Make the move for Orlando Hudson, something that the Mets have been dying to do for two years: Luis Castillo had a surprisingly decent season last year, but Hudson is the better player -- he drives the ball more (50 extra-base hits last year), and he's a better defensive player; he scored significantly better than Castillo in the UZR/150 ratings. He's an energizing force who would be good in the New York clubhouse, and would take pressure off the likes of David Wright and Carlos Beltran in dealing with the New York media. You sign Hudson and then figure out what to do with Castillo, whether it would be eating a significant share of the money owed to him to dump him or simply using him as a part-timer. - Buster Olney
Maybe these are merely the chickens coming home to roost at long last, and what we’re seeing and sensing this offseason is the culmination of years of mismanagement that’s devolved into mutual mistrust between team and fan. The Phillies and Yankees, even the Nationals, make moves every day. The Mariners lead the league in press conferences. There is activity all around baseball. And the Mets ponder their next trip to baseball’s version of Costco, hoping for cut-rate deals while still charging their fans top dollar, selling them on the coming magic of Ryota Igarashi, asking for their trust and their patience. Mike Vaccaro
The detail of Teddy Dziuba's critique I found most relevant to the current Mets (I mean, now that Bernazard is gone, the way he treated people, and played favorites, is interesting and noteworthy, but not all that important for purposes of assessing where the Mets are going forward) is their apparent policy of signing an unusually large number of prospects, and how this affects the ability to give them sufficient attention, playing time, coaching, etc., to maximize their development potential. If this is accurate (and I'm not doubting it -- I'd really like to see some comparative data showing the degree to which the Mets are signing more players than other organizations to know how acute this problem is), then it actually helps to produce the problem of development personnel playing favorites -- they almost have to, because they have to come up with some way of deciding who gets the scare resource of time & attention. There are only so many innings that can be pitched, so many hours of BP, so many PAs in games . . . It's inevitable that you will get some combination of (a) reality that favoritism occurs, and (b) a perception among the kids in the system that it is going on even when it might not be.
What will happen in that context is that some players who might have surprised you and moved from non-prospect to "has a chance" never do, because they never had any opportunity to show what they can do. That's a waste. Also, players who really are prospects but need the development time and experience don't get enough of it . . . and become non-prospects soon enough.
I guess I don't mind the idea of signing a bunch of players, more than other organizations. But if you're going to do that, you sure as hell better create opportunities for them to play and show you what they can do -- some sort of academy environment or more minor league teams or something nobody else has thought of so you actually utilize the approach instead of making it a train wreck.
Sigh. I'd certainly love to hear another perspective on this, from someone with the Mets who thinks more positively about their approach. But the fact that this POV exists, in and of itself, should be taken by the organization as an indication they need to find out how widespread it is, and whether (and to what degree) it is more than just a function of the dysfunction created by Bernazard.
Baseball Think Factory
After more than two decades together, it appears the streak is over for Susan Sarandon and partner Tim Robbins. The couple, who met while filming the 1988 baseball cult classic "Bull Durham," are separating according to Sarandon's publicist.
Posting comments on this site isn't easy and now the recent comments widget isn't even working, so I created a forum. The site is getting a good bit of traffic but no one is posting comments and I would like to have more interaction. That's half the fun right? Please feel free to sign up and post as you please. Any input would be great - milbprospects
No comments:
Post a Comment