Good morning, Mets fans!
Another crazy game last night. Why do the Mets always do this to us? I know I’m not the only one who actually expected the unthinkable to happen… but once Jose Valverde threw ball 3 to Erick Aybar and the guys in the SNY truck cut to Raul Ibañez looming on deck, I said “Ibañez will probably hit a home run” out loud… 2 minutes later, well… you all know what happened. But we got the win in the end, so… I think we can let this one slide, Mr. Valverde.
Anyway, Omar Quintanilla is on my mind this morning. Q made his first start of the season at shortstop and had 3 hits while driving in a pair of runs. Omar also made a few very nice plays on defense.
Omar Quintanilla is 32. Ruben Tejada is 24. Neither player is very good, but since he is the older one, many people view Q as the more boring option. If Tejada were a serious prospect with a high ceiling, I wouldn’t even consider letting Quintanilla take the starting job (this is why I don’t think Anthony Recker should be given a chance to take Travis d’Arnaud‘s job, but that might be a post for another day). But Tejada is not a prospect. He is a weak hitter, he doesn’t run particularly well, his baseball instincts aren’t too great, and his fielding has seemingly gotten worse over the past couple years. He also has had trouble staying healthy.
So why not give Q a shot to win the job? At first base, the Mets are trying to take a look at both Ike Davis and Lucas Duda and hoping one of them sticks. In my opinion, they should do the same at shortstop. Neither player is a star, and I’m not sure either player can even perform at an MLB-Average level, but if one shortstop can establish himself as better than the other, he should get to play. Neither player is the shortstop of the future (we hope…), so, unlike at catcher, “development” shouldn’t be a factor here.
Obviously, Q has only started one game, but even last season, we saw that he is pretty decent in the field, he can drive the ball more than Tejada, and he always plays hard. I think the Mets should take a good look at all of their options, and this includes Omar.
And hey, once we get to June and it would no longer cost us a draft pick to sign Stephen Drew, we can always go for that…
Have a great day, Mets fans! Let’s try to take the series this afternoon with Big Bart on the mound.
