8
2013
Governor Chris Christie Likes The Mets’ Direction
An article by 
According to the Star-Ledger, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie spent some time on SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Radio channel yesterday discussing the Mets. Christie has been a long-time Mets fan, and will be in the stands on April 1 when the Mets take on the San Diego Padres on opening day.
Christie went through a list of players he likes, which he considers the nucleus, and includes David Wright, Ike Davis and Daniel Murphy. He’s also excited about seeing top catching prospect Travis d’Arnaud in blue and orange very soon. Christie believes with that young core of players, in addition to the Mets’ young pitchers Matt Harvey, Jon Niese and Zack Wheeler, the Mets are headed in the right direction. Like most Mets fans, Christie raises questions about the outfield situation, but is looking forward to 2014 where he hopes that the Mets can add a few pieces to the puzzle.
Christie sounds like most Mets fans these days—he likes the young core, loves the young pitching, and has no idea what the outfield situation is going to look like. The outfield situation quickly becomes the center of attention for anyone discussing the Mets. The fans are tired of it and want to move on, but unfortunatley it’s one of those problems that seem to continue rearing it’s ugly head.
When looking at how some of the outfielders performed this spring, it could prompt a Mets fan to say to themselves “maybe this outfield won’t be as bad as everyone thinks.” I actually buy into that thought, but only out of sheer optimism. Overall, the performance of the outfield this spring has been utterly disappointing for me.
I expected Lucas Duda to take a step forward. I expected Kirk Nieuwenhuis to soildify himself as an everyday player, and even before the knee injury, did little to convince us he was ready. These are two guys the Mets really were hoping would take the bull by the horns, and it’s looking like they still need more fine tuning.
One guy that has really turned some heads this spring has been Matt den Dekker, in centerfield. Everyone should know how I feel about den Dekker by now (You down with MDD? Yeah you know me). Den Dekker is a human highlight reel with solid power, and will be a 20/20 type of a guy once he makes it to the show. I would love to see him in centerfield for the Mets this year, but the reality is starting to set in that he will be starting the season with Las Vegas. Hopefully he tears it up in Triple-A and joins the Mets sometime in the middle of the year.
It looks more and more like Collin Cowgill and Marlon Byrd will be with the team when camp breaks. Not only will they be with the team, but they seem to be playing themselves into starting roles. Most fans have been blown away by the play of these two guys, as the bar was set very, very low coming into the spring. It will be interesting to see how these guys perform once the regular season starts and opposing pitchers are trying to get them out, rather than getting their work in. There will most likely be a drop off in performance from these two guys once the regular season starts.
Jordany Valdespin is another guy that seems to be playing himself into a starting role this spring. With his skill set, it wil be very difficult to not have him in the lineup everyday. It seems like Valdespin is starting to realize that he has a major opportunity to leap frog some guys that got off to slow starts this spring, and he’s going after it.
So here we are, three weeks into spring training, and the outfield situation is just as muddled as it was when camp opened. It’s starting to look like the competition is separating, but it’s yet to be seen what kind of impact the spring performance will have on who is in that starting lineup when the season opens up. This saga will continue into the regular season.
About the Author: Mitch Petanick
Mitch is currently an Editor and Minor League Analyst for Mets Merized Online. His baseball experience includes being a former All-Conference collegiate baseball player who had numerous professional tryouts, and he is currently a hitting instructor. He has been involved with the game of baseball for over 30 years now as a player, coach, and consultant. Mitch is also a former Featured Columnist on Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @FirstPitchMitch.
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When i (and pretty much everyone who is called anti alderson) started seeing what alderson was doing at first when he got here, i said 2014 is the year, i of course got mocked, insulted, attacked, called a hater etc….. Now everyone seems to be on the 2014 bandwagon we all predicted from the get go…. LEt’s all cross our fingers and hope all these kids turn out to be good, because if they don’t, along with the wilpons’ financial issues, SA unwillingness to spend on FA, it’ll be real ugly for the new york mets for years and years to come.. I’m talking pittsburgh pirates territory kind of ugly…
“i of course got mocked, insulted, attacked, called a hater etc”… by who?
Considering I too said 2014, wouldn’t that mean I too got mocked, insulted…
I think most rational fans when Omar was fired started to point to 2014 as the tell tell year.
