Peter Hyatt - Astrubal Cabrera's Antics on SNY TV Broadcast

how dare the Mets not inform me of their minor league player strategy

Did you hear Brandon Nimmo live  during the Friday Mets- Phillies game interviewed by SNY?

It was an interesting interview punctuated by Astrubal Cabrera throwing seeds at him.

  It's a typical routine when the SNY camera goes live.

Except that this interview was a bit longer than the norm, and except Cabrera would not let up and be satisfied with just  throwing sunflower seeds at Nimmo. 

Cabrera needed more.  

Cabrera's desperation for TV attention, notwithstanding, Nimmo gave us insight into Cabrera and his relationship with the team.

In deception detection, we teach listening.  

With a straight face, "its all in good fun", Nimmo reassured the NY audience. 

 He is a 24 year old mature athlete who is dying to get on the field, but is relegated to pinch hitting only, while Collins continues to play vets in a season lost, and Alderson has only promoted after much pressure and the lost season.  

Nimmo's reassurance that it was all in "good fun" showed that Brandon Nimmo felt that there was a need for reassurance and commentary.  

Brandon Nimmo is a smart young man. He has, in his personal subjective dictionary, a vocabulary in excess of 25,000 words.  From that dictionary, he must choose:

a. what words to use
b.  what verb tenses to use
c.  where to place each word next to each other to make sense;
d.  what information to yield, what information to withhold
e.  what order to place the information to reflect priority 

This happens in less than a micro second in time, as the brain processes to the tongue what words to use.  

"Its all in good fun" is what Nimmo's brain produced, in less than a micro second,  while being interviewed live (no script to follow) during something that is done on all the SNY in dugout interviews.  

When something is just fun, it is unnecessary to state.  When someone tells you something that appears to be unnecessary to say, it is, in fact, necessary to state.  

The context of saying such was also unnecessary since this is routine.  

This "is all in good fun" is unnecessary to state, making it important. When something is all in good fun, there is no need to make this assertion.  When some doubt may exist, like in school or in a dorm, it becomes necessary.  

Cabrera continued, including trying to poke his face in to the camera.  He began to make body movements to catch the cameraman's attention and was an all out jack ass while he team was struggling to overcome the last place Phillies.  

It continued and it escalated.  

Finally, Nimmo , after addressing the touching experience of riding the pine in Colorado where 30 to 50 family and friends came to see him play,  Nimmo felt the need to, again, tell the audience that what Cabrera does is "all in good fun" even though he had already explained the behavior.  

Repetition increases sensitivity. 

By stating that which is unnecessary, he invited scrutiny.  By having to repeat it, it turns to persuasion or "the need to persuade" that the club house is positive and what Cabrera does is positive.   

It affirms what I have heard for months and what NJ reporter truthfully reported:  Alderson did not want Cabrera's extroverted personality poisoning the youthful exuberant Amed Rosario.  (Rosario comes from a stable home). 

 Cabrera is a big pain in the arse  and is, at best, tolerated by players, avoided by others, and much disliked by some.    

He had to start the "I take off your helmet" after home runs because he was trying to keep his camera exposure high. All players celebrate and seek to have fun.  Some take it to the point of self absorption.  

Here is a great story for you about how one New York Met manager handled such a thing from a book on Gil Hodges: 

"During the 1969 season, after a Cubs victory, Chicago third baseman Ron Santo began a routine of jumping up as high as he could and clicking his heels together. The fans loved it, but it was considered unprofessional under baseball’s unwritten code that you should never show up the opposition with gestures. That July, after the Cubs won the opening game of the three-game series with the Mets at Wrigley Field, Santo did his jump-and-click routine. The next day, before the second game of the series, Santo and Mets manager Gil Hodges brought their team’s line-up cards out to the umpires. Santo, well-aware that he was breaking one of baseball’s unwritten rules, turned to Hodges and said, “… the only reason I click my heals is because the fans will boo me if I don’t.”  

Hodges replied, “You remind me of Tug McGraw. When he was young and immature and nervous, he used to jump up and down, too. He doesn’t do it any more.”

How marvelous it would be for baseball in general to see a culture of leadership return to Major League Baseball! 

It is not just Cabrera and not just the Mets.  The change in culture in baseball is constant; it is the specifics of some of these changes that is catching the attention of more and more observers. 

Cabrera is a "me first" player in a world of players struggling mightily for both playing time and wins.     It was fun at first, and when early losses piled up it was even a relief.  But it got old and grumblings surfaced about Cabrera's need for attention.  

Think he is a team first, team favorite guy?

Go to SNY. 

Can you think of anything more fun than seeing a 9th inning go ahead home run by someone who just hit his first major league dinger?

Go to video.  

Watch the replay of Amed Rosario's home run and you will see, perhaps for the only time this year, Cabrera look towards the ground, and not take off Rosario's helmet.

Have you ever seen Cabrera not do that, even while on deck?

Brandon Nimmo is a gentleman.  He is young, mature for his age, but he is a competitive athlete who needs playing time.  He watches as a lame duck contract 36 year old plays, batting .220, game after game.  The excess of Cabrera not only led to defense by Nimmo but Nimmo was interviewed again by radio, this time he was interviewed about his interview.  For a third time, he defended Cabrera, heightening the sensitivity.  

Curtis Granderson is a gentleman and an inspiration in the clubhouse.  He is a lot of fun, which is enjoyed because he works so hard at winning.  He is respected and he encourages young players, even when displacing them.  He should be retained by the New York Mets after retirement for player development.  He's intellectual and he is ethical. 

Read Lucas Duda's account at the Player's Tribune, about Grandy for some personal insight from a non-writer introverted private man.  

It's touching in spite of its dearth of description.  

Granderson pops up to the infield.  

At 36 years of age, by the time the ball is caught, he is almost at 2nd base.  

When he speaks, players listen. 

When he jokes around, he does so to help players relieve pressure. 

We do not know his value in the club house, but young men like Nimmo and Conforto give us insight, as did Duda.  

He is a great man to have around for both Rosario and Dominic Smith.  

Smith is going to need strong role models and allies in the club house.  

The Mets need to unload Cabrera, one way or another.  

I often disagree with Sandy Alderson, but his concern about Cabrera being a net negative influence on Amed Rosario was well advised.  We can debate who and why it was leaked to media, but it shows both an awareness and a concern.  This is something Metsie fans appreciate.