After injuring his ankle in last night’s game, Terry Collins just said that Wilmer Flores’ right ankle is worse today than it was last night.
Collins said they will wait a day or two before making a final decision, but Flores could be heading to the DL with a ‘twisted” ankle…
He is day to day now and Flores is limping, but they will hope for the best…
Unbelievable, we have the worst luck….
Original Post
Terry Collins said there’s no chance when asked if he will use Wilmer Flores in the outfield, according to Adam Rubin.
“Is he strictly an infielder going forward?” a reporter asked. “Yes,” Collins said.
As for using Flores at first base:
“We have too many guys there. To move him back to second, I don’t think is a big deal. This kid in the past has played shortstop and gone to winter ball and played third or short or second. You’d like to keep him in a comfort zone as best you can.”
Collins said he plans to give Flores a look at second base by the end of the season.
“Still, I think it’s important to see how he plays when he gets an opportunity to play second base, see how he handles it, so we can have a better judgment of whether or not we think he can play the middle of the infield at the major league level.”
Flores made a great diving play toward the line last night and quickly jumped back up in time to fire a throw to first base to get the runner out by a step.
In that one play he debunked the myth that he can’t field his position. The sarcasm was overflowing on Twitter after Flores ranged wide to his right like that, speared the liner and jumped back up and showed off his strong and accurate arm.
Oh, and he did that with a sore ankle that had to be taped up…
So much for the so-called internet experts and “baseball people”….
There’s a lot of garbage being spewed out there on sites much larger than this one…. Don’t believe everything you read and it’s okay to believe your eyes sometimes…
Original Post
Congratulations to Wilmer Flores who walloped his first major-league home run on Sunday as the Mets beat the Diamondbacks 9-5.
Flores extended his streak to five straight games with an RBI and also tied the franchise record for most runs batted in with nine in his first six major league appearances. It’s shaping up to be one of the best debuts for a Mets position player in franchise history.
Flores went 2-for-4 with a walk and three runs scored today as he wrapped up an impressive one week debut. What stuck out the most for me was his ability to barrel up on pitches that were off the plate and make solid contact. It’s quite impressive that in 23 at-bats, Flores has only struck out once while drawing two walks. I loved watching him come back from an 0-2 count and take the walk on Friday. We have something very special here… To see this kind of composure in a 22-year old rookie bodes well for his future success.
Defensively, after a case of the jitters in his first game, Flores has fielded his position well as Terry Collins pointed out today.
“He’s done fine. He’s made a couple of nice plays to his left, been pretty good,” Collins said. “ He made a nice play on a hard hit ball to his left. He’s done fine. He is not David Wright, but we are not looking for that. We are just looking for him to make the routine play and he has made the routine play.”
While Collins intends to play Flores at second base in the upcoming Dodgers series, he says his bat is definitely one that profiles best at a corner position – something I’ve been hammering for a long while to those who say he doesn’t have enough power to be a first baseman. Bull…
“We’re going to try to play him a game at second base, but the way he swings the bat, you look down the road in the future, and mostly likely he’s going to be on the corner — because he’s going to be a run-producing guy,” Collins said. “But I do know we want to see him at second.”
It was quite the week for Flores who has had scouts excited ever since signing with the Mets as a 16-years old free agent from Venezuela. It looks like all the hype was justified and Flores is looking more and more like the franchise player many envisioned him to be, with every sweet swing of his bat.
