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This past weekend, the Mets signed 30–year-old free-agent OF John Rodriguez to a minor-league contract.
Rodriguez, who was 1 for 3 in his first game for Triple-A New Orleans yesterday, hit .298 in 158 career games for the Cardinals in 2005 and 2006.
He spent all of 2007 with Triple-A Memphis.
Meanwhile, the Mets bench is hitting .165, which is good for last place in the National League.
…and yet, this has not stopped them from carrying two back-up catchers, as well as Abraham Nunez and Ryan Church, who will see a neurologist today because he has been unable to play regularly for the last two weeks…
On Sunday, Willie Randolph told reporters that Marlon Anderson could rejoin the team on its current home stand.
Anderson is batting .167 and was hitless in his previous 18 at-bats before going on the disabled list with a hamstring injury.
The Mets entered this season assuming their bench would be Damion Easley, Endy Chavez, Ramon Castro, Angel Pagan and Anderson.
However, Pagan is still recovering from a banged up shoulder, while Chavez is batting .218 and Easley is batting .238, although they have both been hitting in the last week or so.
For what it’s worth, for Triple-A New Orleans, OF Jesus Feliciano is hitting .322, OF-1B Val Pascucci is batting .301 and OF Chris Aguila is hitting .296.
Of course, Robinson Cancel is batting 375.
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John ……………………………………….. Rodriguez. Excellent.
Alex … would have been a better Rodriguez to sign. Just sayin…
Omar has mismanaged this teams roster for the past three years. It’s not even the trades that don’t work out, etc. it’s decisions not to DL a guy and let him take a roster spot for an extended period of time. This whole organization is so frustrating right now from top to bottom.
This is pitiful.
I remember the Yankee championship teams of the late 90’s having Strawberry, Ruben Sierra and the like on their bench.
We have Cassanova and Nunez. Yea, that’s really gonna get it done.
Has Nunez even had an AB yet? Just DL Church and bring someone up!
Can we in the midst of frustration at least not make stuff up?
Minaya has mismanaged the roster for the past three years? Like including the year that brought a team whose two top starting pitchers went down within 14 days of the playoffs to within one game of the world series?
The roster has problems and holes, but it has an many freak occurrences as well. Last year Lastings Milledge breaking his foot, this year Church taking a knee to the head, how often do you even see that happen in baseball? And yet it happened to the Mets twice in a month with Reyes and Church.
No excuses this team has been mediocre since last June and borderline terrible in stretches of that time, but to say he has mismanaged the roster for three years is just innaccurate.
dude, he built a bench that’s hitting .165 at a whole. if that’s not mismanagement, what is?
Omar’s time is over, his window is closed. Anything more and the team is set back for the next 5 years. Don’t be an Omar apologist just because one club almost made the WS. Almost doesn’t count in the real world.
Actually he has done exactly that. When a person has two concussions in such a short period of time it raises a yellow flag. Church should have been DL’ed from the get go and another bat brought from the minors or where ever. This happened a couple of times to this team last year and Omar let guys sit on the bench without DLing them. WIllie used them as pinch hitters, thus losing about a week when they were obviously injured. This team has THREE catchers on it’s roster for absolutely no reason. The recent third catcher called up is inefective and he’s 36 to boot!!!
Again, I am just talking about the roster neeeds, we haven’t even gotten into the moves that Omar has done of late. I like Omar and think he has made some great moves, but his bad ones certainly are easier to spot at this point. I really think this organization needs to be torn apart from top to bottom.
And also, it was two years ago that this team was close to the WS. A lot has changed since then.
Roy Hobbs is available. That’s about the player we need right now.
Pathetic…
Omar would probably get his 50-year-old cousin, Ronaldo Hobbes.
hahaha! funny stuff
It actually wasn’t really funny at all.
My point was we need someone like a “Roy Hobbs” (not even a real person) who can do it all…can spark a team back to life, can run, hit and throw.
Getting one piece will not be enough.
C’mon, nrmax…it was a little bit funny. Admit it.
I thought it was pretty funny conceptually. How does ronaldo hobbes come into being? how is he treated in town? Was he in the will when the parents died, or did Roy get everything (though allowing Ronaldo to stay in the guesthouse)? that’s what’s funny to me.
Good questions, all.
