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After the Mets’ loss against the Marlins on July 28 - a game in which Fernando Tatis went 2-for-4 with a triple and 2 RBI - Mets manager Jerry Manuel publicly announced that Tatis would be the starting left fielder, saying:
“He right now is our leftfielder. There is no question about it.”
Since that proclamation, however, Tatis has started only one game in left field. Instead, he’s started in right field, while left has been manned by a group including Marlon Anderson, Nick Evans, Endy Chavez, and most recently Daniel Murphy.
OK, no big deal - the key has been Tatis in the starting lineup.
Rather, the big deal is that Tatis is only 5-for-21 (.238) with one RBI, one run scored, and no extra-base hits since being named a regular. This is a far cry from the July numbers (.397 AVG, .463 OBP, .767 SLG) that earned him a starting role.
Granted, Tatis does have a 10-game hitting streak going, so perhaps this recent stretch is a simple hiccup.
If not, the corner outfield positions are a concern - particularly since Ryan Church’s return has hit another snag. The Mets are counting on the suddenly struggling Tatis and the unproven platoon of Evans and Murphy to fill what are traditionally ‘offensive’ positions. If these three don’t provide significant offense, their inexperience in the outfield becomes detrimentally counter-productive.
Strangely, the Mets are looking at Rich Aurilia (as linked to by Cerrone earlier today), who has zero experience in the outfield. He’s a nice hitter, but will he hit enough to make up for his glovework? Not likely.
The Mets may have a short leash on the Evans and Murphy experiment, hoping one or both can blossom while Omar Minaya watches the waiver wire for a legitimate outfielder with a power bat. For example, Aubrey Huff might be a nice addition, but at what cost? The Mets have too many ‘untouchables’ in the high minors and can’t afford to deal any of their MLB-ready arms considering the state of the pitching staff. One would hope that if Evans continues to struggle, Val Pascucci will at least get a look.
After the trading deadline passed, Minaya claimed that trading a few of the Mets prospects wasn’t worth a ‘rental” playe’ - a bold statement for a team desperate. I’m not sure I agree, considering that a few of the ‘rentals’ that changed teams would have turned into draft picks in the offseason (as Type “A” or Type “B” free agents), while the other ‘rentals’ would not have cost the Mets their elite prospects.
But there’s still time for one of these prospects to show us why they weren’t dealt, and for Minaya to swing a waiver deal. Let’s hope that two months from now, Minaya’s non-moves prior to the deadline make him look like a genius.
No offense but did you just post this just to uh…. post?
This has nothing new in it at all and says the same thing we have argued about since July 31st.
You give no examples of the “rentals” you are refering to that would have netted us picks IF they had NOT accepted arbitration.
You give no examples of any rentals that could have been had for lesser prospects.
Nothing to see here, move on.
As for Aurilia. I would think that the plan would be to use him in a platoon some with Castillo at 2nd and just over all make the bench better by taking Cancel’s spot. Sending Easley to the OF.
omg you hit it right on the head…bravo!
Rich Aurilia is no help to this team whatsoever. It is ridiculous that he is part of any “plan” involving the Mets at all. How many part time second basemen do we need on this team? Cancel has been pretty good for us off of the bench, and having Easley in the OF is no better than sticking Aurilia there.
Should have sucked it up and offered Martinez and Niese to get in on the 3-way deal with the Buckos and Red Sox. If you didn’t want to re-sign Manny we could have offered him arbitration. If he declined it, we walk off with two draft picks to replace the prospects we surrendered to get him in the first place.
And we wouldn’t be in the predicament we are in right now.
Well….I don’t care what you say, but Aurilia would be a huge upgrade over Cancel. And he probably wouldn’t try to steal 3rd with 2 out and Wright batting either….
As far as Manny, you don’t know where he would have signed and what draft picks you’d get for him. What if he signs with…say…Baltimore. And let’s say they draft 13th. Guess what? You’re down to a sandwich pick. Besides, replacing Fmart and Niese with even 2 first round picks is damn near impossible. So I wouldn’t say that it was as easy as that. If you’re already talking about trading those 2 guys then why get Boston involved in the first place? Trade them to Pittsburgh for Bay and Marte straight up. That’s a trade that could have happened that Omar didn’t pull a trigger on. So we’ll see on Saturday if Niese was worth it. And let’s see if they bring FMart up in September. They might not do it so that he doesn’t get exposed and his value stays high in case we want to trade him in the offseason. I guess it depends on where we are with the roster (church) and in the standings.
But thereal (or should I say t~h~e~r~e~a~l LOL) is right. Joe Janish just wrote a very brief summary of this blog’s message boards over the past week…
Frankly, this team just doesn’t seem to have the horses to make a run toward the playoffs (though with the starting pitching, I’d think they’d do well if they made it). So whats the point in trading a prospect for a marginal player? If they aren’t going to win the division, I’d rather let the kids play, so you know what you have with them, and then enter CitiField ready to go.
