Alright, I’ve gone too long without a good rant and after a loss like last night’s stinker against the Bucs, today’s as good a day as any.
Let me begin with Andres Torres who has stunk up the joint considerably since his hot week after coming off of the disabled list. Torres is now batting .189 on the season and is 4-42 in his last 11 games started – all of them batting in the leadoff spot. For the season, Torres is batting .132 as the leadoff hitter. For a team that is struggling to score runs, how can Terry Collins continue to feature this 34-year old journeyman at the top of the order and give him more at-bats than any other player on the team day after day?
As I said when we first got him in the trade for Pagan, anointing Torres as the leadoff hitter after coming off a season that saw him bat .221 was a terrible idea. The Giants were all set to cut bait with Andres Torres and it was no secret he was about to become homeless before Sandy Alderson and the Mets showed up and saw him as the perfect replacement for Jose Reyes at the top of the order. Oh and please spare me the need to look at Reyes’ stats right now it doesn’t change the fact that this front office saw Torres as a viable option to replace him back in December. It was a bad idea then and it’s a bad idea now. Oh, and where’s this blazing speed we’ve been hearing about?
Meanwhile, our old friend Angel Pagan is having a terrific season for the Giants and is batting .302/.352/.463 with eight doubles, two triples and four home runs in 39 games played. In 162 at-bats, the former Met has scored 21 runs and racked up 49 hits, 12 walks and eight stolen bases with just one caught stealing. Pagan is currently outproducing every Met outfielder.
The key to that deal for the Mets of course was not Andres Torres, but reliever Ramon Ramirez who currently sports a 4.30 ERA and a 1.565 WHIP in 18 appearances for the Mets spanning 23.2 innings. Revamped bullpen my asterisk.
Quick, somebody do the math…