I TOO ESPOUSED 2014 OR BUST! TO ANYONE WITHIN EARSHOT! HOWEVER IN LIEU OF THE PRESENT UNKNOWNS IN THE OUT”FIELD OF SLEEPWALKERS” I’M MUCH MORE CONFIDENT RELYING ON THE STRONG POTENTIAL FOR THE POSSIBLE 2015 ROTATION COMPRISED OF HARVEY,WHEELER,NIESE,SYNDREGAARD,GEE AS A MORE SUITABLE FOR BATTLE WITH DC & ,ATL
SURELY, I CAN’T BE THE ONLY ONE WHO WOULD DEMAND TO SEE WRIGHT’S BATTING POSITION DROPPED TO PROTECT DAVIS & SPLITTING UP A POTENTIAL DOUBLE LH POWER COMBO HITTING 4th,5th AS JUST BEGGING FOR THE OPPOSITION’S LOOGIE.
AS FOR BATTING THIRD, I AGREE THAT’S MURPHY’S NATURAL POSITION ON ANY DIAMOND BE IT OFFENSE OR DEFENSE.
IF DUDA IS TO KEEP FACING LOOGIES AS I SUSPECT HE WILL BEHIND DAVIS DIRECTLY, HIS STRUGGLES WILL BECOME LEGENDARY BETTER TO TEMPT THE OPPOSING MNGR TO SHOOT HIS L;H LOAD PREMATURELY TO FACE MURPH & IKE THEN PULLING HIM AGAINST WRIGHT NOTRIOUS LHP KILLER, FOLOWED BY DUDA.
CONFUSED?
HERE’S MY PREFERRED LINEUP
COWGILL-CF
TEJADA-SS
MURPHY-2B
DAVIS-1B
WRIGHT-3B
DUDA-LF
BYRD-RF
BUCK-C
PITCHER
CONSIDERING WHAT’S IN CAMP I BELIEVE THAT’S TO BE OUR POTENTIALLY MOST DANGEROUS. ANY DISSENTERS?
If I were writing out the lineup card, with the cast and crew we have, Matt DD would get a shot at center. He seems to hit pitchers mistakes, and rest will have to come with time and experience. His defense give him the edge. Cowgill and Byrd start in the corners until they prove they can’t hit MLB pitching. Valdespine can platoon where needed, including 2nd base. The hope is the FO will find a better alternative and act on it before the bell rings. Maybe look into the availability of Tyler Colvin of the Rockies. Thay need pitching. Here’s hoping. I can watch Duda and Kirk in Las Vegas or the Mets can ship them off for something. Good post Mitch.
Heybatter. yes, tyler colvin, yet another can’t miss prospect who showed nothing when came up to the bigs….. Hear that SRT.
.290 .327 .531 .858 with 18 HR and 10 3B. Can I have some of that nothing?
LOL
I’ll take a prospect that develops into a solid ML every day. Not all are going to be superstars.
I knew someone was gonna come and showed me that, here you go since you love SPLITS:
Home: 338 BA 380 OBP 652 SLUG% 11 HR 50 RBI 226 Plate App
Road: 279 BA 320 OBP 455 SLUG% 7 HR 22 RBI 226 Plate App
Ohhhh, and with the cubs in 637 PA here are his numbers:
215 BA 274 OBP 422 SLUG% 26 HR 78 RBI
Alex,
I’m not sure COlvin goes in the bust category, but you are correct that he came up with a lot of promise and then ended up (with Cubs) slumping badly. Now they are touting Rizzo as their savior, and he surely has impressed so far.
The thing you have to realize about Colvin’s numbers that you posted is that those numbers aren’t wildly far off from a 2012 Ike Davis, right?
2013 will be an important year for Colvin to establish himself–if he ever does, but the potential is there.
I would hardly call that showing nothing.
.278/.320/.455 is bad? For a road split? Really?
I love how you miss the point donal. Coors field is a friendly hitters park, which inflated his numbers, making his season better than what it was, my whole point was that he was a highly touted prospect for the cubs, he just didn’t pan out to be what they thought he was gonna be and got traded, maybe a new place like colorado will help him, but as a cub highly touted prospect, he failed miserably.
Thanks for your comment…
No, your point was just lame. You held up his splits as some sort of proof of what a terrible year he had.