It would answer a lot of questions..for instance, if the kids can’t really tread water in the bigs, then perhaps Omar goes for Manny in the offseason..
The fact that Val Pascucci is not up with the Mets is absolutely mind boggling. How good do your AAA numbers have to be before you get a callup?
Ridiculous.
I think it has more to do with the fact that he can’t play any position. Take a look at the over all stats for that league. His numbers are good but so are a lot of has been never were’s in that last.
What I don’t understand is that he has incredible CAREER minor league numbers, and yet he was only called up one time in his career, and only for 32 games.
Tatis, Evans, and Murphy are infielders playing the outfield. Pascucci is a TRUE outfielder.
I would not go as far as saying he is a true OF, LOL. From what we have heard, he is a TRUE DH.
Because:
(1) He’s horrific at defense
(2) He whiffs a lot in AAA
(3) See above.
and I bet you have seen him play a grand total of ZERO times.
time to suck it up and sign Barry Bonds
Or at least see what Bobby Bonilla is up to these days.
I mean hey, we’re still paying him anyway!
sign me up. Someone should start a petition to at least make the mets realize that they would not be shunned for trying to improve the offense.
baseball would do better in the long run to improve our impressions of barry bonds, instead of leaving open the typical media accounts (some clearly self-deserved). Sign Bonds… let him try to show he can be a good teammate. Contrary to media reports, players do like him… he used to pat almost every opposing catcher, and he jokes with all first baseman I’ve seen. I can’t imagine he’d bring his groupies, or he’d even be allowed to.
I think he would simply improve our offense, offer much needed protection for Wright in the 3… and be on base all the time.
LHP
reyes
Beltran
Wright
Bonds
Castro
Delgado
Tatis/Church
castillo/reyes/easley
RHP
reyes
beltran
bonds
wright
delgado
tatis/church
schneider
castillo/reyes/easley
He is an offensive force and our lineup has too many holes. Too bad there is no chance.
dude nobody’s signing bonds. He’s 43 and he can’t play the feild
The Mets have had a hard time fielding a top-notch, or even competent outfield for years now. Having three average to above average outfielders is the exception to the rule with this team (I point you to the 2000 WS team as an example.)
What’s curious is conventional wisdom holds that filling in an outfield is much less challenging a proposition than filling an infield or pitching staff. The Mets have seemingly had much less of a problem doing either of those (bullpen notwithstanding).
What gives?
True enough. It’s that we pride ourselves on pitching. I also think that for a while now we have had our best prospects be OF and none of them so far have worked out for us.
Milledge, Gomez, Fmart, …..
I agree, but still, picking up ML-average outfielders should be EASY. Yet we throw the Benny Agbayanis, the Jay Paytons, the Karim Garcias, the Shane Spencers of the world out there.
Honestly, it should not be hard to put an adequate outfield out there, even if the plan A (see Moises Alou) doesn’t work out.
Agabayani played excellent baseball for the Mets for a few years, Payton was a highly regarded prospect who suffered injuries and arrived late, you cannot possibly with any sense of intellectual honesty lump them in with Garcia and Spencer who were retreads parked on a makeshift roster.
Patrick:
You are right about Agbayani, he played well in a somewhat limited role, but who cares how highly regarded Payton was? He never had an OPS above .775 with the Mets. Excuse me that I included him with Shane Spencer and Karim Garcia (who was an enormously regarded prospect at one time, himself). The point wasn’t to pick exact like players. The point was that the Mets have trotted some pretty mediocre outfielders out there, when conventional wisdom suggests that getting a decent outfield is easier than getting a decent infield.
Yet the Mets keep putting converted infielders and 4th and 5th outfielders out there. It’s uncanny.
Typically, you have sidestepped the point to nit pick the example.
Agbayani played decent ball for us, yes, but he never played even 120 games for us, so he was a part-timer for the most part.
Typically I have side stepped nothing.
The Mets went with a gamble in left with Alou it backfired.
Rightfield blew up in their face with two completely unanticipated concussions.
Payton’s performance not with standing he was a Mets system guy, a highly regarded player coming out of college and a big time prospect prior to getting injured, he battled back and did not pan out but he was not some retread like Spencer of Garcia in their early 30s trying to hang on.
You call me nitpicky, well be right instead of vaguely obtuse.
Agreed…Wright and Reyes were definitely secondary prospects.
Those guys have been in the majors for a while now.
Really? Thanks.
dave27: don’t be a jerk.
If the Tiggers drop out would Magglio be an option?
Haha…. Tigger.
I hear there is this guy who will cost absolutely nothing except cash and can play the outfield. He used to hit home runs. Has a record or something. What was his name again??? Hmmm…
K~~~~~~ something.