HIT HIM, THEN SIT HIM by Tom Brennan
Imagine you are a team contending for the Wild Card, and your main flaw going into the final 35% of your schedule is an extreme inability to score.
Imagine you had a guy who, his first time up in a game, he hits .283, on base 36%, slugs .600. You'd be ecstatic.
Imagine a guy who after the first inning is hitting .206, who hits .127 with RISP, who hits .163 in "late and close" situations, who hits .172 with men on base, and who is at best an average fielder. You'd find the first open door and boot him out. You'd be pining for Eric Campbell.
What if those 2 guys (the first time up guy and the after-first-time-up guy) are actually the same guy?
You'd think Jekyll and Hyde in the extreme. You'd think "Met".
You'd have Curtis Granderson, who has hit 11 lead off homers, only 7 others, and only 2 of his 18 homers with men on base, which (coupled with that .127 RISP) is why he has just 32 RBIs in well over 100 games.
So, what to do? I'm glad you asked me. I'd "pinch hit" him in the first inning (in other words, let him start the game and get up once), then sit him, that's what I'd do.
Ever done before in major league history? Don't think so. Should it be done with Grandy? I sure would. We have a pennant to win... and a .127 RISP won't get us there. He is a main reason we trail the Nats by 11.5 games. Besides Daniel Murphy hitting 3 times as high as Grandy with RISP at .373, of course. A guy we let walk to keep the likes of Grandy.
I'd also do ANYTHING I COULD to make sure Grandy is not on this team on opening day 2017. Unless he only hits, then sits.
What do you think, folks?
any way we can know if grandy has been placed on waivers ?
ReplyDeletemaybe someone would want him as he shows he has power... maybe as a DH for Baltimore... I gotta believe if we pay the salary this year (cause seriously whats left) and 1/2 of next year's maybe we can get a Single A prospect (a la Herrera) who may have a shot to be something in a few years ... I mean that is what the best GM's do...
Eddie, I think you're making a good proposal. Grandy really should not be on this team next year as a starter. Bad contract. If Citi had Yankee RF dimensions, it might be different. Most of his 2016 homers were on the road.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, we can't be at all sure that Conforto or Nimmo will be good enough to be everyday players in 2017. Maybe we get lucky there.
Maybe TJ Rivera can outplay Grandy in the OF in 2017. Grandy will be 36 and to expect he won't further deteriorate is wishful thinking.
Gee, maybe if Skipper actually PLAYED Conforto we would know what he is capable of doing. Not only does he play Granderson ahead of him, but he even plays sub-Mendoza De Aza on a nightly basis. Maybe he has orders from above to "get De Aza going" so he can be peddled in an August waiver deal. Who knows?
ReplyDeleteReese, it is bewildering. Verrett awful for months befrore plug pulled. Grandy awful after first inning, no change because (Sandy, fill in the blanks please)
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DeleteIf you had a pitcher who was awesome the first 3 innings and awful the next 4, would you run him out there for 3, or for 7 because that is baseball norm?
DeleteIf you had a pitcher who was awesome the first 3 innings and awful the next 4, would you run him out there for 3, or for 7 because that is baseball norm?
DeleteAre you asking me as a rational person or asking me to have a virtual lobotomy and then answer as a Mets management representative?
ReplyDeleteReese, I always ask for rational answers, there have been too many lobotomies in the front office already!
ReplyDeleteThat said, my suggestion of hitting Grandy once and then sitting him flies in the face of baseball history and normal logic - but I know you agree that it makes more sense than what the Mets have done.
Same with Verrett - when I saw he allowed a homer very 9 minor league innings over a statistically significant 450 innings, a rate far higher than the average minor league homer rate, it did not take a rocket scientist to know that it would reveal its ugly head at the big league level - if I were the Mets, and got a great 3-0 out of him in April, I'd have thought, "man did I just get lucky there" and looked to phase him out - fast.
But they think, wow, maybe we've got something here - and DON'T phase him out - and after April, he goes a season-killing 0-8 with 52 runs in 68 innings, and 15 homers allowed, about the HR rate I would have expected. But he is "a nice, clean cut, earnest kid who works hard," so let's go down with the ship by running him out there for 4 more months. Asinine. Very "Met." It's why we have won 1 world series in 47 years.