Mets Insanity
‘they’re coming to take me away
again… ha-haa, he he… to the funny
farm…’
Napoleon
XIV (Jerry Samuels) 1966
Some people say that the definition of insanity is doing the
same thing wrong, over and over. Ruben Tejada had
another error on Monday but Ike Davis chose to
wear a boot. Is this some form of progress?
The Mets have taken their pre-season to Nevada for a few
days and made a bunch of decisions on what players should return to the minor
league portion of the camp. One, Wilfredo Tovar,
was a shortstop, which, on paper, makes very little sense on a team that is
trying to function without a quality shortstop. The problem here is Tovar came to camp in horrible shape, injured himself, and earned the Ruben Tejada Camp
Award for 2014. What is it with shortstops on this team? Are they mental?
You can shit can any chance of trading Davis to Pittsburgh
(or any other team). Even in Pittsburgh they don’t play first with a boot on.
The team is running out of time for both he and Lucas
Duda so we’re probably going to let some guy that played in Japan last
year play here. Couldn’t they have asked him if anyone played short over there?
There were a dozen or so players that got some really good
news yesterday afternoon. They were sent back to the ‘other’ side of the St.
Lucie complex and won’t have to play for this team.
Things seem very dysfunctional right now. Owners are
demanding 90 win from a team that may not win 70. Most of the best hitters in
camp this spring are now over on ‘the other side’ and three of your best
pitcher (Rafael Montero, Noah Syndergaard, Jenrry Mejia)
are probably not going to be in the rotation.
One of the reason is something called ‘Super Two’. See, I
thought that was Seaver and Koosman.
Who owns and runs a team in the largest media market in the
country and doesn’t promote their better players so they can save a buck or two
for one year? Do you hear that sound? That’s George rolling over.
This has seemed to be a very long off-season and I was very
excited when March 1st came around. Now, I find myself going to
WalMart at 1pm to buy dirt for my garden. I’m writing this because none of the
other writers on this site has submitted anything for today.
Gee, do you think they’re having problems too?
6 comments:
Last Man Standing - Ike no longer is, so if Duda can JUST STAY HEALTHY, it really should be his by default, in a platoon with Josh in White Satin. The other guys seem like 4A more so that Lucas, so jog until opening day, Lucas....no sprints.
Saw some posting that Mariner scouts were active watching Mets - let's hope that leads to franklin (or somebody else) to play SS this year.
I still am more confident about the 2014 Mets than 2013 because in 2013, while we had Harvey, we also had Marcum; we had Cowgill and other assorted AAA and AAAA guys in opening day outfield; and a bunch of weak arms in the pen. My take is starting pitching for all of 2014 will be better than 2013...bullpen will grow and be much better...and offense will improve (not hard when one considers how awful Ike, Duda, Cowgill, Tejada and several others were last year).
That still leaves us well south of 90 wins. 80 if lucky
It's an easy problem to solve. Move Murphy back to 1st and insert Flores at 2B (if they deem him incapable of playing shortstop after promising he would start there and waiting until March 11th to give it a try). While you may not have the most power from those two positions, it's not out of the realm of possibility to have 30 HRs and 150 RBIs between them. Combine the 1B/2B numbers on most clubs and it's not much better than that.
Hey Mack,
It's been a while since I've posted but I've been following the site daily as always. Excellent work from all the writers! Mack's Mets is my first 5 minute of reading at work after I get my morning coffee.
I share many of the same frustrations that you do. I like the idea of storing Lannan in the pen (I know historically his splits between lefty/righty are pretty even and not what you’d expect from a Loogy but I think he could function like a left-handed version of Torres and spot start and keep the rest of the pen and rotation fresh)
Dice-K should not make this club in my opinion. He’s been ineffective practically the entire spring and it took him a while to his stride late last season as well. I think we should store him in AAA and hopefully we have such great depth among the top level prospects if anyone goes down they should be able to step in over him. Mejia should be the 5th starter the ways he’s pitching, give the kid one last chance to stick in the rotation. If he breaks down because of health issues again send him to AAA during rehab and convert him in short order as a reliever while you promote Montero or Thor.
The 1b situation has me grinding my teeth! We need Davis and Duda to get some spring training in! I still believe that Davis has the higher upside but I also think he has more potential to crash and burn. Duda I think has a higher floor but a much lower ceiling. Frankly I don’t really know what to do here, if Davis doesn’t get a meaningful amount of time before opening day it might just make sense to cut him to save money because he’s got no shot going in cold --- and I want the guy to earn the spot!
If 1B is a serious problem SS is a straight disaster. I have no idea what’s happened to Tejada, like Keith, Kevin and Bobby said recently the front office has done no favors for him and it might all be in his head after a promising 2011 and 12. I’m as skeptical as anyone but I’d love to see Flores have a few consecutive starts to see if there’s even a possibility he can be a passable shortstop. I’m a huge proponent of trading for Franklin. I think deGrom and another 2 lesser prospects might get it done, especially the way he’s been pitching in camp. We need to either do that or nite the bullet and sign Drew, and not for 1 year or 2 years, it should be 3 at 10. Doing less doesn’t make sense since this is a year to make everything jell to be a contender and hopefully front runner in 15 and 16.
If we had a god solution to the short stop situation I’d be content to let the 1B situation sort itself out. This is what I’d like to see opening day 2014 to opening day 2015
Rotation
Niese
Colon
Gee
Wheeler
Mejia
SS Franklin
2B Murphy
3B Wright
LF Granderson (by the way why is he playing RF when we have people more suited to that and his arm profiles better in LF?)
C d’Arnaud
1B Davis/Duda (hopefully Davis who realizes his potential without the pressure of the 4 spot. Lots of Satin starts vs LHP)
RF C Young
CF Lagares
During the season and the off season I project us trading Colon and C. Young if he has a good season and perhaps some of our depth for impact players. They could be dealt either as a package for a major upgrade or more likely packages of top tier prospects to keep our impressive minor league depth and ranking despite all the people graduating to the show.
In 2015 this is what I want to see opening day
Rotation
Harvey
Niese
Wheeler
Gee
Thor
SS Franklin
2B Murphy
3B Wright
LF Granderson
C d’Arnaud
1B Davis/Duda (once again hopefully Davis)
RF Puello
CF Lagares
Pen
Parnell (hopefully he has a good 2014 and we extend him)
V. Black
Mejia
Torres
Familia
I know I’m forgetting some people, but that’s the core group. Definitely need a loogy
Bench
Flores
DenDekker
EY Young
Campbell
Centeno
That looks like a team that’s a winner.
Daniel -
Good hearing from you.
Regarding Dice-K, I just want this team to stay focused on their future... which is pitchers like Montero, Mejia, and deGrom.
Lannan does give the pen a left handed option and I never have had a problem with a vet out there, but let the talented kid play
Thomas -
I just got off the phone:
Duda in 4-5 days
Davis in 8-9 days
Reese -
the beat reporters would have a field day if TC came up with another first baseman at this point of the insanity
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