Chris Carter rounds the bases after blasting a walk-off homerun on Sunday.
Yesterday afternoon while scanning the channels on my TV, I surprisingly stumbled upon the SNY broadcast of yesterday’s Bisons’ game against the Louisville Bats. I had no idea that SNY even broadcasted these games, but was so glad to take in a minor league game and watch prospects like Dillon Gee and Jason Pridie.
It was a great game that saw the Bisons come from behind and send the game into extra innings tied at 4-4. The contest ended dramatically when rightfielder Chris Carter hit a two-run, walk-off homer in the bottom of the 10th inning to give the Bisons a 6-4 victory and launch them into first place in their division. It’s the first time the Bisons have been in first place since July 16, 2007 and capped an amazing turnaround from their dismal 2009 season. Carter’s reward was being greeted by his overjoyed teammates with a shaving cream pie to the face for his mighty clout, and mighty it was.
For Carter it was the 4th homerun of the season and 13th extra-base hit. He is now batting a robust .329 with a .987 OPS and he has become the fiery leader of the Bisons’ clubhouse according to the Buffalo News. Carter has also shown a tremendous eye at the plate striking out only 8 times while walking 6 times in 85 at-bats. The 27-year old is second on the team in RBI’s with 17 and 51 total bases.
After watching the likes of Gary Matthews Jr (.139), Fernando Tatis (.214) and Frank Catalanotto (.143) all continue their abysmal performances in last nights 11-5 beat-down by the Phillies, I can’t help but wonder if Chris Carter would be a major upgrade over any of them.
Carter would certainly give the Mets a solid lefthanded bat off the bench with some significant pop, and he seems to have a flair for the dramatic.
He has played mostly right and left field and a little first base this season and though he won’t win a gold glove anytime soon, he can field his position and won’t hurt you defensively. He has not registered an error this season.
I know that the Mets have some serious questions regarding the rotation right now, and the focus needs to be there for the time being, but maybe they should take a glance at this kid Chris Carter who came so close to making the team out of spring training. Despite having one of the best offensive springs on the Mets, he was trumped by the versatility and likability of Frank Catalanotto, the continuing blind loyalty to Fernando Tatis, and the justification of paying $2 MM and trading a reliever for Gary Matthews Jr.
It’s obvious the Mets made a bad choice in leaving Carter behind, but they could easily wipe out that mistake with a phone call to the Bisons and the price of a plane ticket from Buffalo to Cincinnati where the Mets are set to begin a three game series tonight.
Chris Carter deserves his shot in the Majors, and the Mets have absolutely nothing to lose by giving it to him. The bench seems sorely lacking, and experiments like GMJ and Cat have failed to provide any positive impact thus far. Rather than wait until it’s too late to make any difference, promote Carter now and you just might be getting yourself a difference maker on the bench.
