Travis Taijeron miraculously got his shot in the big leagues, and with playing time, to boot.
The 2011 18th rounder had to look at his chances to get into the bigs bleakly as the 2017 season beckoned - there were just too many guys in front of him:
OF Starters:
Jay Bruce, Curtis Granderson, Yoenis Cespedes
Reserves:
Michael Conforto, Juan Lagares, Brandon Nimmo
In a Pinch Reserves:
TJ Rivera, Lucas Duda, Matt Reynolds
That is a lot of bodies to climb over to get a shot in Queens.
Of the above 9, though, in August and September an improbable 3 got traded and 2 got hurt - and voila! A call up and playing time came knocking at his door.
Often a huge adjustment - the first 20 plate appearances - ooof!! 1 for 18, 12 Ks, 2 walks. But Rhys Hoskins started slow too, when he was called up - but then exploded.
Travis then had a pinch single, double, and homer in the next 5 at bats - showing that he is not one to be immediately assigned to the scrap heap - and he gets $3,500 per game while he is here, which has to be so sweet after getting minor league cooley wages for 6+ seasons.
But let's average his minors career out to 600 plate appearance seasons, to see what he would have done over the equivalent of a full time major league season:
525 at bats, .270/.370/.515.
75 walks per season, and walks do count.
Back to those 600 plate appearances: 525 at bats, 40 doubles, 4 triples, 27 HRs, and 96 RBIs, plus 75 walks.
Pretty darned productive, especially in the power dept.
Of course over those 600 plate appearances, he averaged 177 strikeouts, ever his nemesis since he got drafted. And no base stealing speed, averaging 2 steals per season.
All to say, he is more, rather than less, likely to fail because he simply fans too much - but he hasn't failed yet, and now he has a golden, God-given opportunity to see if he can develop this cameo into a multi-year MLB career, at a time when high strikeout totals are not uncommon, and are tolerated when a bat can produce plus power, as his does.
Good luck, Travis. I for one think there is a multi-MLB- season tale to tell here, with the Mets or elsewhere.
About last night's game....does anyone here not believe we'll win enough to knock us out of the top ten draft picks...soooo Mets and then it's an excuse not to sign type A free agents.....just beautiful.
ReplyDeleteSit Jose and Cabrera the rest of the way. Play the kids. Play Evans. Call up some more kids. Let them learn while we lose. We need high picks badly - our minors offensively are threadbare.
ReplyDeleteI did not see the game last night, was at a family party, but I did see that Jake deGrom pinch hit in the seventh, before Taijeron did in the 8th. What is up with that?? I hope Travis starts today.
ReplyDeleteNo idea Thomas but sadly business as usual. How do we not start the kids and playing Aoki???? Another theory is we win enough to keep us out of the top ten picks and the FO can say we are not signing a big FA because were not giving up the pick as their ALWAYS in penny pinching mode.
ReplyDeleteGary -
ReplyDeleteYou don't want to hear my theory on this. You'll start thinking I'm Peter.
Gary, I am OK with them starting slowly with Taijeron, to get his feet wet and slow the failure rate, in hopes he will gain his equilibrium and play like he belongs. But that time is now - they should start him 4 to 5 games per week. Again, we know who Aoki is...he'd be OK for 2018, but is he the best we can do? He is who he is, we don't need to see a lot of him.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, Taijeron is in - but so is Aoki, as Lagares sits. Don't like Lagares sitting.
ReplyDeleteAnd low output Matt Reynolds starts again...why not Evans? I've seen two Evans at bats, and I like him more than Reynolds already.
Agree on Evans. Give him 3B for a week at least & see what happens.. Ditto Cecchini 2B. Play Legares & Nimmo daily & let Aoki & Tyrone platoon.
ReplyDeleteI agree, though whiffing Tyrone was 0-3 with 2 more Ks, Hobie.
DeleteNot a Taijerone fan, Thomas. Val Pascucci was a better Dh and a better OF. And he couldn't field a lick.
ReplyDeleteCan't disagree with you, Hobie. Taijeron is getting exposed as expected.
ReplyDelete