6/28/14

Reese Kaplan - Mets' Decision Making

Let’s take a quick look at the decision making processes used during the 2014 season.  The Mets are slipping further and further into irrelevancy but the team turns its familiar tone deaf ear to the cries of the fans: 

Signing Chris Young – looking at a steadily declining body of work and offering over 12% of your budget to a guy who no one else even seemed to notice.

Not addressing the obvious 1st base situation – allowing both Ike Davis and Lucas Duda to begin the season as a two-headed lefty platoon.

Bobby Abreu – he was the first call-up when the team felt they needed a veteran pinch hitter.  He’s failed miserably at that role but surprisingly done well playing in games in which he starts.  How is a 41 year old outfielder a way to build for the future?

Juggling the outfielders – after inexplicably signing Chris Young, they benched the best defensive outfielder in Juan Lagares in order to find at-bats for Eric Young.  Now they've added Kirk Nieuwenhuis to the mix, too.

Allowing the Ruben Tejada era to continue – starting off even worse than 2013, they eventually farmed out his backup, Omar Quintanilla, in order to declare him the number one.  Even with a scorching hot week he’s batting .254 for the month of June.  His defense is worse than ever, he’s not stealing bases and about the only surprising offensive development is that he’s slugged two home runs. 

The Wilmer Flores debacle – they brought up the hot hitting Flores and buried him on the bench until his bat went cold, creating a fait accompli.  He was unceremoniously sent back to Las Vegas where newly promoted Matt Reynolds is tearing up pitching at the new level while playing shortstop.  So not only did they do everything they could to ruin the young man in Queens, now they’ve done the same in AAA as well.

Eric Campbell – another example of taking a sweet swinging player and doing everything possible to stick his bat into a deep freeze.

Andrew Brown – are we seeing a pattern here?  The man was lethal against all kinds of pitching in AAA yet would only start once per week against lefties only and they wonder why he didn’t keep up the hot hitting.

John Lannan – they took a guy who wasn’t performing well, coming off bad recent history and shoehorned him into a role he was never prepared to play.  It was the pitching equivalent of promising playing time to Chris Young, minus the oversized paycheck.

Kyle Farnsworth and Jose Valverde – it seemed important to bring in pitchers with a track record many years ago of being effective and then being surprised when success (and youth) didn’t magically reappear.

Terry Collins – after finishing worse in year two than year one then repeating the same underachievement, instead of showing him the door they rewarded him with a contract extension.

Standing pat at the trade deadline
– the last time I looked the Mets had Daniel Murphy pricing himself out of a job, Bartolo Colon and Daisuke Matsuzaka pitching themselves onto other teams’ radar (Thursday night notwithstanding for Dice-K), Bobby Abreu demonstrating a DH-in-waiting career reboot, and six outfielders with no real shortstop at the major league level…yet they are delusional enough to say they can’t overhaul the roster for fear of falling out of contention.  Dillon Gee’s return makes a starting pitcher superfluous, Wilmer Flores and dare I say Eric Young make it possible to trade Daniel Murphy.  For a cash-strapped franchise, they should see what Flores at minimum wage could do rather than inventing ways to force a $3 million reserve player into the lineup.  

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am done with there snow jobs of B.S. and playoff runs.

Tom Brennan said...

Nice job, Dr. Reese. Of course, they also astutely passed on Jose Abreu bidding...who needs 25 homers and 17 other extra base hits in 264 at bats when 1) we has the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to add another valuable Young to our outfield! And 2) still have the chance to get another Abreu!

Mack Ade said...

Al Tamkus ·

I am done with their B.S. and playoff talk,

Mack Ade said...

Either way, rank ALL these players with the rest of the league and 80-90% are marginal players that probably never should have got out of AAA

Reese Kaplan said...

Keep Duda, Wright (no choice), Granderson (Ditto), Lagares, Niese, Gee (can't trade him until he shows he's healthy) and Wheeler. Everyone else should be up for grabs.

Bill Metsiac said...

The more the announcers rave about Ruben's improvement in all aspects of his game (Gary just said that in his last 27 games he's hit .302/.417/.407, and he's had a hit and walk in the first four innings today), the more Reese wants to dump him. BTW, he's now #2 in OBP among ML SSs at .356. Only Tulo is higher.

