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.
