25
2012
Wholesale Change #1 – Mets Claim Catcher Anthony Recker Off Waivers From Cubs
An article by 
We’re going to track all the wholesale changes for you as they go down this off-season, and on that note I have the great pleasure of announcing that the Mets have claimed catcher Anthony Recker off waivers from the Chicago Cubs. he becomes the first official acquisition of the 2013 season, joining Chin-Lung Hu in 2011 and Vinny Rotino in 2012.
Recker, 29, played for both the Cubs and the Oakland A’s (so he must be good) last season and was even on their Opening Day roster. However, the right-handed hitting catcher batted just .129 in 13 games before being optioned to Triple-A Sacramento.
He was designated for assignment on August 20 and then traded to the Cubs where he batted .167 with a home run and four RBI in nine games.
Minor league fodder, folks… Hope he doesn’t end up being a Home Recker for us… 
The Mets are making moves, baby!
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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NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braves | 41 | 28 | .594 | - |
| Nationals | 34 | 34 | .500 | 6.5 |
| Phillies | 33 | 37 | .471 | 8.5 |
| Mets | 25 | 39 | .391 | 13.5 |
| Marlins | 21 | 47 | .309 | 19.5 |
Last updated: 06/16/2013
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So, now every deal has to be a game changer?
Do we really have to deal with that again?
apparently. unless it doesn’t fit the agenda.
LOL
Yes, because we’re the only team that doesn’t need any minor league depth/players. Johnson is gone so he’s probably just a replacement for him down there.
Wow! Something completely different and new! Things are starting to change!
not….
The headline shows the inherent bias.
This is another deal that makes no difference. Rob Johnson opted for FA. So the Mets needed someone to catch in AAA. Here is the guy. What do you expect? The next coming of Johnny Bench?
Every team is baseball if signing guys like these to fill in at different levels of the minor leagues. But hey, the Mets are in a big market. They should spend $4M or $5M on a guy to start in Vegas.
Oh, lighten up; it’s just a joke.
Does Anthony Recker for Rob Johnson constitute a wholesale change?
All things considered, Recker has fairly strong minor league hitting stats – note his home run totals and on base percentage…
http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/profile.asp?P=Anthony-Recker
A mild upgrade at the AAA level.
The headline shows inherent bias??????? Y’ever visit a site called Amazin Avenue? Not only biased the most egocentric, arrogant, & condescending site of faux baseball fans that ever poisoned the internet blogosphere?
God FORBID that a site with an opposing view to Alderson’s plan should ever express itself and not only that to ever express itself with gallow’s humor. Try go seeing what that other disgraceful site does on a daily basis.
One more thing, when do we see the new Recker graphics?
You know they bash Sandy Alderson too, right?
It’s hard to argue that you aren’t biased towards the GM when you have picture of his face on your twitter account. Like this:
http://twitter.com/amazinavenue
And when after he was first hired, you rename your site after him.
Lmao!!!! WTF is this????? Those guys are the worst..
LOL
LoL, Home Recker. At least your keeping a sense of humor to this. You nailed it when you said it is Minor league fodder. It’s nothing more than that.
I thought the people who thrive on snark and sarcasm would have gotten a big kick out of my title. Boy was I wrong, lol.
‘Home Recker’….I thought it was pretty clever.
Joe, Exactly what we’ve been saying for the past 2 years, as soon as you make a comment about sandy or make a mockery (Same thing he does to mets fans) about his signing, his legion of slu___ errr, fans jump out the woods to defend their lord..
This is a horrible move once again, but hey, don’t tell that to donal and co, this is just a minor league filler according to them, problem is, most of this POS’s players we’ve been acquiring the past 2 years are also minor league fillers and they somehow end up with the ballclub.. go figure.
You were snarky but on the wrong side of the arugument apparently….
You think you got nailed imagine what the reaction would have been if you had posted that article as me!
We would be well over 200 Comments by now most of which had nothing baseball in them at all!
Seeing this from AA:
In the minors, however, he’s been a significantly better hitter than that, albeit in some very hitter-friendly environments. He had an .889 OPS in 2011 and .789 this year, which isn’t spectacular but isn’t awful, either. He hit 10 home runs in just 253 plate appearances this year, too, so there’s at least a little bit of pop in his bat.
Eh…very rare you get a diamond in the rough claiming someone off waivers. Not sure he’s anything more than minor league depth.
Well then he will hit a ton in Vegas which, I hear, is as homer friendly as it gets.
Three words. Pacific Coast League. If you like those numbers you’re going to love what the Mets do in Las Vegas next season. Someone needs to send that site the memo.
the next coming of Omir Santos! 2013 NL East Champs right hurrrrr
Recker hit the jackpot. If he can hit 220 for the 51s he’ll get a call up to the big club. Now what other team would do that?
Quite a few, actually. There might be 10 legit everyday catchers in MLB.
And why is that? A generation ago every team had very good to good catchers and some of their backups were as good as the first line catchers I know Joe Girardi and Gary Carter and Thurman Munson and Carlton Fisk and others from team to team all of them had similar caliber positions. Today there are just a few like Brian McCaan and Buster Posey and the rest are in the Josh Thole category. My theory is that it is a position that kids don’t want to play and it is usually reserved for the overweight kid who can’t run or play the infield.I am sure it is probably the same way in other countries too. When you look back at the career of a Johnny Bench , Yogi Berra, and Gary Carter you really appreciate how special they really were. A first rate pitcher who is MVP quality is as valuable as a 20 game winner.
It is more basic than that. If a kid shows the ability to hit as a catcher, they are moving him out of there. A guy like Joe Torre would never have come up as a catcher in this day. The same is most likely true for Bench, Fisk, etc. Harper was a catcher until they moved him to the OF. There is talk of moving Posey. The only ones who remain behind the plate are the guys from Latin America.