Where is the problem?

Bill Metsiac said...

Forgot to mention that since May 23,, his BA is up OVER 50 POINTS (from. 183/.299 at that point).

Mack Ade said...

I happen to agree with you here Bill.

Bill Metsiac said...

As for Brown and Flores, if either of them ( and den Dekker) had produced NEARLY as well as Kirk and Campbell have in similar roles, they'd still be here. AAA numbers, especially in the PCL, mean ZERO if you can't reach the Mendoza line in the Majors.

Mack Ade said...

Bill -

You touch on something here that many readers (and a few writers :) don't seem to either understand or remember...

Most ballplayers when they come up from AAA to the majors DO NOT start off in the starting lineup, nor do many of the ones that do remain there very long. Oh yeah, there is a majority of them that start the day they get called up, but they are supposed to be talented enough to produce major league numbers no matter how many at bats they get.

This is why, over the years, most ballplayers promoted to the majors don't make it.

I applaud two players this year who have beaten the odds... Juan Lagares and Jacob deGrom. Neither had the kind of minor league career or pedigree that I (and others) though would produce an every day major league player.

In addition, I applaud Eric Campbell for becoming a wonderful first year utility player. Those of you that have read me over the years know I have been a big fan of his and I thought he would never get a chance, but his hitting in the .300 range this year off the bench has won him a slot on the 25-man.

But, make no mistake about it... Eric Campbell is NOT a starting everyday position player in baseball.

And Andrew Black or whatever the heck his name is... he's not even an Eric Campbell.

You get a very limited time to prove you're worth anything in this sport (unless you come highly touted as a prospect).

Bill Metsiac said...

I agree completely, Mack. And unless there's a real hole that needs filling, all this talk of "bring this kid up and let him play every day for a month to see what he does" turns me off. Rookies always have had (and probably always will) limited time frames to earn more playing time. Saying a kid got "screwed" because he didn't play every day while he was hitting .200 is IMO ridiculous. I applaud Campbell and Kirk for what they've done to EARN playing time. If Brown and Flores didn't seize the opportunity, that's life. Maybe (like Kirk) they'll do better on future call-ups.

Mack Ade said...

your mentioning of Kirk is spot on...

he 'luckily' got one more shot and he's making the most of it

(guys like den Dekker and Satin may never get another)

Reese Kaplan said...

Nieuwenhuis is not a ML starter -- he's proven it when given the chance. He played enough to show the holes in his game.

Why do some people GET that chance while others never do (particularly on a team struggling to score runs)?

Mack, I've got to call you on your morning report from earlier in the week in which you characterized the Flores situation as shitting all over him. That hasn't changed.

Reese Kaplan said...

Oh, Bill, go to www.baseball-reference.com, choose game logs 2014, highlight a starting point and an ending point and it will calculate the player stats of your choice for the time period of your choice. As of last night Tejada was .254 for the month of June. Today might have him up to .256. Break out the MVP trophy now!

Tom Brennan said...

Hey Mack and Bill!

My persistent early season campaign (like it matters!) for Campbell has been successful (a nifty .307 after today), the campaign for Brown not. He's stuck in AAA with his .700 slug % because, yes, he failed in his latest chance to stay up here. It's here that counts.

You win some, you lose some. I am an underdog guy, and as Mack knows, my next close-to-the-bigs guys is Reynolds. He needs a bunch more ABs to show what he can do. And if he does prove it, he (like Flores) will need a slot. Or not be here.

Kirk? I have been down on because of his Ks over the years, but hope he too proves me wrong. Guys can adjust - some of them.

Tejada can prove me wrong too. Keep doing it. Still prefer to have seen Flores get a much bigger chance. That's what he gets for getting ill as soon as he was called up. Last year, sprained ankles ruined his audition. Stuff happens. A game of skill...and some luck.

Mack Ade said...

Reese - you are correct about Kirk, but because he luckily got one more chance to try and become a utility outfielder, it may be working out

as for Flores... he's a proven prospect talent and he doesn't qualify here. He should be the starting Mets SS, period