If ever you read accounts of ballplayers who are already
well established in their careers, they do not like the whole ritual of spring
training. They may have a point. Younger players are obviously trying to get
noticed and win a spot on the team. For them
spring training is a necessary showcase to demonstrate what they’re capable of
doing.
For veterans, however, they are kind of in a no-win
situation. If they go all out and get
hurt, people will say, “Why did you try to do too much too soon?” If they take it easy, then folks will gripe
that they are loafing and lazy. If they
try to work on something that is not normally a part of their game such as
hitting the other way or hiding the ball in a different type of windup and
delivery, the results are likely going to be mediocre and then people will
whine about that.
Right now if you were planning the bullpen based strictly on
the results of spring training, guys like Joshua Torres, P.J. Conlon, Chris
Flexen, Drew Gagnon and Corey Taylor (all of whom have 0.00 ERAs) would be in camp while Jeurys Familia and Justin
Wilson would be headed to the minor league complex. Everyone knows what Familia is capable of
doing and he has a solid track record of success so that most rational folks will
overlook his less-than-stellar spring.
In the case of Wilson, people may not be quite as charitable as he doesn’t
have the All-Star credentials of a Familia and he’s causing people to have
Anthony Swarzak flashbacks of someone who was occasionally good but then forgot
how to pitch once donning a Mets uniform. (All numbers prior to Tuesday's game.)
On the offensive side of the ledger, Gavin Cecchini, for
example, is not exactly tearing the cover off the ball, but was hitting a very
respectable .286. Then you have the .077
twins, Adeiny Hechavarria and Danny Espinosa.
Guess which one of these three has been sent to the minor league camp
already?
Photo by Ed Delaney
For that matter, you have some veterans whose spring output
is not exactly what you’d like to see.
Tom’s long forgotten son, Jeff McNeil, is still hitless. Brandon Nimmo is hitting a paltry .125. Newcomer Keon Broxton is at just .182. Devin Mesoraco and Juan Lagares are both at
.222 and .227 respectively. Yet no one
is suggesting they belong on the small fields out back without the media
coverage.
If you want some surprising good news, the other Mets
regulars (or the people we suspect will be starting on opening day) are all
hitting about .300. J.D. Davis will
likely start at 3B and is hitting .304.
Amed Rosario (and his thankfully not-broken hand) is hitting .462. Robinson Cano seems to like the NL just fine
as evidenced by his .400 AVG. You’d
think Pete Alonso would indeed have won the 1st base job outright by
hitting a mere .412 with a pair of dingers, but his younger teammate Dominic
Smith is hitting a cool .500 with even more RBIs. Michael Conforto is hitting .333 and Wilson
Ramos is making BVW look brilliant by hitting .538 thus far.
Photo by Ernest Dove
Pitchers off to great starts include Luis Avilan, Seth Lugo,
Edwin Diaz and Noah Syndergaard, none of whom have given up a single run. Hector Santiago is pitching to a 1.80
ERA. Corey Oswalt is right behind at
2.08, and both Tyler Bashlor and Jacob de Grom both have 2.25 ERAs thus far. After that it gets a bit ugly.
There’s still over 3 full weeks until spring training ends
and small sample sizes are just that, but for a team built on pitching it’s
nice finally to see some hitting. It’s
also good to see that some of the depth acquisitions made by BVW are paying
off. Perhaps Luis Guillorme can attract
some attention this spring as well, not just for his glove, but for his hot
start at .429 including his annual home run.
He may be the latter-day incarnation of Bud Harrelson if he can add
baserunning to his arsenal.
They say spring training isn’t about wins and losses as much
as it is getting stretched out, healthy and ready to begin when the calendar flips
to April. That’s good since the team’s
record thus far is positive at 6-5, but they’re not wowing anyone and their
defense has been brutal. Of course,
given the injuries to Jed Lowrie, Todd Frazier, Travis d’Arnaud, TJ Rivera and
the illness of Brandon Nimmo, it’s probably about as good as could be
expected.
4 comments:
As you say, the veterans are just concerned with staying healthy and building for the season. The "non-vets" are divided into two groups---Those who are competing for jobs and those who have no chance of making the OD roster but are filling spots until the vets are ready for more innings.
The ones that bear watching are the "competers" like J Davis, Smith, Pete, Guillorme, Flexen, Zamora, Drew Smith, Rhame, et al.
As the numbers you posted show, some are off to hot starts while others are digging holes for themselves. But with 3 weeks to go, a lot can happen, and this group is the one to watch closely.
I plan to have a father-son talk with McNeil soon - maybe I'll tell "Son, perhaps you shoulda been a doctor, but you have my support no matter what you choose to do"...but then get up in his face and tell him this is no way for the 2019 NL MVP to start out in the spring. He needs to get healthy and start playing, with what, just 7 ABs so far?
I do remember Seaver getting smacked around in the spring, then being superb in game 1 of the season.
Todd Frazier hopes to get some spring ABs in - in 2020.
I think d'Arnaud will start a game at catcher soon, as part of his progress. My guess is he starts out the season in rehab, then he either gets called up, and Mesoraco down, or he gets traded once he looks healthy. 29 other teams, some other team should need a catcher with a solid bat.
After 2 errors yesterday after coming into the game as a substitute, the Mets are now planning a bobblehead for Luis Guillorme.
In what kind of Bizzaro World is Guillorme perhaps going to make the squad for his bat rather than for his glove?
Reese -
My guess that, after yesterday's outing, Avilan has sewed up a back-end spot in the pen.
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