First of all it was funny. Second, someone mentioned Ruben Sierra above. Omar actually signed him to a minor league contract last year and he was in spring training. Fortunately he asked to be released, or we would have seen plenty of him. I come from a mixed family. I consider myself of mixed race as well. But even I know that Omar does like to give opportunities to people who share a similar background to him. They are the players who get the minor league contracts when others don’t. The staff around him reflects that as well.
Before anyone bothers to mention the guys who don’t fit that mold, I’m not saying it’s a BIG issue, but it’s not something you can really pretend hasn’t existed if you’re being honest. For whatever reason, Omar does extend more opportunities to aging Latin players. Anyone who wants to flame me for it can do that, but you would have a very hard time convincing the people in my life that I am racist. It is what it is.
This is a AA bench.
I never heard anything about these guys having a drinking problem.
;)
Hello everyone….
I just wanted to let you know that I just got off the phone with Omar. I’ve been signed to a minor-league deal and will be reporting to New Orleans immediately.
my press release will read:
“32-year old former P-OF hasn’t played in 10 years. He’s slightly overweight and has a torn rotator cuff. He was signed because he’s not on the Do-Not-Call list.”
route for me please…thank you
the wierd thing about this signing is that his last name is Rodriguez, which is nothing like Delgado, Beltran, Castillo, Santana, Nunez, Castro…..
What about Wright, Church, Smith, Pelfrey, Heilman, etc. He drafted 2 white guys in the first round. I cant believe how stupid most of you are. I mean yeah, the team is garbage, but you bash a John Rodriguez signing? Why? The guy was a nice bat off the bench for the Cards for 2 years. And yeah, obviously the bench is going to look worse when you have 3 or 4 starters out of the lineup and the bench players are starting and AAA guys are the new bench and Marlon Anderson is hurt and Tatis and Chavez are starting because we have no healthy corner OF and Easley is starting because Delgado is ineffective or Castillos knees are hurting, yeah, these things will make the bench look pretty bad. The one positive I get out of seeing the Mets play like this is seeing how mad it makes all you idiots. I wish all the fair weather, knee jerk, hypocrite fans weren’t able to root for the team when they won, because you guys just want people fired and traded and cut every single day. Plus most of you have no idea how baseball works to begin with. The worst thing about being a Met fan, by far, is being in the same group of the new age idiot Met fans who whine and cry and make us all look like ignorant baseball fans.
DIdn’t Omar once say that putting together the bench was one of his favorite things to do as GM?
Yeah, so he could get pensions for his old Latino buddies, not because he actually thinks any of them can play.
as for the non Latinos, they must have some kind of personal info on him to still have their jobs……..
.165 bench batting average. For the love of god……….
that’s pretty classy, sasseroni.
i ask you what’s wrong with the bench? plug alou and church into the outfield. that would give us a bench of marlon anderson, ramon castro, damion easley, endy chavez, and (insert 5th guy here). to me, that really isn’t all that bad. but with the injuries, these guys have been forced to start and we have seen teh likes of raul casanova, nick evans (who was overmatched), and robinson cancel. if you want to fault omar on the bench, it is that we are missing the one big bopper that you can call on when you need a 3-run homer to tie a game.
Exactly, this kind of post by idiots like Sasseroni show the type of intelligence of our fan base. Its embarrasing. Yeah, the bench will look bad when you have bench guys starting at 3 or 4 positions every single day. It is understandable for people to be upset, but people are so stupid and they look for anything to blame Omar or Willie for. Then they will complain about how bad our farm system is, which is great, because these same dopes were the ones saying “TRade the whole farm for Johan! Who cares! He is the best pitcher ever its a gaurunteed world series he will win 25 games and strikeout 280 guys with a 1.80 era!” Just such hypocrites, and such ignorance it is absurd. They all blame Omar, yet they all believed this team was destined to win 100 games and walk to a world series. Tell me people, if this was the common feeling coming into the season, which it was, atleast over here, then how can you blame the blatant underperforming on Omar? Everybody, the fans, the players, the media, even Vegas odds makers thought this team a lock to make the world series. So how can you put the blame on Omar? He put together a team that everybody though was far and away the best. How could he have foreseen this underachieving?
Omar put this team together. Omar signed Castillot to a four year deal. Omar signed Alou to a two year deal. Omar signed Pedro to a four year deal. Omar put the bullpen together. Omar did not offer enough money to keep Bradford. Omar has done some very bad things to this organization and has wasted resources. I like Omar, and he brought credibility back to the Mets, but I think he has also lost a lot of credibility over the past 9 months.
