The Mets have a long history of having “Craig” guys good enough to LOSE.
A guy on Facebook wrote that you’re not gonna win with JD Davis, Dom Smith, Eduardo Escobar, and James McCann.
Full stop. He’s likely right, because a team with a roster of mostly such guys would have trouble winning 80 games.
The Yanks understand that. Take Miguel Andújar, for instance. Miggy had a terrific Yankee rookie year about 4 years ago. About 75 extra base hits. Then struggled. This year, in AAA, he is hitting .316 in AAA, and has been called up a few times for 49 Yankee at bats. He is not a 100 win caliber player. The Yanks treat him as such. No sentimental stuff, sorry, Miguel.
There are plenty of low hitting MLB teams under .500 who could use a bat like his regularly. Because their ceiling is 80 wins.
The Yankees realized Gary Sanchez was not a 100 win type player due to his flaws, and parted ways.
The Yanks are 61-23 as I write this. Their approach works.
Back to the Mets. McCann hitting .185, Dom slightly over .200 without a HR, JD 19 RBIs for the whole year with 5 in just one game and 14 in the rest? Escobar hitting being mediocre and, surprisingly, his dWAR is -0.7 last year and -0.5 this year?
The 4 hitters in 648 official at bats and 728 PAs with just 77 runs scored and 83 RBIs, and just 14 HRs?
Their combined WAR for 2022? Roughly 0.0. McCann defensively is at 0.6 solely due to his defensive play.
Not added into the Facebook guy’s rant was a 5th player, Tomas Nido, who in 147 at bats (161 PAs) is hitting .211 with a .255 OBP and just 14 RBIs and a -0.4 WAR.
Nido brings the plate appearances for the Funky Five up to 900.
Those 5 players’ numbers scream “80 WIN PLAYERS AT BEST” to me.
Atlanta is a freight train coming up behind a Mets team, with perhaps too many 80 win caliber players to remain in first place.
If those 5 players were in the Yankees’ system, here’s how I see their current status:
Escobar - treated like the Yanks treat Andújar.
Smith - AAA all the way.
Nido -AAA. Injury call-up.
JD Davis - the Andújar treatment.
McCann - back up catcher.
They could all have break out second halves, says the wild-eyed optimist.
The pragmatist says, “80 win guys are not suddenly about to over-perform.”
Steve Cohen needs to get some 100 win guys to replace a few of these dud spuds - and soon.
Emulate the Yankees, Steve. Be ruthless. Win.
8 comments:
Great post Tom you hit the nail on the head. The Funky Five are not ready for WAR and need to be replaced ASAP. Look were heading into Sunday against the Fish and Alcantara and then the Bravos w/o Marte and McNeil who'll be on paternity leave AND some guy named DeGrom who could be useful and frankly needs to grow a set. I thought his injury had a 6 to 8 week recovery period so I guess I don't get it. Lets give the guy complaining about his 137 million dollar contract that I'm sure he was forced into signing ha ha as his s**t is getting old. He needs to take a long hard look at Max and see how a real professional ball player acts.
I've always been an advocate of letting the guys who are producing play and have the ones who aren't producing sit regardless of their contract situation. Luis Guillorme is a perfect example. For a very long time he was hitting higher than Jeff McNeil but couldn't get regular playing time. He's started slumping a bit, but above .280 is certainly better than your failed five.
Looks like Marte, McCann, and McNeil will be out for the Atlanta series.
I have to disagree with the entire premise of FB guy.
Eduardo Escobar is a winning player having a bad first half.
The catching tandem is not going to hit but they handle the staff very well and they don't have a metric that measures that. I don't want a catcher we have to rely on for offense anyway.
Dom and JD I'll give you but they had earned their chances, it just didn't work out.
The Yankees are hoping down the trail just like the bunny while the turtle Mets plod along. Let's see what happens at the deadline and which team hits good pitching, pitches better and plays championship defense when it counts.
Lots of Yankees are playing over their lifetime numbers while the turtles just keep plodding along. If Max are Jake are healthy that bunny is gonna get eaten.
You can’t make up the 3 M Boys missing the Atlanta series. HopefullyWork Stoppage Jake decides to join us at some point without being coerced.
Richard,I hope you are right aboutEscobar and it isn’t age related slippage
Hi Tom, I don't see that the way I'm seeing it with Marte's leg issues, that worries me. He's a tremendous player but it was always going to be a concern with Marte now. He's a very tightly wound body.
Escobar has always had a huge hole upstairs as a left-handed batter but his bat speed is fine. He's not a perennial all star, he's a mudder and a fighter, I think he'll have his numbers at the end. He's a lifetime 98 ops+. I Like ops+ in general, but he's a player that stat undervalues, IMO.
I will contradict myself now, after the McCann news. I'd go get Contraras. It's not the move I wanted to make because it's expensive and I don't like changing catchers at this point but he is a significant upgrade and a pros pro. Add him and a couple of arms in the pen. This team has a playoff offensive approach that I think will play in the PS while the HR reliant teams will feast or famine vs good pitching.
I've been thinking about Guillorme all year Reece. He's the most underrated player in MLB who makes a winning play every day. What is the opponent's success rate when hes involved in any play? Not good
He's a weapon on defense and a very capable bat. Don't sweat it, the manager knows. They play a different style and with a different consciousness but the guy Guillorme reminds me of is Billy Martin. They are winning players who find a way to succeed by making big plays and taking great ABs. How do fans ignore him?
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