While many cursed the Mets’ collective bad luck when the
first ray of new sunshine – Jeff McNeil – left the game (and his 11-game
hitting streak) early with a quad injury.
After all, how typical is it for something good to happen to this team
only to have it snatched away quickly?
Of course, from a logistics standpoint, the injury will make
life a little difficult for the club as it’s August 26th when it
happened and there are still 5 days before rosters can expand. If it was a week later then the likes of Luis
Guillorme and perhaps Ty Kelly would be around to pick up the slack (since
Gavin Cecchini is still in the witness protection program).
However, the Mets have the rare opportunity to do something smart. They have been very public
about their desire to have Jay Bruce get time playing 1st base. A lot of folks wondered how they were going
to find the at-bats for him when their hottest hitter this side of Jeff McNeil
(and the suddenly cold Austin Jackson) was firmly ensconced at 1st
base. Wilmer Flores is currently hitting
.275 with 11 HRs and 48 RBIs over 346 ABs.
Therein lies the solution to this problem. Play Wilmer Flores at 2B. His defensive metrics there are not nearly as
bad as they were for Asdrubal Cabrera, it opens up 1st base for Jay Bruce and
it shows versatility that might make it apparent to other clubs who could look
to obtain him in trade over the winter.
You get Jay Bruce a steady diet at 1st base and open up
plenty of outfield ABs for Austin Jackson and Jose Bautista during the rush to
the post-season trading deadline finish line to show more of what they can
do.
Of course, these are the Mets and that means we will instead see a steady diet of Jose Reyes at 2B until McNeil returns. Now I suppose you could make the argument that
they’re “showcasing” Reyes for a possible last-minute deal, too, but I’m firmly in
the camp that they’re holding out the hope for that 2012 reunion of Reyes and
David Wright. Besides, like Jose
Bautista, can you really call it a showcase when you’re struggling to keep your
head above the Mendoza line?
As I’ve written before, I can live with the useless at-bats
given to the Geritol brigade for another five days. The McNeil injury allows them to play both Bautista
and Jackson every single day. What doesn’t
make sense is taking your best hitters out of the lineup to make more room for
your worst. It’s time for Mickey
Callaway to show some backbone and put the best players on the field and not
simply do his Terry Collins impression, squandering innings on people who are
not part of the future.
7 comments:
Reese, good plan - and hopefully Reyes spends a lot of time with the team doctor getting splinters removed from his butt.
I read McNeil said he did not think he would miss much time - hopefully so - but with quads, you return when healed. Probably the hottest hitter in the majors of late, too. Incredible.
Weird game yesterday - I'm driving, it is 1-0. We stop for a while, I get back in the car, and it's 15-0. Sewald, Bashlor, and Oswalt failed their ongoing auditions for sure. WE NEED JENRRY!!
This game is squarely on Callaway. Bryce Harper is coming up and you have Jerry Blevins in the bullpen yet he sticks with sewald
To be fair, you need to make up your mind on why you don’t want Reyes to play now. Is up because the future? That’s fine, he isn’t but from a performance perspective he has been very good since the break with an .870 OPS ....the second best on the team behind McNeil since the break. His defense at second had also been good as it has at third as well. Shortstop is a different story.
I am sure you wil day they are all meaningless games but let’s also consider that when you praise McNeil and Frazier and Rosario for their second half’s.
McNeil and Rosario are the building blocks for the future. Frazier is what he is and is under contract for one more year. Bautista, Jackson, Reyes and Mesoraco are all departing as free agents. At this time of the year you should be playing people who will be here next year, not the ones leaving. It was a mistake when Terry did it last year and I don't want to see the same mistake repeated with Terry II.
Im out of town 2day
Any update on McNeil?
Heard nothing on McNeil's updated condition yet.
They said he could pinch hit today and is expected back on Tuesday. I'd give him at least the full series to rest.
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