Why don’t the Mets bring up Aguila and/or Pascucci? They certainly won’t do any worse than what the Mets are putting on the field now. I have been a fan since the beginning (1962) and I can’t bear to watch them right now. They totally suck!!
i’m not willing to commit the future to a 31-year old minor leaguer.
At least Rodriguez has posted OPS+ scores in the 100s over parts of 2 seasons with the Cardinals. 332 career atbats and a line of .298/.378/.434 make me wonder why the Cards kept him at AAA last season.
Anything’s better than the horror show that is the Mets bench right now, but seeing as Rodriguez seems to actually have some talent, Omar won’t call him up. He has to have room for Nunez, Easley, Endy and Marlon yah know.
I swear to god, if Marlon Anderson is brought back to the big club after getting off the DL……….talk about a dude who’s begging for release papers……he must have naked pics of Omar or something, there’s nothing logical in keeping him around. Same goes for the rest of the bench at this point.
Omar is singlehandedly making this old Mets fan stop caring.
What would your ideal realistic bench be?
getupkids, anything short of a Jim Thome, Ichiro, Ruben Gotay (of course, he is a HOF canidate) , Chone Figgins, and Carlos Quentin bench is absolutely unacceptable.
“Omar is singlehandedly making this old Mets fan stop caring.”
A couple of points. First, if you are enough of a bandwagon fan to stop caring, then odds are, you didnt care about them from 02-04. And odds are, he is the man who is responsible for making you start caring again. Maybe you think we should have kept Jim Duquette? Second point, if you dont care, then stop posting 50 comments in each thread whining and complaining. Just go away if you dont care, we dont want or need you, loser.
Dude, enough. Stop telling people how to feel about their team, especially a guy who’s been rooting for the Mets much longer than you’ve been alive.
you are the loser nrmax88. you come on here insulting people like you are some damn baseball expert. People have a right to come on here and vent their frustrations whether we all agree with it or not. So, if you cant accept that, we dont want or need you either.
There are lots of things wrong with this team right now, but the bench seems like the best place to start. I know that they don’t want to put Church on the DL, but come on. Why not go with guys like Pascucci, Feliciano or Aguila. Let Marlon take his time coming back
The only reason that I think Nunez is up is that Willie was going to give Wright a day off. Thast won’t happen now until they get a couple of wins together.
Just an FYI, the bench is not killing the Mets this year, the everyday players and the bullpen are, the bench a week ago basically pushed them to 5 of 7 at home, at some point Reyes, Beltran and Wright need to be clicking all at once.
I have no problem shaking up the bench, but that will drive limited impact.
Both you and the above post of “mpetr” are correct, it’s not just the bench. But that’s the best place to start, so you don’t completely disrupt your team. And, with Alou and Church being injured as of late, you have to start there just to make sure you secure your OF.
But, overall, this team is in disaray. One day we put up 9 runs the next we can only manage to squeek out 1 – against a #4 pitcher.
One day our pitching is lights out and the next they’re letting up hits like crazy. There’s absolutely no consistancy with this team what-so-ever.
Well put.
I’m growing tired of this team, manager and organization’s complacency. Everyone preaches winning and talks about “clicking”, when it’s clear that they are not even attempting to field the best team possible. What is the reasoning for keeping three catchers? Where is the insight on that one? Why bother keeping Nunez and Easley on our bench when they’re batting is nonexistent? I would say the same about Endy but it’s clear that he’s a defensive specialist, so that is okay.
We’ve got three hot bats in NOLA, one of which plays 1B but, for reasons I do not know, they aren’t getting called up to the Mets. It’s almost as if the Manager and GM feel obligated to it’s current bench and that’s why they’re still around. It makes no sense what so ever.
This might sound crazy but if they are going to sign somebody like this guy, why not try to grab Carl Everett from the LI Ducks. The guy is flat out raking for them. I know, all the negatives, age, head case, etc. but at least the guy can hit off the bench, play outfield or even first base.
CArl Everett will NEVER play again for the NY Mets. The whole issue with his kids being removed from his and his wife’s care can not be lived down
So, any player that has personal baggage can never be signed. Got it.
I once saw him get PH for – and Chris Jones hit a homer. (Look up the game – it was in 1994 – John Franco blew a save)
If you are going to grab Carl Everett, why not just sign Bonds? They should have done this anyway.
