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According to Bart Hubbuch in the New York Post, like Lastings Milledge and Paul Lo Duca, “Add Ruben Gotay to the list of ex-Mets vowing revenge against their former team.”
…be sure to check out hubbach’s column, in which he provides a variety of exclusive quotes from gotay, who seems to blame Willie Randolph for his release, and whom he has no intention of speaking with before tonight’s game in Atlanta…
In the Daily News, Adam Rubin talks with Tom Glavine, who played with Gotay last season, and who had plenty of positive things to say about the young player.
Speaking of the Braves, in the New York Post, Mike Vaccaro believes that the coming week will provide an early-season test for the Mets, as they’ll play the Braves and Phillies.
Lastly, at Chop-n-Change, a Braves blog, Kristi Dosh talks with Joe Janish of Mets Today in a preview of the Mets.
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Lo Duca = cheater
Milledge = thug
Gotay = 25th man who didn’t play the positions we need our 25th man to play
What are you trying to do–form a church choir or a baseball team? Sure, it’s a great idea to put a 25-yr old ~.300 hitter on waivers to retain a 38-yr old.
Your “we” doesn’t include me, politico.
when did Gotay become a .300 hitter outside of 2 months of his career? Is that what gets you that kind of praise these days, to throw around the term “.300 hitter” for 2 months of work? I feel like to be a “.300 hitter” you have to do that for more then 2 months.
Maybe if they gave him a shot, he would have proved either way, whether he was a .300 hitter or not. Just playing devil’s advocate here. The whole point is he didn’t get a chance.
Well, to play devil’s advocate, Gotay was a career .276 hitter in the minors.
Because he was out of options. Maybe the fact that every Met that leaves the team feels the need to take potshots in the media should teel you something . . . about them, not the Mets.
That’s fine, but some guys are late bloomers.
Understood. Just backing up darkstar that it’s way premature to call Gotay a ~.300 hitter.
Understood as well. I wasn’t calling him a .300 hitter either way … just pointing out he didn’t get the opportunity to prove it either way. “small sample size” only becomes “large sample size” when they play you for an extended period.
FYI: “~” = “approximately” (Gotay: 98 games, .295–if that’s not “approximately” .300, the term doesn’t exist)
Gee, nobody attacked the age comparison. How surprising.
(Some of you seem to be losing your objectivity, & seem blinded by your enthusiasm for our favorite team.)
Tobe, I was against the Easley signing from the very beginning … way before Gotay was put on waivers.
Tobe, I know what ~ means. I’m saying it’s premature to say that Gotay is an approximately .300 hitter at the ML level. He was last season, but only for a brief period of time. As Mikey noted above, with such a small sample size, it’s pretty much impossible to project a “~.300 hitter” label on a guy, particularly one who wasn’t at that level in the minors.
Had you said “a guy who hit ~.300 in limited time with us last season” I would have taken no issue.
Between just those 2:
-Easley can hit against left-handers
-Gotay can’t
The Mets wanted someone who could.
Objective enough?
My dislike of Easley being brought back had more to do with the guaranteed contract and roster spot. It had nothing to do with Gotay, at the time.
Yes Easley is a good right handed bat off the bench, but he’s also 38. I don’t think he’ll repeat what he did last season. Again, I’m not speaking in absolutes … this is my opinion and I could be wrong.
Objective enough for you?
I agree with you on the age thing and wish we could have someone a litte younger. I still think Easley’s the better option between the two of them though.
Yes in terms of the two of them, for what this team needs ( a right handed bat off the bench), he would seem the better choice. Maybe getting a guy like Mench would have been smarter though, instead of rushing to bring back Easley.
toomanyuniforms: “Maybe the fact that every Met that leaves the team feels the need to take potshots in the media should teel you something . . . about them, not the Mets.”
Ok pal, whatever you say.
Yeah, that’s right tough guy, everyone who leaves the Mets was seriously “disrespected.”
The guy got cut, he’s pissed, and he showed poor judgment by yapping about it. End of story.
Oh, yeah, & I forgot–VIVA MEXICO!
(an undeported liberal)
I agree with your logic, and I support Willie around here more than most, but the comments Randolph has made since the waiver I thought were really throwing Gotay under the bus. He did a good job for us and maybe was over his head, but unless Gotay was plotting some kind of Julio Franco-esque movement to undermine Randolph from the player-level, I really don’t get what Willie’s issues were.
