15
2012
Mets Building Blocks And Question Marks
An article by 
During last night’s ESPN telecast of the Mets victory over the Braves, the announcers mentioned that the Mets have several “building blocks” but also several “question marks.”
At this point, the question marks far outweigh the building blocks, which is why the team has had moments of mediocrity this season.
There is still a month and half to play, but barring a miracle, the Mets would be wise to start turning their focus to next season.
I’ve compiled a breakdown of who fits the bill of a “building block” and who fits into the category of “question marks.”
BUILDING BLOCKS
David Wright: Yes, he’s in a bit of a cold streak, but even with that streak, he’s still hitting .320. The Mets must lock him up this offseason to a long-term deal. It would be painful watching him suit up for another team if a deal can’t be worked out. If the Sandy Alderson regime is remembered for doing anything, it better be renewing Wright’s contract.
R.A. Dickey: It’s strange to classify a 37-year-old as a building block, but Dickey fits the bill. He’s a legitimate Cy Young contender this year. He may have an occasionally poor start, but he’s been consistent, which is exactly what the Mets need.
Ruben Tejada: Both offensively and defensively, Tejada has been a diamond in the rough. He’s definitely a player the Mets will look to build around.
Ike Davis: Forget the slow start for a minute. Ike has great power potential and is still growing as a player. Hopefully, experiencing his early season slump will motivate him to never allow himself to go through that kind of stretch again.
Jon Niese: Not only is Niese locked up to a contract anyway, but he’s also begun to show his potential. He’ll put together a string of great starts and then look lost in other starts. He needs to be consistent like Dickey, and he’ll be a mainstay in the rotation.
Daniel Murphy: Murph has really silenced the critics who said he would be a butcher defensively. He’s been a solid fielder — not necessarily a Gold Glover, but a more than capable defender. Despite a midseason slump, he’s swinging the bat like the Murphy we know. Definitely a building block, but more of a role player.
Jordany Valdespin: The only way we are going to see what he can do is to see him everyday. Frankly, I’d like to see more of him in center field. He has the tools, but he now just needs the drive.
Lucas Duda: For some reason, I have a good feeling about Duda. He probably felt somewhat embarrassed being sent down after being with the big club for a year. Even if he turns into an Adam Dunn-type player, that wouldn’t be so bad, would it? Dunn strikes out a ton and hits for a low average, but he consistently hits home runs, drives in runs and draws walks.
Matt Harvey: A few very good starts from the youngster, but of course he gets no run support. He’ll likely be the fourth or fifth starter for next season.
Dillon Gee: Hoping for a swift recovery for Gee. He has turned himself into a capable back-of-the-rotation option.
Mike Baxter and Josh Edgin: I’d love to see these two guys with the team next year. Baxter is a solid fourth outfielder/pinch hitting option, and other than a few poor outings, Edgin has been a reliable reliever.
This is actually a significant amount of building blocks. Of course, many are nice role players, but you still need them to form a team. Now onto the question marks.
QUESTION MARKS
Johan Santana: Did the no-hitter negatively affect him? Probably not, but of course everybody points to that 134-pitch performance as the reason for his ineffectiveness. Maybe with Dickey stepping up this year, much of the pressure will be off Santana to be the staff ace. Still, the Mets need Santana to be consistently effective. They’re paying him a lot of money right now to be a sub-.500 pitcher. Big question mark.
Jason Bay: It’s looking like Bay is going to be on the roster next season, Mets fans, so get used to it. Maybe he’ll figure it out, maybe he won’t, but he’ll be given every chance to success (or fail). Maybe a Bay/Baxter platoon in left field, or even a Bay/Valdespin platoon would work. There has to be some sort of cutoff point though for Bay. If he’s hitting .150 by the All-Star break next year, it really is time to cut ties — and even that timeframe is being generous.
Bobby Parnell: Consistency, consistency, consistency. Parnell has the stuff to be a closer in this league, but he lacks consistency, which has been his downfall this season. The Mets will need him to be one of their main contributors next year out of the bullpen, so hopefully he can figure out how to be consistent.
