Matthew Silva - What About Bob?

This couldn’t happen again, could it? Could another team’s castoff be one of the better Mets hitters two years in a row? At the same position? Impossible.

And yet, here we are.

I didn’t want to believe it at first. Every time I saw Abreu at the plate, I wondered why the Mets were wasting their time not playing younger guys and just waited for the 0-for’s to pile up. But every time, my skepticism was turned into enthusiasm. Get that man at-bats!

In a year where good money was spent trying to insert some offensive talent into the outfield, Bobby Abreu has surprised us all, even if for a brief moment. Injuries to Eric Young Jr. and now Juan Lagares will leave the door open for the 40-year-old to keep things going. It will be interesting to see how long it lasts.

The sample size has been small for Bobby Abreu this year, but it seems that he has been a find for Sandy Alderson & Co. Abreu has done just about everything an Alderson player needs to do. He gets on base, walks more than he strikes out and so far, has held up in right field.

His numbers have been interesting. The .315 average and .397 OBP are sure to come down eventually, but have entrenched Abreu into the heart of the order where Curtis Granderson was hit or miss. Mostly miss.

He has as many doubles as Chris Young in less than half the amount of at bats. He has hit safely in each of his last six starts.  His .897 OPS is in line with his All Star years of 2004 and 2005Not bad for a player that missed a year and was released by the Philadelphia Phillies in spring training this year.

The Mets need to ride Abreu’s little run as long as they can. He has contributed in many ways to the Mets mini hot streak, albeit against poor teams. They will look to keep it going against another weaker team in the Chicago Cubs before running into two of the best teams in the league, San Francisco and Milwaukee.

There are downsides to relying on a player like Abreu, however. For one, his age is going to keep him out of consistently starting every day. He will need days off, which is a blessing for players like Chris Young to get their spot starts and try to turn things around. He hasn’t shown real wear yet, but he has only just started to see consistent time.

Also, what happens when everyone is all healed up? When Eric Young Jr. Comes back in a week, they will want to insert him atop the lineup. And then when Lagares returns, what will the rotation be like? We just stopped the carousel at first base. Opening one up in the outfield seems less than appealing.

Terry Collins at least acknowledges that he needs to play Abreu as long as he continues to produce. These next two weeks have essentially become Abreu’s chance to stick with this lineup. Who knows what happens after that. If he continues his pace, he could become a potential trade chip, much like Marlon Byrd was last year.

Bobby Abreu isn’t close to the Abreu Mets fans were clamoring for in the off season. He isn’t even that close to Marlon Byrd. Both players display much more power than Bobby. However, he still has that great batting eye. Bobby Abreu will be playing somewhere by the end of June, but as to where?

Your guess is as good as mine.

Mad About Choo

All year I have seen people project Shin-Soo Choo to the Mets this offseason and I have met his potential acquisition with nothing but skepticism. We need legit power from our outfield! We need a superstar and Choo is far from that. In reality, he is Daniel Murphy with a better batting eye. Is that really what this team needs? I'm as big a Murphy fan as you can be, but I can't support one of our bigger signings in 2014 being Daniel Murphy 2.0. It makes no sense to sign a guy who does a little bit of everything, with positional flexibility in the prime of his career....wait.

That was the change of heart I had while watching the Mets hopefully fail into a protected pick. I had this perception that the hitters behind Shin-Soo Choo did more for him than he did for them. After all,this guy bats ahead of an All Star hitting duo of Brandon Phillips and Joey Votto. But it was apparent last night that Choo has the ability to set the table for good hitter all on his own. Stealing a base has been hit or miss for Choo, as he's been caught 11 times this year, but by stealing third last night, he put his team in a position for an easy win if the men behind him could simply bring a runner home from third. They failed. It took a ton of maneuvering and walks for the Mets to escape the situation, but Choo wasn't done yet.

In the 10th inning, Choo ended the game himself with a walk-off hit. Its apparent that he is a cog in this Not-s0-big Red Machine, but he is a very vital one to it working. You can't arguewith a .423 OBP, 109 walks or 105 runs scored. This guy can play and would help the Mets across the board.

