Tom Brennan - SHORTSIGHTED PREPARATION OF METS' MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS

Morning, dear readers.  Here is my topic du jour:

Lots of Mets players in the last few seasons have found themselves in an unfamiliar position, saying "Seriously, what am I doing here?"

We see JD Davis playing left field at times, Jeff McNeil, too, oh, and Dom Smith as well.

We see cries for help in centerfield for defensive reasons, too. And guys who could be answering that call who lack any and all experience at the position unless they manned it in Little League.

Stuff happens to every team, including the Mets, and the Mets, short of a sometimes painful fix-the-problem trade, look for quick-fix alternatives.

The Mets need to add courses like these to their minor league curriculum:

"Welcome to Preparation 101 in the Minors."

"Advanced Versatility Techniques."

What I see a lot of is infielders in the minors mostly playing one infield position, let's say second base, and also getting a little time elsewhere in the infield, let's say at SS and 3B.

For instance, here's the breakdown for four guys in the minors:

Jeff McNeil: 213 games at 2B; 152 games at 3B; 37 games at SS; just 10 games (7 starts) in the OF.

Andres Gimenez: 368 games at SS: 15 games at 2B.  No games at 3B or in the OF.

Amed Rosario: 429 games at SS; 7 games at 3B; 3 INNINGS in the OF

JD Davis: (of course, during his tutelage with the Astros): 423 games at 3B; 17 at 1B; 25 starts in the OF.

McNeil goes to the majors and, voila, scoops up a ton of games in the outfield, but very little time in the minors out there.  So not playing him out there (despite some OF time in college) left him under-prepared for the Mets' outfield.

"Learning on the fly" in the big leagues, to coin a phrase.

We hear that the Mets could really use a fleet CF that can also hit.  The only thing CF Jake Marisnick did well was move in fleet fashion to the IL.  And replacement CF Billy Hamilton moves swiftly, but only to the dugout after finding hits much tougher to come by than, well, you add the analogy.  Billy the Kid could use facing Steve Matz and Rick Porcello, I guess, since they've allowed 65 hits in 48 innings, but that won't be happening.  He did, however, face a position player pitching in the 9th last night and was able to launch a 72 MPH "fastball" for a sac fly.  Hope springs eternal.

Well, back to CF - perhaps the fleet-afoot Rosario or Gimenez could have been worked into the equation except that combined, the two players totaled 3 innings in the minors in the outfield.  Seems awfully short-sighted, huh?  

In Rosario's case, I kind of get it, because despite his 429 minor league games at SS, he came up as quite the mediocre fielder there.  Non-stop SS training was deemed necessary.  Still, would it have hurt to have gotten him 30-40 games in the OF in the minors?

Gimenez already has a MLB-caliber SS glove, but barely played at 2B in the minors and not at all in the OF or 3B.

Shortsighted, I'd say, since he has played more games combined in his brief Mets career at 2nd and 3rd than he has at SS.  And maybe he could have been part of the Mets' CF solution...had he ever played there.

Davis was not a Mets' system outfielder, but he sure had insufficient time in the outfield in the minors to build his versatility.  He is mostly at 3rd now, but still gets some outfield reps, since he has been in 81 games in the outfield in the majors and just 64 at 3B (and 7 at first base).  Given his lack of defensive wizardry in the minors, playing a lot more outfield could have had him much more prepared out there in Green Acres.

And, of course, Dom Smith, who had 526 games at 1B in the minors and just 26 in the outfield.  

Hi, I'm Pete and I play first base.

In the majors, primarily due to the presence of a large creature from Jurassic Park already occupying 1B, Smith has only started 77 games at 1B (most of those prior to the arrival of the Jurassic Beast), and been in 52 games in the outfield.  

Since Smith was already of superior caliber as a defensive 1B in the minors from the time he was drafted, wouldn't he have been better served to have played in 100 games in the OF in the minors, rather than 26, in case he needed to man the outfield as he has?

Heck, even the very versatile and defensively gifted Luis Guillorme played - you guessed it - zero of his 612 minor league games in the outfield.  How stupid is that?  Maybe they figured if he could casually catch a flying bat in a dugout, no training was necessary.

The major leagues is not the place to learn a new position.  

It costs ballgames.

So, my advice to the Mets: get your guys some real versatility in the minors - it may very well pay dividends in real major league baseball games that really count.

Last Night's Game:

Pete and Cano had multi-homer games, and Pete was on all 5 times, lifting his numbers exponentially.  An occasional day of rest can do wonders.  SO can hitting against AAA Marlins pitching.

Starter Robert Gsellman held the lousy Marlins hitters to just 1 run - but I guess it would have helped if he could have gotten more than 5 outs, huh?

Franklyn Kilome, to me, looks like he's got good stuff, but his control needs some tightening.

Six more games against the Marlins this month?  The Mets need to win 'em all.