Tom Brennan - A Brief Proportional Perspective on a Weighty Subject

Weighty, slow, effective…and cheap… 

Yeah, yeah, Daniel Vogelbach is weighty.  OK, proportionally, he does not look like your average chiseled major leaguer.

Yeah, yeah, Daniel Vogelbach is slow.

Yeah, yeah, Daniel Vogelbach swings funny.

Funny that going into the Braves series, he was hitting .271, with a .417 OBP. That latter figure is 7th best in the majors. 

Huh…perspective.

Here is more perspective:

The Mets’ payroll for luxury tax is around $350 million.

Daniel Vogelbach makes $1.5 million, which is 0.4% of the team payroll.

For $350 million, you could have 9 or 10 entire teams of Daniel Vogelbachs, 250 players in all.

Many (and I mean MANY) kvetch about Vogie while failing to realize Max Scherzer, for one, makes 25 times as much as Vogie.

How many injured or active players make much more and so far have contributed less in 2023?

I’ll list some:

Verlander, Diaz, Carrasco, Quintana, Escobar, Pham, Nido, Marte, Senga, Narvaez, and Canha.  

Bleat about those 11 guys for a while instead, why dontcha?

CALL HIM UP

After Friday, Pham down to .196. Vientos is hitting .358, on base % is .449, slug % .704. Ks are down, too. Absolutely on fire the past two weeks. What on earth are they waiting for?

TO REV THE OFFENSE...

While Escobar and Nido plumb the depths of the sea of baseball's worst hitters, on Thursday and Friday, Baty and Alvarez got up 12 times and got on base 8 times.  When writing out the lineup, Buck, whose names should you be inserting?  Me?  The ones that start with A and B.

ACHY BREAKY JAKEY

You know who (OK, hint: his last name starts with the letters DEGRO) left his start the other night in the 4th with that familiar forearm tightness.  Glad Billy realized damaged goods doesn't turn into Man of Steel come contract time.  He managed to stay enough intact in the early season to have thrown the 35th most innings of any pitcher.  The question may turn out to be how many more than 30 innings he may climb.  

LITTLE, PERHAPS UNLIKED, PITCHES GOOD THOUGH

Former Met pitcher Marcus Stroman has thrown 35 innings with a sterling 2.29 ERA.  I guess all that glitters is not tall.  His team's AA minor league CF, 21 year old Pete Crow Armstrong, the dude they ditched in the Javy deal, is hitting .302 with 7 extra base hits and 8 steals in 13 games.  

RUDICK ROCKS, WHETHER YOU KNOW IT OR NOT

Of course, we have a CF "crow of our own" in AA,  

Through Friday, Matt Rudick, a 13th rounder in 2021, who finished his 2022 season in Brooklyn getting on base a stunning 56 times in his last 28 regular season games, is leading Binghamton with a .320/.460/.540 slash line in the season's first 15 chilly games.  Wait til it warms up so he can get hot?  Keep an eye on Matt, who still has not made an error in 112 pro games in the outfield. 

Lastly, Quinn-turned-Harris Brodey has a 3.86 ERA in his first 7 pro pitching innings (5 hits allowed) in Brooklyn, while future star Blade Tidwell has a 5.56 ERA there.  Just to point out how Harris Brodey's remarkable effort to transform from faltering hitter to lefty relief pitching is showing some early signs of promise.  Just as another comparison, 8 pitchers with lower level St Lucie who have 7 or more innings have the same or a higher ERA so far.  Go, Harris, go.  

The other converted hitter-to-pitcher down in Brooklyn, RHRP Manny Rodriguez, is doing even better so far, with a 1.69 ERA in 10.2 IP (4 hits allowed).  Former SS M Rod may soon need his own walk-in music if he keeps that up.

Ciao, and have a great day, may your ERA remain low and your forearm loose.