A parallel to the New York Jets began to form in my mind
this week with the continuing purge of high priced players, yet rather than seeing if anyone in the organization might help in the future, the club is punting the season by handing the reins over to a 38 year old journeyman with a 2-20 record as a starter since 2014. Yet somehow they think magically they will catch lightning in a bottle.
Where have I seen this script play out before…a team concedes it needs
to go in a new direction yet inexplicably hands critical assignments to people
who are not or should not be part of their future?
I offer a tip of the cap to Sandy Alderson for conducting a
fire sale of high priced veterans. The
job wasn’t done particularly well and he gets an incomplete for keeping
Asdrubal Cabrera around, but the theory was that by moving high priced free-agents-to-be
the Mets would be able to view more of their role players and minor league
players in regular playing time in order to gauge how they do given the
opportunity.
Of course, in a rare
moment of candor from Sandy Alderson, he confessed he was only able to secure
the budget that he had with the promise that if the team tanked he would do a
sell-off. That might explain why the returns
were so sub-par given his motivation was trying to honor a commitment to his
boss as opposed to trying to build a winning team.
So the new era began with a flourish with Amed Rosario in at
shortstop almost every day. Dom Smith
has been penciled in against nearly all right handed pitching but benched
against lefties. (Why is it that lefties
are protected from lefties but righties aren’t protected from righties…hmmn…)
With the dual injuries this past week on consecutive days to
Michael Conforto and Yoenis Cespedes, it pretty much guaranteed playing time
every day for Brandon Nimmo AND for Juan Lagares. They did choose to promote Travis Taijeron to
play some outfield, but I have a feeling his days are already numbered as he’s
started off on a major schneid resulting in getting the hook for a pinch hitter
in a critical part of Sunday’s game.
Terry Collins' Ideal Starting Core
The Mets version of playing Josh McCown are the assignments
handed out to Jose Reyes, Asdrubal Cabrera, Tommy Milone and others at the
expense of guys like Gavin Cecchini, Matt Reynolds and Kevin Plawecki. Why isn’t Corey Oswalt up here just as Chris
Flexen was promoted after succeeding in AA?
What about some bullpen help from the minors? How about getting Plawecki in at 1B if you
insist on platooning Smith so that you get more looks at the bats of both he and Travis d’Arnaud?
Don’t even get me started on why Wilmer Flores still must
fight for a position and playing time despite hitting as many home runs as the
$27.5 million dollar left fielder and exceeding him in RBI production. Combined Cabrera and Reyes have 19 HRs to
Flores’ paltry 17 despite having a combined additional 450 ABs to get those two
extra dingers. Stick him at 3B and leave
him there for the rest of the year. See
if his offense makes up for his defense.
You’ll never know when you jerk him all over the diamond, in and out of
the lineup.
Then there's the idiocy of rushing Matt Harvey back to play on Friday with news that Noah Syndergaard may be barking at his heels. Hey, if they can come back and be productive again that's wonderful, but it's a lost season and there is no reason to push them to do so in such haste. Let them each get a game in during the final week of September to allow them to spend the winter knowing how it felt to be back out there again. Why risk further injury on September 1st when there's no bearing on the standings?
Then there's the idiocy of rushing Matt Harvey back to play on Friday with news that Noah Syndergaard may be barking at his heels. Hey, if they can come back and be productive again that's wonderful, but it's a lost season and there is no reason to push them to do so in such haste. Let them each get a game in during the final week of September to allow them to spend the winter knowing how it felt to be back out there again. Why risk further injury on September 1st when there's no bearing on the standings?
So which is it – are the Mets banking on has beens and never
was types as they allegedly build for the future or are they honestly going to
give opportunities to players who have something to prove and probably a greater
desire to do so than fading journeymen or over-the-hill veterans? Salary should not dictate playing time.
2 comments:
Oswalt - I think they want him to be there for their playoffs. After that, bring him up. And you can skip his playoffs and get him up here right away - I won't mind.
On Sept 1 (for those not in the playoffs) or after the playoffs are over, I'd like to see Callahan, Drew Smith, Jacob Rhames, and Ty Bashlor promoted too. All appear capable.
Play the kids - and "rest" the vets. And I don't know who'd want 4+ weeks of Cabrera (which would not cost the acquirer much), but he is for sale. Back your pick up truck by Sandy's garage.
Taijeron has not yet impressed - but I recall Willie Mays started his major league career 0 for 24. I am confident Travis is the next Willie Mays (yes, yes, nurse, I will take my meds).
Maybe promote Kevin Taylor and Kevin Kaczmarski too. And more than those guys, how about red-hot Jayce Boyd? Last 2 AAA months .345/.410/.625.
I have no idea how all of that would work with the 40 man roster. But get out the shoe horn.
Thomas-
None of that makes any sense without a thorough 40-man discussion...
...which we should have.
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