I know that i'm a day late and a dollar short on this one...but I don't often get the chance to write, and I just have to put my two cents in on the Daniel Murphy/Paternity leave issue...It's just a game guys...I think it sucks that Murph got crushed for taking a couple games off to be with his wife at the birth of his thier first child. Boomer Esiason even suggested that she should have scheduled a C-section on an off day rather than miss a game...Baseball is baseball, and you're family is you're family--One is clearly more important than the other...Lets put some things in perspective here...I ran a google search for shitty athlete dads...What I found was pretty messed up--Lots of guys had 7-8 kids with 6 different mothers, that sort of thing. The worst I found was retired NBA star Karl Malone...who reportedly knocked up a 13 year old girl when he was in college, and refused to acknowledge he was the father...No one ever calls out athletes for shit like this, but Daniel Murphy taking a day off is national news. I'll take a team of Daniel Murphy's over a team of Karl Malone's any day....
The movie Bull Durham taught us that the difference between hitting .250 and .300 is 25 hits...25 hits in 500 at bats is 50 points...6 months in a season is about 25 weeks, which means that one hit a week is the difference between being a Met or a Las Vegas 51...
When I look at the lower levels of the Mets farm system, I see a bunch of guys like Patrick Biondi, Champ Stuart, and Luis Guillorme...guys who are very gifted athletically, but may end up being one hit a week away from being major leaguers...I would hire a guy like former Dodger and Met, Bret Butler, and let him go to work on these kids...Butler was a pesky, annoying type of baseball player, that always seemed to find a way to get on base, and then when he did, pitchers always seemed to focus more on him than the guy in the box...This is the type of baseball player the Mets need to focus on developing...Great pitching, Great defense, and a lineup that can generate runs without relying on the 3-run homer...
Lets take a look at this offseason from a different angle...
1. The Mets were reportedly offered OF Matt Joyce for Ike Davis
2. Ike Davis makes 3.5 million per
3. The Mets reportedly offered SS Stephen Drew 9 million per (which means Sandy had at least that much left in the budget)
4. Stephen Drew is reportedly willing to sign for 14 million per
5. Ikes 3.5 million salary + the 9 million Sandy offered Drew = 12.5 million...
--So knowing all that, would you trade Ike Davis, a 2nd round pick, and the 1.5 million more to the payroll---for Matt Joyce, and Stephen Drew? With all the issues this team has, to me the most problematic has to be the front office/moneyball insistence that a Manager does not play an important role in the success of a baseball team...Terry Collins is clearly overmatched out there...He insists on over-utilizing his bench, he chooses veteran retreads over young talent nearly every time, and he is clueless as to how to manage a pitching staff/bullpen. If you told me that TC is going to cost this team 10-15 wins this year with poor decisions, I don't think I would argue with you...The best Managers in the game make around 5 million per year. These days, 5 million dollars for 10 wins seems like a pretty signifigant value....
5 comments:
You forgot to mention that Joyce makes $3.7M this season. In essence we would have less money to sign Drew so the premise is flawed a bit.
Ike Davis actually on 162 game average would outproduce Joyce, costs less money and is younger. I'd rather see Ike Davis flipped for a hot A or AA prospect and roll the dice. Joyce has nowhere to play here if our outfielders were all healthy. As it is, you know Collins is going to shoehorn Eric Young into the lineup no matter what.
Eric Young is stupid...as conservative talk show host Mark Levin would say, "There, I said it!"
Here's why: Eric is amazingly fast. Butler is a good example, but one I particularly like is Matty Alou. At the age of 22, he hit 6 HRs in 200 at bats. But he figured his game was all about GETTING ON BASE. He was fast, but not like Eric Young. EY has 18 K's in 52 at bats. Contact hitter Matty K'd 35 times in 1969 in 746 at bats. Matty was a craftsman at getting on - you knew he'd bunt, but he got bunches of bunt hits anyway. He'd slap balls by people. He hit .330 for a 6 year stretch where he got up over 600 times a year - and was not as fast as Eric Young, who should NEVER strike out 18 times in 52 at bats.
He needs a new hitting model - or he will soon find his career is over, as it was appearing it might be when Rockies released him last year.
Chris--You're right about Joyce..I had no idea he made that much...but even if the Mets had just released Davis i'd be much happier with Duda and Drew, than Davis/Duda and Tejada.
I don't think at this point Davis would net any kind of "hot" prospect unless the Mets sent 3.5 million with him.
IMO -
Eric Young was a 'steal' for what it cost the Mets; however, I never looked for him to be either a starter or the lead-off hitter.
I still feel this whole season is incomplete without a 'good' (not great, but a hell of a lot better than the Mets have now) shortstop and lead-off hitter, Stephen Drew.
You then could have, early on when the timing was right, trade either Lucas Duda or Ike Davis eben up for your 3rd starting outfielder.
Whole different team makeup with far less problems.
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