I’m thinking, “personality conflict”.
If he could play defense I’d agree with you, LIB.
Fair enough.
If that’s what it takes to get you motivated, go ahead.
It will be interesting to hear Milledge talk to the NY press.
It must be wonderful to play for the Mets since every player who they cut is always so hurt by it when they leave.
Oh no! Ruben Gotay is MAD at us….and LoDuca and Milledge too? OMG, we’re doomed, I’m sure this news will have all the Mets just quaking in their boots, awaiting the dreaded “Revenge of the Ex-Mets.”
Maybe these guys should have gotten a little more “angry” and motivated to beat the opposition when they were Mets…and they might still be Mets. I haven’t noticed any chirping from Church and Schneider about getting “revenge” on the Nats.
LoDuca didn’t play with enough emotion? He was the team’s emotion. This year instead we’ll just pray.
LoDuca’s “emotion” always seemed to be all about Paulie, and not directed at the opposing team. All his dramatics didn’t help the Mets last September, did it?
Nor the talk about “waiting to lose”.
Steroids make you emotional!!!!!!!
What idiocy!
Not really fair.. Lo Duca did stick up for his pitcher rather gallantly. Although it was a bit more ego-centric with Milledge, he certainly played with some fire too.
Paulie complained to the press too much.
while he may not have fit the team perfectly, it did always seem like willie randolph didnt like gotay. considering that he always hit pretty well and was working on his defense, I can’t blame gotay for feeling slighted by willie. its not the first, and won’t be the last guy willie rubs the wrong way.
this is also not the first guy to hold a grudge with the mets (see todd hundley, al leiter et al) but i’m not thrilled with the trend. Its dangerous to build bad report with players in such a small market of player-agents.
plus im still just annoyed the mets let him go in the first place - especially to the braves
Let’s look at some of Gotay’s stats from last year:
vs. RHP: .318 AVG, .835 OPS
vs. LHP: .194 AVG, .508 OPS
As starter: .288 AVG, .786 OPS, .343 BAbip
As sub: .310 AVG, .741 OPS, .391 BAbip
So he stinks - really stinks - against lefties. He’s not as good as a sub (40 points less OPS despite that crazy, crazy BAbip, and despite the fact that he presumably faced a higher percentage of righties as a sub).
BTW, his career BAbip is .306, somewhere close to what you’d expect it to be, so last year really looks like an abberation for him.
He just didn’t fit for this team. Time to get over it.
Wow, I never looked at his BAbip. I had no idea it was so off-the-charts. Leads you to believe he’s due for a drop in performance if further exposed to ML pitching.
In this case, I’m inclined to believe in the predictive power of BABIP, because it may show that opponents hadn’t figured out how to play him.
His expected BABIP was .365 because his line drive percentage was 24.5%.
His BABIP was in line with what you would expect given the fact that he smoked the ball consistently last year.
Good point.
If it’s so expected, why’s it so massively out of line with his previous seasons?
Are you really saying that he hits the ball cleaner than David Wright (Career .340 BAbip), Albert Pujols (.316) and Ryan Howard (.347)?
I’d be very surprised if he ever produced at last season’s level again.
sounds like a pretty logical move:
“The Mets explained their decision to Gotay by telling him they wanted a stronger right-handed bat off the bench. They also felt Easley was a more versatile infielder while viewing Gotay as almost strictly a second baseman.”
“Gotay also was out of options and didn’t help himself by suffering a severe ankle sprain the first week of spring training, an injury that sidelined him for much of the Mets’ Grapefruit League schedule.”
How about putting him on the DL and buying some time?
That only addresses the second part of the problem. Putting him on the DL doesn’t make him more versatile or better able to hit RH pitching.
You know what makes you more versatile? The team not burying you on the bench, and actually letting you play. “Veterans” play new positions all the time to become more “versatile”. What does that tell you?
the braves are burying gotay on the bench. he’s the back-up for another lefty-htting 2b.
Well if the coaching staff has no faith in your glove, they’re not going to give you much ML time to prove them wrong.
Could the team be wrong about Gotay’s glove and overall defensive effectiveness? It’s entirely possible. That being said, I understand the reasoning behind letting Gotay walk.
OK zen, but Cox will use him and get plenty out of him.
I understand the reasoning too … I think there is a lot more than that “reasoning” though. I think he wasn’t liked, and it had more to do with his glove on the field. Hey, I could be wrong, that’s just my opinion.