Everett would probably be a lot cheaper and he’s about 8 years younger, but I hear what you’re saying. Also, I don’t think Everett would bring as much of a media circus.
You can’t complain about Omar having guys like Marlon on the bench when he’s done the job off the bench in the past and so many welcomed him back. You can’t get on Omar’s case about Easley because the guy is a decent enough hitter. You can’t get on Omar’s case because of Pagan after the hue and cry over him during the spring. You can’t get on Omar’s case because Endy decided to forget how to hit.
You CAB get on Omar’s case for this insane Church situation, for the fact that we’re carrying three catchers, and for the fact that we have a thin MLB-ready farm.
See that’s where I think you’re wrong though. You can get on his case, and Willie’s case, for exactly that reason. All of the points you made were based on past accomplishments, not present…not even this year.
We’re in crisis mode, we can’t sit around and wait for people to snap out of whatever funk they’re in. We need to plug in players that are hot to bang out wins.
I’m not suggesting a carousel of bench players but we need to bring up hot bats. Castro or Casanova need to go to NOLA, as well as Easley. Anderson can stay but we can’t just let people stay b/c of past accompilshments.
It’s that attitude that breeds complacency. Players know they’re not in any harm of being sent down so they don’t feel the pressure to perform. If Easley, or anyone else, is worried about getting sent down they’ll hit. And if they don’t hit they go to NOLA where they’ll bust their butt to get back to NY.
That will make them work. Playing for your job makes you a better player. Knowing your job is safe and going about your daily routien does not.
Well, your points are well taken. I agree that our farm is thin in major league ready talent. However, if I offered you Humber (who definitely would have seen some starts), Gomez (who would be playing everyday in left), Guerra (who could be close to getting some starts. i hear he is pitching well in the minors for minn), and Mulvey – for Santana. Would you do it?
That’s CAN, not CAB.
So when is Victor Diaz coming back to the roost? Or is he not being considered because he’s under the age of 30?
We finally got J-Rod!!!!!!
I’m no fan of the notion that Pascucci, Aguila, or Feliciano is the answer, but I have no idea why you throw a few more guys like this on the pile if you’re not bringing any of them up, even when they hit.
Just get rid of Minaya already, Wilpons. This is getting painful to watch (kind of like the team on the field.)
willie.
fired.
new iphone today.
100 degrees.
oil prices high.
kennedy released from hospital.
Does anyone know what the deal is with this John Rodriguez guy? Did he just get squeezed out in St Louis? Over his two years with the Cards he put up an OPS+ of 110. As much animosity as I’ve had for Omar over the last week filling the roster with guys that can’t hit, I’m pleasantly surprised with this signing.
In the ideal world, we dump Nunez and Cassanova and bring up Pascucci and Rodriguez to platoon in LF.
Knock it off with the Val Pasucci crap. He’s already proven that he can’t play in the bigs and he’s hitting 300 in AAA. Imagine what a real MLB hitter would do in AAA. I bet even endy could hit 300 in AAA.
Mike Carp .351/.404/.553 with 9 HR
Dan Murphy .325/.375/.498
Evans got his try, cycle these guys through and see what they can do. Better than 14 backup catchers over 30.
I agree with this…give all these kids a cup of coffee; if nothing else, a taste of the bigs will make them want more, and who knows, maybe they invigorate the stale air around this team.
I think we should have a replica of the statue of liberty in front of the new Citi field with a tablet that reads……….Give me your old, injured, under achieving ballplayers who’s carreers are all but washed up. This gets rediculous after a while!
And Northese are the guys that Keityh constantly refers to as the “super subs”. maly i love keith, but lately hes has been a such a homer its hard to listen him. Wether hes comparingEndy Chavez to Mookie Wilson Or saying what a great hitter Damion Easley is, he is realy drinking the kool-aid to much.
But the worst, was yeaterday when he blamed the schedule for the recent losing streak. And he did it like 5 or 6 times. In one inning. And then complained that they have to go to a fundraiser on thier off day today.
Listen i love the Met anouncers, but i just wish they would call out the team instaed of turning into Harry Calis and Gary Mathews and constantly making excuses for this club.
Sorry for the rant, i just wanted to get that off my chest
I personally would have signed Mariano Duncan. I believe he is still available.
John Rodriguez……..can we stop it with the effin latin kings already???
Wow, look at his 2005 memphis AAA stats, insane! Just another AAAA player that Omar loves.
Is Minnie Minoso still available???
Just when I was ready to “route” for you