Can’t disagree. I know that Dale Murphy was moved to the outfield because he wasn’t able to throw to second on attempted steals. It was amazing they kept Piazza as a catcher because he was knocked for his low caught stealing stats. It really is an odd position in that if a team finds a good one they don’t want to keep him there but the few good ones are worth their weight in gold. Just look at the Hall of Fame catchers.
Piazza’s throwing arm was way overblown. It definately wasn’t good, but Piazza was a very capable receiver. He blocked pitches well, called a good game and pitchers liked throwing to him. A lot of people back when he played used his poor arm as an excuse to crap all over his defense as a whole, and that was a very shortsighted opinion, I think. But because of his offense, he wouldn’t have been a catcher if he played today.
Hi Xtreem,
One thing, however, Piazza not having a strong arm counteracts at least some thought that he might have been taking steroids. Besides his power hitting, his arm would have been stronger – perhaps wild and inaccurate – but stronger due to him being juiced up.
Remember we saw Pudge Rodriguez throwing out base runners while still on his knees? Many a player said that was just humanly impossible.
” A generation ago every team had very good to good catchers and some of their backups were as good as the first line catchers ”
No. Just, no.
” I know Joe Girardi and Gary Carter and Thurman Munson and Carlton Fisk and others from team to team all of them had similar caliber positions. ”
You named 4 guys covering a span of 40 years.
” My theory is that it is a position that kids don’t want to play and it is usually reserved for the overweight kid who can’t run or play the infield.I am sure it is probably the same way in other countries too. ”
Actually, there seems to be more emphasis on athleticism at the position. same with goalies in hockey. People are figuring out the fat kids get tired especially in all the gear.
“When you look back at the career of a Johnny Bench , Yogi Berra, and Gary Carter you really appreciate how special they really were. ”
Well, they are Hall of Famers.
A generation ago you had guys like McCarver, Boone, Sundberg, Dempsey, Scoscia, Porter, Simmons, Parrish, Cerone, Benedict, Ott, and Cerone. All these guys were better than 80% of the catchers in baseball today.
In the NL east, every one of them would be the starter on the Mets, Nats, and Marlins.
Agree with your comments however when I watched the Little League series from Williamsport this past year did you notice the big beefy kids catching for American teams. Another observation is that have you noticed in general how catchers make good managers like Girardi, Scosia, (well Berra in general didn’t have good teams but he did well). One exception is McCarver. Can you imagine him as a manager. After a 5 minute session with him you would be certified crazy. We lost Gary Carter too soon but he would have been a good one too,
I’ve been tossing and turning wondering who Sandy would get to replace Rob Johnson.
Championship!
Recker and Dekker – the next Heckle and Jeckle?
Yup, that’s a big one.
Does Recker take a spot on the 40 man roster?
Yes.
Until Sandy does anything significant he will get heat…Aside from giving away our best hitter ( Beltran-Wheeler Sandy and his crew of GMs have acquired absolutely nothing of value. Any success was from players that have been here since the Omar era..He only subtracted productive players, including reasonably prices players like Pagan. He doesn’t sign our lead off hitter, Reyes and then trades our other leadoff hitter and center fielder for two bums. I remember them speaking about Wright and Dickey deals could be done by end of October..Not a chance in hell..Step it up Sandy
Anthony Recker…Hits one to the upper decker.
(Trying to be optimistic)
On a serious note, if this guy somehow ends up in the major leauges, I can promise you all a string of Recker jokes.
Satish — Let’s step back. Our guys play in a town called Flushing.
Let the dumpster diving begin !!
It could be worse, We could go from dumpster diving to tunneling up into the pile of $#!T
Hi Metsie,
I thought we were already in that kinda situation?
Joey
Catching spot done, now the outfield.
I mean, the more i see this i find it more comical.. Same thing that was said about guys like Hu, Quintanilla, Young, etc… “Ohhh, well, those are minor league moves”.. yet.. They end up with the big club, and the excuse then move to “Well, never hurts to see what they got”, then, once they suck big time, the excuse then move to “Well,, we didn’t pay much for them and already cut our losses” yeah, no SH__.. The legion of fans for this guy is becoming quite absurd. Forget about the team you root for growing up, it’s all about proving advance stats and having a guy who knows about it at the helm making decisions and support his decisions at all cost, no matter if they suck big time
I thought they said Wright would be signed by World Series, not Recker?
Oh Boy! This makes all the Season ticket holders run for their renewal sheets! Damn things should be printed on toilet paper so you can wipe your tears from crying and then wipe your as* with them from the bubble gut giggles you get thinking about the money your laying out for this kind of buffoonary.
Honest to God, why doesn’t Pope Benedict get it over with and put Alderson in for his Sainthood already?
Wait, I know, this is only for minor league depth right? Or maybe just in case Kelly Shoppach takes someone elses 1.5 million offer instead of ours… It ‘s always the same story. Last I looked i’m a NY Met fan, Not a Las Vegas 51 fan. I’m tired of nickels being tossed around by this franchise like they’re manhole covers…
I don’t know who bul***ts us more with the promise of wonderful and exciting news to come – Donald Trump or Sandy Alderson.
Just another move to say we made a move….
When is the Anthony Recker press conference? Will the interrupt programming on SNY? I hope it’s as rousing as the Chin Lung Hu press conference boy was i pumped
Hi Bayonne,
To this day I’ve been living with the regret of having missed Chin’s press conference.
dudes, the team is broke and is 4-5 players away from contending, accept it is going to be a long year, it could be worse, we could be cleveland fans