in the 35 years that the wilpons have been a apart of our team how many champion ships we won one. Like how the yankees just been over the same years as the wilpons, the yanks won alot alot, Now do you see the light mets fans, the wilpons need to go as long as they still own our mets we will never be a contender ever.
I’m fine with demoting Kirk provided they play him vs LHP and don’t platoon him.
As far as the move for Baxter I don’t see this a real replacement though.
Yes Baxter has been good and deserves to be here based on his performance but I still see the issue is the light hitting Torres and Baxter really doesnt’
t solve that problem for us.
What this move really does is force Torres to play everyday. That is unless they plan on playing Hairston in CF.
Valdespin sure shouldn’t be thrown out there yet.
That said Kirk will probably be helped by this demotion and I expect it to be a short one at that.
Yes he had a horrible BA vs Lefties but truth be told he has never gotten enough PA vs Lefties to see if doing so would help him see the righties better!
In the end they have to get Kirk to a point where they can play him against everyone!
The K’s are alarming but not un-expected. and if you look you see that his K’s haven’t increased anymore frequently than when everyone loved him back in April and March.
in 88 PA he had 25Ks and 7 BB.
In May he had 29K and 10BB in 93PA
June he had 26Ks 5BB in 90PA
So he has been consistent on the Ks it’s the hits that have eluded him
And mostly because he only got 43PA in all of July.
The kid can’t adjust to what the pitching is doing to him if he doesn’t get up to the plate!
Since they insist on platooning him and not playing him in this case (Differently from Ike) they might as well send him down where he CAN play everyday!
He was doing fine until Terry got on this Stack the RHH in there despite them all being light hitters and platooning him.
It’s a ‘foul’ to be debating which AAA grade player we should be keeping on the roster at all.
Obviously Hyde was trolling and looking for hits. Either that or he’s just another jackass with a soapbox. Nieuwy was sucking and killing the team!
We know Kirk is going to be a big part of 2013. Let’s see Baxter play everyday. I hope Loewen gets a September call up.
Joe D. — “Believe me, I’m no fan of Torres….”
Why not Joe? You gave a lot of reasons why you should.
1) he does give Terry Collins a speed option when he needs it
2) he can be relied on for solid defense.
3) But the biggest case for keeping Andres Torres, is his splits against left-handed pitching against whom he’s posted a .294/.423/.412 slash in 85 at-bats.
As you said, Joe D., “The Mets could ill afford to lose his bat in the lineup against southpaws.”
Wow, comparing Cap Kirk to a lifetime minor league player, ouch that hurts!:)
I also believe he needs to go down if it is to play against LH pitchers, all the time so he works on his approach and stop swinging at that high and away fastball.
Spin is at the most a LF, he has speed but an infield arm, not even a SS arm but with Bay being shoved into lineup by TC and SA then that leaves little options.
I say Duda in LF next year, Kirk in CF/RF and a RH bat in RF cause this team really needs it.
Wow, if we don’t get rid of Pagan/Reyes then speed wouldn’t be an issue and Torres splits against RH are better but he strikes out a lot too.
I always side with sending struggling fist year players back to the farm. Kirk was in a rut and a move like this could prove to be good for him. Same with Duda.
Kirk’s strikeout rate is a bit of a problem. He needs to get the bat on the ball. That’s what he should work on now without the glare of the major leagues.