This thought popped up when considering the articles being
fed to the journalists about how Marlon Byrd has the inside track on the right
field job for the New York Mets.
Really? Marlon “PED” Byrd who
WITH the assistance of his special juice hit a whopping .210 last year? How
poorly would he have fared had he not been following in Barry Bonds’ footsteps?
Yet here’s the conundrum you hear over and over again from
this franchise – we want proven major league talent. If you think about the history of the team’s
operations, Kirk Nieuwenhuis didn’t get a chance to play on merit. He was forced to play when another
over-the-hill never was named Andres Torres pulled up lame after about 2
games. Ruben Tejada was rushed to the
majors due to Jose Reyes’ injuries. Dillon
Gee got to pitch when others were on the DL.
Even Lucas Duda got his moment in the sun because Ike Davis went down
with his never-ending ankle injury. This year Bobby Parnell is named closer not
because he sported a 2.49 ERA last year, but because there is an injury to the
pitching equivalent of Marlon Byrd. Sometimes
you can catch lightning in a bottle as you did for an unexpected year from Jose
Valentin. More often, however, you
diminish with nary a whisper like Frank Catalanotto.
No matter how much Jay Horwitz and company try to spin that
the team is not punting 2013, the fact remains there are a lot of holes that
need to be filled and what better time to test drive players than during a lost
cause season? Marlon Byrd, to use Sandy
Alderson’s phrase, is not a “difference maker.”
Now is the time to find out if the Collin Cowgills, Mike Baxters and
Andrew Browns of this world actually have enough talent to stick around in the
major leagues. Throw Jordany Valdespin
in that mix, too.
Instead we’ll see the litany of 30-somethings like Byrd,
Quintanilla, Patterson or worse taking playing time away from people who MIGHT
have a future in the game. Terry Collins
was hired because he had a reputation of working with the kids. Let’s see if he really can motivate them to
overachieve for a short time a’la Billy Martin.
The team may not be any better with the kids than the veterans, but it
sure would be more interesting to watch.
1 comment:
Well said!
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