You held up his home road splits and yes, there is a big difference, but his road splits were not terrible. they just were less than his home.
His splits look way better than Justin Upton’s.
Instead of trashing the proposal, come up with something better.
Was i thrashing the proposal……….??????????? do you guys even read what i said or just wanna debate for the sake of debate? Read again……
A name the Mets should look at is the Dodgers’ Scott Van Slyke. RH hitting OF/1B with lifetime MiLB slash line of .290/.360/.476. He is the son of former Gold Glove Pirates CF Andy Van Slyke, plays primarily RF, but can also play LF and 1B. BA says he has “soft hands” @ 1B and a good arm for the OF. Also runs well for his size (6’5, 250 lbs.). I know what you’re thinking, a rh version of Lucas Duda. But Van Slyke seems to be a better athlete than Duda, meaning he’s a better OF’er as well. He has the bloodlines and likely good instincts, though he’s probably no star either. But he’s blocked at his 3 positions in LA so probably could be had fairly inexpensively and would seem to be the kind of skillset this team is looking for. Just a thought.
Oh, I hated his father–a Mets killer!
This upcoming off-season will be HUGE and go a long way determining whether enduring the last two and probably this upcoming season was worth it or not.
The Mets – with a projected payroll of roughly 52.5 million $ for 2014 – should AT LEAST have room to add another 30 million $ in payroll for 2014 this upcoming winter. With the goal being to break even. There will be a big revenue spike for 2014 thanks to the new National TV deal. And that´s even leaving out what the Wilpons could easily chip in from the outside using gains SNY will make thanks to their favorable TV deal with the Mets.
So, for the first time in 4 off-seasons, SA & Co. will have serious money to play with. And at the same time a youthful roster that´s basically set except for maybe one rotation spot, maybe a bullpen spot or two and probably two fulltime outfielders. At the same time, the farm system depth should be gravitating from the lower levels to the upper levels to create more valuable trade bait, especially among the plethora of young pitching.
So far, most of the moves made a lot of sense with this big picture in mind.
However, next year, the building phase needs to be completed – even if the peak of the “new” Mets may not be until 2016 or 2017.
When I read the Governor’s remarks My thought was well Clayton will be happy to know that the Governor at least recognizes Niese as part of the mix.
Christie should stick to what he does best at the ballpark..Eating hotdogs.The last time he went to Citifield his personal food vendor was treated for exhaustion from walking back and forth from shake shack with the Governor’s food requests.I guess the Mayor Bloomberg interview will be here tomorrow.I understand he gets very upset when he sees big soda cups at the ballpark…
Unless he is drinking from it
he wants to cozy up to Obama fine….
But I wont STAND for this! LOL
(of course I’m joking!)
The Mets starting outfield should be Cowgill, Den Dekker, Byrd with Valdespin as the 4th. I have zero faith in Duda and believe the guy will never put it together. Capt. Kirk should go to AAA for another season.
While I understand your lack of faithin Duda you still have to give him the chance to lose the job after those 15 HRs he hit last year….
Remember we have more needs on this team than just the Glove positions…We also have a severe lack of Power we need to get into the lineup everyday and Duda is the ONLY guy who seemingly can give it to us.
Duda is not competing with anyone else…He is competing with himself!
And it’s all about his Bat. If his Bat shows what it should he will be the regular LF or at minimum the platoon player vs righties.
“It seems like Valdespin is starting to realize that he has a major opportunity to leap frog some guys that got off to slow starts this spring, and he’s going after it.”
And having said that Spin with a HR today and it is followed by this tweet from Rubin.
@AdamRubinESPN
Yes. And he’d have to displace Kirk or Turner. Kirk, I’d bet. // RT @BTeneyck54: is it safe to say Valdespin makes the opening day roster?
https://twitter.com/AdamRubinESPN/status/310123327446454274
Duda/LF, Den Dekker/CF, Valdespin/RF vs Righties?
I don’t think Turner and V-Spin are competing either. I think it’s just MDD, Kirk and V-Spin. I could be wrong.
Capt Kirk’s injury looks like it may cost him by setting him back enough where he may have to go to AAA. Though he wasn’t putting up good at bats in his early showing to begin with.
Yeah, I will be curious to see how much time they get V-Spin the OF. Of course Murphy’s injury isn’t helping either.