The rest of the bullpen: Once again, expect much turnover in the Mets bullpen. I wouldn’t mind seeing Frank Francisco back, but not as the closer. Maybe through the trade, the Mets can bring in a legitimate closer. Don’t know who, but if money is again going to be tight, trades may be the only option. Maybe we’ll see Jenrry Mejia in next year’s bullpen. Even Manny Acosta has looked decent since being recalled. But again, the bullpen is a major question mark for this team.
Catcher: It’s time the Mets got some offensive production from the catcher’s position. It would be one thing is Josh Thole was leading the league in throwing out runners, but he isn’t. Here’s another spot where maybe a trade comes into play.
Kirk Nieuwenhuis: Kirk had the inside track to being the 2013 Mets starting center fielder, but then he fell flat. His strikeout pace was ridiculous. Like Duda, maybe getting sent down will light a fire under him for next season. He’s hurt now, so spring training will be big for him. He’s fantastic defensively, but he needs to get his swing in order.
Zack Wheeler: Only put on the question mark list since it will be a much-debated question about how the Mets will utilize him. It’s super unlikely that he makes a start this September. Maybe the Mets bring him up midseason next year like they did with Harvey this year. If there is a competition for the fifth starter, he’ll likely be in it. Best bet though, start the season in the minors. If the team isn’t going to be significantly improved, there’s no point in rushing Wheeler.
So there you have it. At a quick glance, it seems there are more building blocks that questions marks. The problem is that the magnitude of the question marks (Santana, Bay, bullpen) far outweighs that of the building blocks.
Patience might be the only answer to deal with the question marks.
About the Author: Jim Mancari
Jim Mancari hails from Massapequa, N.Y. He recently earned a Master's degree in Journalism at Hofstra University. He is a devout Mets fan and takes pride in his team, despite their lack of success over the last few years. Like all Mets fans, Jim has plenty of hope. He also writes as the sports reporter for the Brooklyn Tablet newspaper and the senior editor of metroBASEBALL Magazine. Click my name to view my personal website.
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nice post , i disagree about Parnell , i dont think he can be a reliable closer , he should fit in a setup role though . We badly need a catcher with some power for sure
Good post. It’s nice to see someone talk about some of the Mets players without the negative slant.
I still have faith in Ramon Ramirez for next year. “The back of his baseball card,” says too much positive things to have me doubt he can be a quality bullpen arm.
I think your comparison to Adam Dunn is a tad bit overboard for Duda. What made Dunn great was not just his power #s but his ability to get on base through walks. He was a legit threat not just through a pitch around but he had/has excellent strike zone judgement.
Duda does not have that skill set. To me, Duda is a perfect example of what happens when you (or we as fans) over hype our own players.
I don’t think you can go into next season and ignore any chance to upgrade over Duda, Spin, and Gee. Because frankly, Gee could be done. We’ll know nothing until he pitches. And Duda has had enough time to prove everybody right and he hasn’t done it yet.
We can get excited about Spin – but he’s been given some chances to start this month and has done a pretty poor job. He’s got a long way to go before he proves he’s a building block instead of a good pinch hitter.
“Duda does not have that skill set.”
Yes he does. He has good plate discipline. He takes a lot of walks, and always showed that abilty throughout his minor league career too.
In comparison to Adam Dunn? Are you kidding me right now?
At 22 years old, in Dunn’s first full year in the bigs he drew 128 walks in 158 games.
At 26 years old, in a TOTAL of 218 games – Duda has drawn 81 walks.
Just stop. Minor league plate discipline and big league plate discipline are not the same thing. If you’re going to argue with me whether Lucas Duda is similar to Adam Dunn, then all you’re doing is proving this statement 100% true.
“Duda is a perfect example of what happens when you (or we as fans) over hype our own players.”
What I meant was that Duda DOES have the abilty to get on base through walks. And I’m right. He was on a pace to walk 77 times this season. If you can do that, you do have the ability to get on base through walks. That’s all I was trying to say.
Your 1st post made it seem like Duda couldn’t get on base through walks. And all I said was that he does have the ability to do get on through walks.
in comparison to Adam Dunn….
