Reese Kaplan - A Milkbone for Sandy; A Muzzle for Terry

Tuesday's underwhelming decision by Sandy Alderson to promote Kirk Nieuwenhuis – a guy whose numbers have been in steady decline since the opening day of the season  -- can be rationalized away since he enviably holds a spot on the existing 40-man roster.  The other outfield alternatives holding the same lofty privilege – Matt den Dekker (.233) and Cesar Puello (.268) are not exactly setting the world on fire.  The versatile Anthony Seratelli (even worse at .176) and Eric Campbell (.295) are not on the 40-man roster.  Consequently, the options he had were fairly limited. 

Of course, you could go another way – promote .325 hitting Zach Lutz to play off the bench and some RH first base duty, but that would mean shifting the suddenly hot Lucas Duda to the outfield and pushing  Josh Satin into limbo.   Given how Duda has responded offensively in the past when the pressure of playing his non-preferred position seemed to take its toll, that’s probably not a good approach (without even getting into the defensive adventure he is lumbering around out there).

Like it or not, they probably made the right call in who to move and it’s probably going to be a three man outfield of Eric Young, Kirk Nieuwenhuis and Andrew Brown until Curtis Granderson is healthy and Chris Young returns from the DL.  In fact, Nieuwenhuis may not even get to unpack since they will have to make another roster move on Friday.  Then it becomes Eric Young, Chris Young and either Andrew Brown or Curtis Granderson.  Of course, they could jettison someone from the bullpen such as John Lannan to give themselves an extra outfielder, but the smarter move would be demoting Ike Davis to play every day in Las Vegas.  (It’s not like any of the Las Vegas 1B options are the second coming of Jeff Bagwell anyway).  Then they could have 5 outfielders, a backup corner infielder, a backup middle infielder and a backup catcher. 

Hopefully with a full complement of outfielders over the next two weeks while Juan Lagares recuperates, Terry Collins will see the true value (or lack thereof) having Eric Young, Jr. and/or Kirk Nieuwenhuis in the lineup.  Something must be done to break his infatuation with the former as he’s delivering worse than ever, leading the team in strikeouts (on a team with K-Machines like Curtis Granderson, Ike Davis, Lucas Duda and David Wright.  Chris Young gets a pass as he hasn’t even swung the bat yet).  Eric’s not getting on base, not making contact and not showing any power.  Hopefully when Lagares is ready to return they will at least consider the Colorado Rockies approach when it comes to the currently healthy Young.  I don’t think Kirk Nieuwenhuis is the answer long term either, but if that’s what it’s going to take to get Collins to do what abundantly clear to everyone but him – playing Chris Young, Juan Lagares and Curtis Granderson – then so be it.

While we’re looking at the 40-man roster it might be time to consider the switching of John Lannan miscast 

as a reliever with someone else.  Unfortunately the only reliever who is healthy and pitching well for the 51s is the man who had a perfect spring – Miguel Socolovich – who’s slightly less than perfect with a miniscule 1.93 ERA.  Joel Carreño is doing fairly well at 3.38, too.  Neither are on the 40 man roster and if they wanted to make a lefty-for-righty change then they would have to risk losing Lannan to have room to add one of the non-roster players.  That means Josh Edgin and his 10.38 ERA is the more likely move – replacing a lefty with a lefty and staying within the confines of the 40 man roster.   

There is another way to go – converting another starter to reliever – but I’m not talking about young Rafael Montero.  Daisuke Matsuzaka is sporting an ERA close to 2.00 and a WHIP close to 1.00.  That way they would still keep him in the organization by promoting him prior to May as stipulated in his contract. Still, Dice-K doesn’t solve the need for a second lefty.

On Terry Collins Just Since Saturday

On Sunday he goes on record complaining that Scott Rice might have a tired arm because he was burned out pitching in 73 games last year.  Ummm, Terry…who was the manager last year who chose to put him into 73 games?

On Monday we had this comment from our illustrious manager regarding Juan Lagares, "I wouldn't say he's going to be in there more than necessarily anybody else…When Chris gets back, I'm going to have a meeting with those four guys ... and try to explain how we're going to run it. It's going to be a juggling game that hopefully we'll have success doing it."

Then on Tuesday comes the about face, “ “It’s really tough. He’s played absolutely great, he’s swung the bat well, he’s earned that right to be out there every day.”

Can someone PLEASE just buy a muzzle for Sandy’s lap dog?