Good
morning.
I
got in a little trouble hear last Sunday with my thoughts so I’ll try and tread
lightly on opinion minus sabr stats.
The
Mets made an excellent trade this week to help the 2015 Mets get closer
to the playoffs. They first, traded minor league pitchers John Gant and Rob Whalen to
the Atlanta Braves for IF/OF Kelly Johnson and
3B Juan Uribe.
They
next placed both Johnson and Uribe on their 25-man and sent IF Danny Muno back to Las Vegas, and released OF John Mayberry.
Gant,
and especially Whalen, were nice secondary pitching prospects but they never
stood any chance of becoming a member of the Mets rotation unless a lot of
other pitchers were either traded or went down with injuries. These are what’s
called ‘minor league trading chips’ and were used well in this deal to secure
two major league bats that can help today.
Look
at the stat line comparisons:
Juan Uribe -
.285/.353/.464/.817
Kelly Johnson -
.275/.321/.451/.772
Danny Muno -
.148/.258/.185/.443
John Mayberry -
.164/.227/.318/.545
There
is no contractual commitments to either Uribe or Johnson past this season. In
fact, the Mets were paid some cash by the Braves to take these two guys on.
The
Mets wasted little time inserting Johnson into the lineup. The left-hand
hitting utility player replaced Wilmer Flores at
second base, joining five other Mets lefties in the lineup.
Saturday's game was just one hell of a lot of fun. The kind of game Mets fans see very rarely. Everybody seem to get into the victory here, especially Johnson with his first Mets home run.
Sunday could create a different lineup with Uribe playing third, Johnson (who hits both lefties and righties well) playing first (or second), and Flores back on second.
Either way, it's a hell of a lot better than Muno (sorry Tom) and Mayberry.
Saturday's game was just one hell of a lot of fun. The kind of game Mets fans see very rarely. Everybody seem to get into the victory here, especially Johnson with his first Mets home run.
Sunday could create a different lineup with Uribe playing third, Johnson (who hits both lefties and righties well) playing first (or second), and Flores back on second.
Either way, it's a hell of a lot better than Muno (sorry Tom) and Mayberry.
16 comments:
Mack
We've read about all of the names reported by sources as being available as trade targets.
2 questions for you.
1) If we rooted for the NY Mack's, instead of the Mets, which 2 reportedly available players would you target?
2) which player, that has not been among the reportedly available do you like enough to make a serious attempt at obtaining from another organization?
Mack, somewhere I hear the soft refrain of Danny Boy wafting across the meadow as Muno returns to Viva Las Vegas. The Mets fielded a major league line up for the first time since April.
Glad to see Lucas Duda is reading our posts, Mr. Guilbert :)
My wife had me running around more than Ricky Henderson yesterday, so I only saw a few snippets, but I did see the Kelly Johnson upper Decker (thought it almost hit John Mayberry Jr up there as he was selling Cracker Jacks). And I LOVED the swing Conforto put on his 400 foot lined double. Great things are to come from the new MC Hammer.
Well Mack, as long as you don't make any more trade suggestions involving Rosario, you're in no trouble from me ;)
Bob -
Good questions.
1. I still would continue to try and work out something for Tulo without losing my big three pitchers
2. I'm sort of done for this year. Too complicated to add another bat. No one is going to relieve this team of existing contracts.... how about Rosario for Hamels :)
While I'd still like another big bat, we'd now have to make rom first by trading from the ML roster. We now have Duda, Flores, Tejada,Murphy,Johnson and Uribe on the IF, and Cuddy, Grandy, Lagares, Conforto, and the resurgent Kirk in the OF.And hopefully Wrihht will return.
No room at the inn without clearing some.
I agree Bill -
I would have built this team far differently but it's very hard to change it now. IMO, the 2015 team seems set, though I said that a week ago.
The future of my team would still be built around Harvey deGrom, Syndergaard, Wheeler, Matz, and Familia. I probably should add Mejia to that list.
I can talk all day about people that shouldn't have been given long term contracts, but they aren't going away.
The Kelly Johnson and JUan Uribe acquisition gives this team an instant shot of offense and spilled over last night.
Metsia (No room at the inn without clearing some) -
Yep. Cuddyer returns it's obvious that Campbell goes. Then Wright comes back??
An N for deal brewing if there is real anticipation of a Wright return?
Think so.
... "N for One" deal...
I sure wish I could have stayed up later last night and wrote more on this post.
Games like last night tend to make a fan feel all the wrongs have turned instantly to rights.
Did you see the ERA's on those LAD pen pitchers being thrown in the game? There is some real pitching problems on that team past their top two starters and they obviously beat other teams with a bat.
What I hope to see the rest of the season is a platoon system based on the strengths of the Mets players. Play Nieuwenhuis but only against right handers. Same with Conforto. Split Uribe's time with Murphy. Stuff like that.
Frankly, with his splits, I'd play Johnson as much as I could.
d'Arnaud is due back next week which will add another quality bat...
Now, if Matz could heal up...
The radio guys kept talking last night about TC's "mandate" that guys had to hit to stay in the lineup as some great motivator, but that's not how I saw it at all. Over and above whatever the new guys actually contribute on the field, last night seemed like a giant release of pressure for an offense that was so beaten down psychologically that they couldn't seem to get out of their own way. Suddenly, there's three new professional bats, (not to mention the relief of having the front office suddenly joining them in the fight) that everyone finally took a big breath. It'll be interesting to see if anyone can hit Greinke tonight - no one has all year, so I don't think that getting shit out would really hurt all that much - but I see good things for this team over the coming weeks as the schedule gets easier.
Er, "shut out". Lol
Adam -
You might have had it right the first time.
Adam
You mention something very important in my opinion, when you mention the team feeling that the front office has joined the fight.
The psychology behind feeling that the organization leaders are doing what they can to help you win, must go a long way in boosting the confidence of the players.
Agreed, Mack.
Bob, Adam -
So much of this game is mental
Mack
I agree. Always have.
It is also where I see statistics as being best served for a player.
Using the past statistics in a way to best build the confidence of the players on the field.
Takes a special skill to not only identify which statistics most beneficially help individual players confidence but equally/more importantly, how to present them to the player.
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