Reese Kaplan -- What Does Playing Veteran Trash Accomplish for You?

How many times have you watched a GM and Manager combo do something that makes absolutely no sense and when it's pointed out, they double down an do it again?  We could all go through many examples of when a team gets irrationally infatuated with someone simply not getting it done but none have been nearly as blatant as the Eppler trade to acquire and Showalter desire to pencil in one Darin Ruf to play regularly.

Now it's not as if the man hasn't had some good times in the majors.  While he was never an All Star level player, using him as a right handed bat might make sense if he was successful at it.  He's a career .239 hitter and his best seasons were in Asia, not in the USA.  As a San Francisco Giant he upped the batting average to a still mediocre .248 but did offer up two plus seasons of power with 32 HRs and 99 RBIs split over 617 ABs in their uniform.  It was that kind of back-of-the-baseball card performance that got the Mets to grossly overpay for the man.

What has he done in a Mets uniform?  It's ugly, so get your antacid and/or adult beverages ready.  The announcers recited during Saturday night's broadcast that he was on a 4-49 streak.  If you round up, that's an .082 batting average.  He would have to rally to double it and still fall well below the Mendoza line.  As a New York Met overall he's at .152 and struck out in 28% of his at-bats.

Now I know right away folks are going to say, "But you can't put rookies like Mark Vientos or Francisco Alvarez in that kind of pressure situation!  They'll implode."  

Really?

The last time I looked Vientos was hitting .167 (which if I remember what I learned in math class is higher than .152 or .089).  Alvarez is also hitting .167.  Both of them have been swinging the bat better in their VERY limited opportunities while Ruf has been getting worse.  Granted Ruf got on base via a walk in Saturday's game, but otherwise was as useless as he's been in a Mets uniform.  

What it comes down to for me is do you pick someone who is a proven loser or pick someone with the potential to be better?  Why write in a name in ink that you know is going to cost you his at-bats when you can pencil in the name of one or two other players who just might do better?  

We all thought that when the Wilpons and Sandy Alderson were no longer a part of the New York Mets ongoing losing attitude that things would be different.  Thus far they are not proving to be and despite the lineup including the .089 hitter, the Mets managed to pull out the game, rough as it was with Ruf in it.  I'm happy to see a victory happen against the Padres, but really hope if they manage to advance to the next level of playoffs they simply concede defeat on the Ruf move and given someone else a chance who might do better.