But he does have the abilty to get on through walks. Maybe not as much as Dunn, but he does have the ability to get on through walks.
That’s all I was trying to say.
What a joke and a very poor jole the puppet jessup has become. The puppet has great faith in the guy who alderson brought over even tho he is over the hill ,burned out and likey to suck until he his out of baseball but the puppet goes further and blasts every kid brought into the org by Minaya. Watch out Tejada, one bad week and the puppet will make you out for toast as well. you are not funny nor are you a good puppet jesup. You are just a very pathetic and inept loser, just like the Met front office is under the fraud and teflon hero of you cultists.
The difference between you & I is: you look at each player and start the debate with which GM brought them to the team.
Omar Minaya and Sandy Alderson has nothing to do with my views of Duda, Gee or Spin.
If they do for you, then that’s your problem.
I have a surfire way to ensure Wright has a full and consistently good season….
Lets stop voting to send him to the All Star game!
It seems every ASG he goes to he comes back and tries to be a HR hitter and brings back an uppercut that leads to more Ks less hits and very few HRs.
So I will vote Pabo Sandoval from now on! Have Wright sit at home and rest up where he can’t get any bad habits trying to be like the guys in the HR derby!
yeah remember that terrible .330 2nd half batting average in 2008? Or that embarrassing .364 average in the 2nd half of 2007?
Every ASG, not so much…
His K% tends to DROP in the second half. I looked back at his splits for every year of his career, and for the most part, they usually drop 3-5%.
The pen will see lots of turnover, but we have some decent internal options. Edgin has looked good and Carson will probably be a September call up. There’s 2 lefties.
The outfield will see a shakeup too. there are some decent possible free agents this winter. If the Mets pick up a decent CF or RF, they can platoon Bay with Duda, have Kirk play either CF or RF and finally cut Bay if he can’t produce. You can even work ‘Spin or Baxter in there. The biggest problem is so many left handed 4th OFs. At least one of those guys is leaving.
since june 12th ike davis has 15 HR’s and 41 RBI. that is pretty good considering some 1B have those numbers for the whole season and are considered studs…
True. All Ike needs to do is cut down on his strikeouts with a controlled, balanced swing. He doesn’t have to hit 500-foot homers. He just needs to hit ‘em over the fence. In most cases, 400 feet will do the job. His footspeed is mostly O.K., but won’t be a strength.
If he finishes at around 25-30 HR season IMO it’ll be a success for him.. despite his early struggle that reminded me of when beltran came back in middle of July 2010 he too did not find his stroke after 2 months, it was the same with ike, and i think he’d be a 30+ HR guy for years to come for us.
This season has shown players that can be building blocks and allowed for the emergence and growth of a couple of players that may actually be parts of something long term. The continued development of Niese & Tejada. Ike Davis going through what is quite possibly the hardest stretch of his career and coming out on the other end of it still on pace to hit 30 HR’s and 90 plus rbi’s. Wright coming back and having a Silver Slugger type season as a 3rd baseman and the emergence of Edgin and Harvey to the pitching staff. Plus while I admittedly am biased when it comes to Capt Kirk I still feel he will be a starting outfielder for the Mets before all is said and done and be a positive contribution to the team in 2013.
I really don’t take any major issue with the article or comments. Some great insights. I would hate to see us gice up on Parnell. Not too many guys can throw a 95 MPO fastball consistentely. My biggest concern is the catching position. If you bring back Thole you have a catcher that in my opinion who catches RA Dickey very well. On the whole, few passed balls. As you look over MLB rosters you just don’t see any young good power hitting catchers available. You usually wind up with a 36 year old guy at the end of his career. Next year McCann is in his walk year but I doubt he would ever leave the Braves. He becomes the face of the franchise after Jones retires. I say we may be able to get another catcher but I just don’t see this as a position we can get any better at. Nikeas and Johnson are good backups.
They drafted a catcher named Tomas Nido that if he does well and is fast tracked will be exciting. Watched his playing from former teams and he appears to be a slugger. He’ll have to improve his catching skills and remains to be seen if he can make it, but looks to be offensively high ceiling. Plawecki also drafted this year is a contact hitter high OBP and more defensively skilled but the two blended together could be interesting. Catchers can be fast tracked just like Edgin (left handed reliever) was.
