Sunday mornings 'the war room' article from Mack Ade got me thinking more about the Mets (perceived) long term picture. Will it be a view of short term, high priced veterans sprinkled in with homegrown talent, or will the Mets become a higher market version of the Rays, Athletics, and Marlins?
As of Sunday night, the Mets have signed NO high priced veteran. They did, however, pick off another teams young talent, in the form of 26 year old reliever Joel Carreno.
Another small transaction involved the Royals picking off the Mets former catching prospect Francisco Pena.
So, rather then continue to guess, speculate, and hope for which multi million dollar contract the Mets will hand out, I've instead decided in this article to speculate the future of the Mets stockpile of talent.
As usual, I bring up another one of my favorite sports teams, the New York Giants, and their way of doing things. It involves drafting and acquiring talent, not need.
Perhaps this is some of what Sandy Alderson has been doing for 3 years. Perhaps this explains the Mets drafting Kevin Plawecki with the 35th overall pick of the June 2012 draft, only to then acquire top catching prospect Travis d'Arnaud in December 2012 from the Toronto Blue Jays.
It's more then just filling a hole in Major League Baseball. Especially when there seems to be so much room for error, and so much room for failure.
So I guess it got me thinking. Rather then just throw away $50 million on a small handful of players to satisfy the needs at a few positions (and the needs of the fans), the Mets instead continue to try and follow the game plan.
Which leaves me back with Plawecki, and d'Arnaud. After Lucas Duda's utter failure in the outfield, the Mets are now stuck with 4 first baseman on the roster. And management, along with Mets fans everywhere, are chiming in about who should stay, and who should go. Davis has hit 32 homers in a season. Duda gets on base more often. Josh Satin can hit lefty pitchers. And Wilmer Flores is ONLY 22 years old. However, no slight on Flores or Satin, but the race has been between Duda and Davis for a long time now. And this confusion of talent and missed expectations has led to two power hitting, under 30 year old, 'under team control' players to be acquiring a lot more frequent flyer miles from New York to Vegas then major league experience and stability.
So, it got me thinking. By free agent signing, or trade, (or by doing nothing), the Mets will eventually start April 2014 with one guy standing at First base on opening day (and maybe the other earning more travel rewards points).
And, just when you thought it was over, out goes a little acknowledged prospect name Pena, and open comes a possible full time catching position in Vegas for that 35th overall pick named Plawecki.
Obviously, I know what team I follow. I know that the Mets don't promote anyone quickly. And since Plawecki just finished A-ball, he won't be spending the spring out in the desert. But he might just earn himself a nice promotion by end of the year. Then what do the Mets have?
What if Plawecki lives up to his draft position? What if d'Arnaud lives up to his lofty expectations? My head would start to hurt if anyone states the option of having one of these prospects play first base. So, the alternative may be another hot stove season, in 2015, where all fans pick sides, make suggestions for who to trade one of them for, and hope that guys fills........a need.
Hey, maybe the Mets can have one of these guys learn the outfield..................oh NOOOOOOO !
4 comments:
Ernest -
Good post.
Ernest, I see most of these kids come through either A-ball or A+ and, I can tell you this, Plawecki looks like a good draft pick.
There is no position in baseball that produces LESS talent than catching simply because coaches early in baseball player's lives move their more talented players out from under this position.
There NEVER is 30 great catchers in baseball, thus, having two on a team would create a much better trade possibility than the current Duda-Ike mess.
First thing first... I still want to see d'Arnaud produce at a major league level
It might give the article a little more credibility if you spelled d'Arnaud's name correctly.
It would be nice to eventually have both Plawecki and d'Arnaud splitting catching duties for the Mets...Plus, since both are offensive catchers, I'd like both of them to spend a little time at 1st base as well to keep them sharp.
Catching full time puts a strain on a hitter's body, and the Mets tend to have Lefty hitting 1st basemen that can't hit LHP; so if their Righty catchers could offer a platoon at 1st that could give both of these guys plenty of playing time.
VT -
It would probably give your response to the article a little more credibility if you didn't capitalize the word 'lefty'.
Here's to hoping the Mets sign a bunch of guys named Smith and Jones. Make things easy
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