Shin-Soo Choo doesn't have power like some of the other outfielders we have coveted, namely Carlos Gonzalez and Giancarlo Stanton. As stated before, his stolen bases stats leave something to be desired and he is far from a good fielder when manning center. However, the idea is that he won't have to be that guy for the Mets. They can plug him in at right where his defense won't hurt them and he can set the table for a new second baseman and corner infielder.

Like I said before, I really struggled to see a Mets team that started off the lineup with Choo and Murphy, guys who are almost the same player in a lot of ways. I remember listening to WFAN one time when a Mets fan asked Mike Francesa about the Mets prospects in the future and Daniel Murphy. Francesa coldly responded with, "You don't build your team around guys like Daniel Murphy." Well screw that, Mike. Maybe this is exactly what the Mets need. Bring on the age of Shiniel-Soo Murphoo! ... or Danin-Soo Choophy?

Damn, this needs a name.

2-20-13 – Justin Turner, Jeremy Hefner, Jordany Valdespin, 2014 Outfield, Reese Havens

Steve Adams of MLBTR pointed out that ESPN’s Adam Rubin has speculated that the Mets will be shopping IF Jason Turner and RP Jeremy Hefner. Both have one more option left. I’m not exactly sure that the Turner rumors continue after Daniel Murphy was sent back to New York for rehab. Debt is not the Mets strong point, especially in the infield. The Murphy injury sound like a week to ten day kind of rest and recovery, but we’ve been here before with Mets infielders. For now, Turner will fill in with players like Brandon Hicks, and Jordany Valdespin (possibly Josh Satin, who isn’t on the 40-man roster).

In a perfect world, Reese Havens would have been ready to take over and we might never see Murphy again (not that I’m wishing that), but the Havens draft pick just hasn’t developed. I’m very curious what the Mets are going to do come April with second base. Havens could wind up back in Binghamton, but it really is Danny Muno’s (.280 at A+) turn to play there.Then there’s Wilmer Flores, who really needs to start a conversion to second at AAA. So, where does Havens go?

As for Hefner, why would the Mets think they could get a player for someone they don’t even want themselves? It must have drove him crazy watching the Mets throw minor league contracts out to all the guys they brought in. Yeah, let’s sign four or five guys and then keep Hefner around until all the other teams have already figured out who their 40-man rosters are going to be? Nice.

It seems to me that teams evolve and the days of both Turner and Hefney playing in Queens might have played out.

Hi Mack, After a very long winter I can’t wait until the games start. I live in Sarasota Fl. and catch the St. Lucie club when they come to Bradenton. First series is April 12-14 and it looks like we'll have a great staff so it won’t matter which games I go to. Two questions for you:

I know TC's talking about Jordany Valdespin at 2nd base but why not try him in right field? He played there in winter ball and has more upside than any other OFer we have. Byrd just takes up space.....really don't get this one.

With the scarcity of outfield help next winter and that's if all those predicted don't sign wouldn't it be more prudent on our part to look for solid AA outfield prospects in exchange for our pitching surplus or are you thinking that they'll go for a big trade for a major league OFer? Yours is my favorite blog by far, keep up the great work. Thanks, Gary Seagren

Hi, Gary.

Regarding Valdespin, it’s confusing to me also because the announcement came before the Daniel Murphy injury. At that point the Mets didn’t need another second baseman and you would think the best place for Valdespin to compete in the spring would be the outfield.

I think you’re seeing Collins cave into veterans being added to the mix of many positions and this just may be his early downfall. Old guys usually play like old guys.

Regarding the 2014 outfield, all bets are off right now. You’re going down the right path and trades for guys like Johan Santana, John Buck, and Shaun Marcus could produce one or two AA/AAA prospect outfielders. In addition, members of the Binghamton and St. Lucie pitching staff will be ripe for picking by other clubs for the right exchange. I’m not exactly sure who on the current Mets team will survive this. Duda, due to his bat, probably has the best chance, and organizationally, den Dekker the best to rise.

Uh-oh… Reese Havens just stood around today and didn’t participate in batting practice. Here we go again…