Staff
Building Blocks: Dickey, Niese, Gee, & Harvey. (Let Santana make his 17 starts next year and coach Wheeler, Familia, Harvey, and Mejia). Yes, bring all of them up in September.
Keep Frank-Frank, Parnell, and Edgin. (Not necessarily building blocks, but OK)
Replace the rest with veterans on flyers and the remainder of the young pitchers.
Fielders
Building Blocks: Wright, Davis, Tejada, Valdespin
Keep: Duda & Kirk (Third & Fourth outfielders)
Replace At Least Two of These: Bay, Thole, Murphy, and everyone else on the roster.
Basically they need to sign Wright and two legit players to sure up the Outfield, Second, and Catcher. Sign two and keep the player that can’t be replaced.
Everything else should be plugged from within.
Way too many AAAA types on this team to compete in the NL East in 2013. Sandy DO SOMETHING! Waiting for the contracts to expire is not a plan. I’d rather see the rip out happen now. Hold a fire sale. Wright and Dickey are a peak value. Those two could turn a 500 team into a winner. We are a losing team with or without them. Perhaps they could be bundled with Bay as a group salary dump.
We won’t start winning until those contracts are gone. We will only win when real talent emerges. Play our AAAA types and hope to find some major league talent. Lots of minor league free agents never get a chance to play in the Bigs, Lots of veterans want a second chance. Why pay big bucks for filler when we can get people to sign for minor league contracts. Sandy you cut the payroll 50 million this year. You can do it again. Lets see the 43 million dollar 2013 New York Mets.
‘Way too many AAAA types on this team to compete in the NL East in 2013′
Wish I didn’t agree with this.
I stopped reading when you listed Ike Davis as a building block. He is the definition of question mark.
The building blocks are scarce: Tejada, Wright, Edgin, Parnell (he’s a piece in a decent bullpen), Niese, Harvey, Gee (he’s solid and improving, plus he works hard) and Dickey (knuckleballers are ageless?). It would be so great for the Mets if next season Valdespin, Mejia and Wheeler elevated themselves into the building blocks category. Then we have the bones of a really good young pitching staff. That would be fun and, moreover, reason for hope.
You’re being way overly optimistic about our “building blocks”. Duda and Baxter? Would anyone really say their master plan is to build a team around Duda and Baxter?
I think fans fall into the trap of liking players in a vacuum, forgetting that every other team in MLB has guys just like Duda and Baxter, or more accurately, better than Duda and Baxter.
So even if Duda achieves his ceiling of being a guy who hits 25 HR, bats .210, and is a butcher in the field, every team in MLB has guys like that. It’s nothing special, and offers no advantage over any other team.
The idea is to get players who are better than other teams’ players, not keep grasping at mediocre players who might be ok someday if everything goes perfectly.
Good read.
Can’t say I agree with Valdespin or Duda being a building block. I’d put them in the questionable column.
From the questionable list, I’d be moving Acosta to ‘done’. He should not be back next year (I hope).
Love Murphy but I still believe he’s a place holder. He should be back next season as I don’t see anyone else competent enough to play 2nd base for opening day, 2013.
One thing I wish to mention about Ike Davis is, this season he was returning from being out for almost a year. Last year he hit the ground running and was batting over 300. He lost an entire year to injury and did not face major league pitchers during that time. Previously he had only spent a partial season with the mets. Not a full one, close but still not a whole season. When you take that into consideration (not that many do) one has to realize that his is basically his sophomore season and the league already had a book on him and he had not faced major league quality pitchers in a very long time. The fact he was never sent down and was allowed to work on things at this level and he pretty much has is crazy. Still though, he could have used some triple A at bats. So please folks give the kid a break, he works hard, he cares, he hustles, and he is still young and has a huge upside. The power is there and he will hit between 275 and 300. He has proven he can do that but, injuries that keep a young player out of the game for a year will have an effect. I look for him to start 2013 off much better than 2012 because he will truly have a full season under his belt and gotten used to the speed of the game at this level once again. Just a thought..