Updated 12:40 PM:
Keith Law wrote me saying:
Your writer says: “Keith Law must be a terrible assistant GM and front office person, and that’s why no major league team has hired him since he got shit-canned in Toronto.”
You can call me whatever names you like, but I was not “shit-canned” or fired by Toronto. I quit in May of 2006 to join ESPN, and have discussed this openly many times with readers. To claim I was fired when I was not strikes me as libelous, and I would appreciate it if you would remove that part of the post.
I’ve retracted my earlier comment, Keith. But I still think you’re pretty hard on the Mets minor leagues… And I’m sure you can understand why so many Met fans feel the same way as I do. Actually the comments on your last chat validates that. I think you were way too harsh on Satin who is certainly proving to be worthy of providing some value at the major league level. Far from terrible.
Be good…
Original Post 9:00 AM
You may remember a couple of weeks ago, I made a big stink about Keith Law calling Josh Satin a terrible ballplayer. In that article I wrote:
What a blowhard Law has become… Never mind the fact that despite his high opinion of himself with regard to ranking prospects, he couldn’t carry John Sickels’ jockstrap. Calling Satin a terrible ballplayer, when he’s produced a career .389 on-base in the minors and is performing at that level in the majors, is a low blow by Law.
Well as luck would have it, John Sickels profiles Josh Satin in his Prospect of the Day feature this morning and he concludes the following:
Although his offensive production in the minors was undeniable, many scouts and coaches didn’t like his approach at the plate: he had a noisy setup with a lot of movement. Despite advice to do so, Satin didn’t want to change this, and it can be hard to convince a guy who constantly rips minor league pitching that he needs to make adjustments.
However, after his early major league struggles Satin got the message and made some changes this spring, as noted by the New York Times earlier this month. He has always had keen strike zone judgment, so the combination of a shorter path to the ball with his already-present batting eye has given good results. His strikeouts are down, his walks are up, and so far he’s doing very, very well in the major leagues.
The sample size is small, of course, and the pitchers could adjust right back at him. He still faces the challenge of hitting enough to hold a job at first base. Still, given the totality of his track record, Satin deserves a major league opportunity. I’m glad to see him get it, and so far he’s taking full advantage.
Nice to see that there are still a few minor league experts who can write objectively without the need to make outlandish claims for attention.
Look, nobody is saying that Satin is going to be the end-all at first base for the Mets, much less me. All I’ve said is that he’s a better option than Ike Davis and more productive – and that’s exactly what he has shown himself to be.
Combined with Allan Dykstra and Jayce Boyd when he’s ready, the Mets have some nice options that won’t suffocate the offense once they realize that Ike Davis isn’t the solution at the position. First the Mets need to realize that, and then we can see what we really have in Satin and Dykstra for the rest of this season. But as long as Davis is here, he clouds the picture which is unfortunate because then we have to do this all over again in 2014.
