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Last night, Mets C Omir Santos hit a first-inning grand slam for his first major-league home run.
…SNY’s Ted Berg ironically calls him Extra Base Omir, but it’s becoming less ironic every day…
The 28–year-old Santos has a five-game hitting streak, during which he’s batting .300 with three extra-base hits.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, courtesy of ESPN.com, Santos is one of four active players who collected his first career RBI on a grand slam.
In a report for the Star-Ledger, Brian Costa explains why Santos chose to sign with the Mets as a minor-league free agent.
…last week, i sat in the dugout and watched santos shave down his bat handles with a plane… it was like woodshop class, as you can see in this photo i took… wood shavings were all over the bench… he told me the league will not allow black handles for the bat he uses, and he doesn’t like tape, and these are the only two bats he has, so he was shaving off 
the paint, ever so softly, trying not to thin out the handles too much… it was like watching a surgeon perform on a patient… a) i’m surprised the player is left to do this, and not some clubhouse attendant, and b) i think it’s funny that a baseball team has a wood plane lying around…
“I think he handles the game plan very well,” Jerry Manuel said of Santos last night. “The pitchers like throwing to him. He gives them a good target, he gives the umpire a very good look at pitches.”
…like i said last night before the game, from what i can gather, as long as Ramon Castro isn’t hitting, Jerry Manuel will get santos as much playing time as possible, to see what they’ve got… Brian Schneider is due back around May 3…
…it will be interesting to see what happens then, considering, according to previous reports, the Mets had been shopping castro all winter…
…in the end, santos will likely be sent back to the minors, but i do believe manuel would rather have the best defensive catcher he can find, in place of offense from that position…
Matt, would you like someone running your own blog for you?
The bat is the tool of his trade…I wouldn’t let anyone touch it either.
Excellent point.
LOL
Who is the best defensive catcher??? I think all of us, including Jerry, assume that person is Schneider, but I’m not sure that the reality of the situation proves that. I think it is fair to say that Schneider played well below the defensive expectations most people had for him last year.
i agree. i don’t know if last year was the ‘real’ brian schneider or if he’s actually much better defensively, but i have not been impressed with him at all during his time as a met. as an automatic out, he needs to be excellent defensively to be a contributing player to this team’s success and he has not been that imo. i know catcher typically isn’t an offensive position, but he’s atrocious
My solution? Release Sheffield. It’s not working. Keep three catchers. Schneider will likely be better without back injuries, and if Manuel paid Castro the same regard he does Sheffield, he’d be getting him into games to get _his_ bat going too. Castro’s been a pretty good player for the Mets, and if he could contribute as a pinch hitter, this could work.
I am not a huge Sheffield fan but why is it not working out??? He had a hit last night and another one stolen from him on an unbelievable play. He hits the ball hard consistently. Like I said I wish we never got him but its nice to see his name in the cleanup spot when Delgado is out. I believe hes staying around and should.
IDK ceet…they seem to struggle with the 3 catcher concept…
I agree. Im not a fan of having so many players at the same positions. This is why I wasnt for Sheffield. I believe no one is giving a chance to get rolling or get a feel for the game. One bad game and its time for the next guy to step in. I hate it. I dont like the fact every game Tatis may be in, Murphy may be in, Sheffield may be in, Church should be in!!etc.. I dont want it at the catcher position as well.
well jerry is obsessed with getting his bench “ab’s”. I dont think the shef experiment is over but he has not really established himself either. I think the mets will give him more time. What i dont like and what ceet i think is suggesting is that i thought shef was here to PH..not to really to take so much time as he has done in the OF. I hope they regress him to that role IF he gets it together but i doubt it. IDK if i trust castro PH anyway but i was hoping shef would occupy that role and that role ONLY
I agree but I have to admit he is growing on me. maybe its the violent bat movement that gets me excited lol. But during last nights game you heard Gary say during the early 90’s Toronto’s lineup would be the same, at least the first 6 guys, every game. I like that!! Guys develop a chemistry,start to rely and believe in each other, they figure out their roles, they dont feel like they have to do it all in 1 at bat, etc
Santos has done NOTHING so far to warring being sent back to the minors. He hasn’t made one defensive gaff as far as I remember and he’s been hitting a heck of a lot better than Brian or Darth Hippo.
Looking at Santos’ career minor league numbers, this certainly appears to be an anomoly, but as long as he keeps it up, he should stay with the big club.
Damn I wish we just had Jesus Flores and didnt have to worry about that position for quite a while lol Oh well…Santos looks like a decent player. If the pitchers like to throw to him and he plays well defensively I believe he will likely stay. Offensively he will probably give you a little less than what Castro will give you but I would rather have either one of them over Schneider!!
Heck, if Guillermo Mota wanted to come back to the Mets as a converted catcher, I would even take him over Brian Schneider.
this is what i never understood about the mets. its all about $$ and contracts when these decisions are made. seems like production and giving the major league team are too often secondary.
*giving the major league team the best chance to win
Yeah, see that is how for-profit businesses work.
The Mets are not–despite what many people here think–an infinitely wealthy and selfless charity. They are a business owned by a wealthy family who own the team in order to get more wealthy.
Except that sometimes — get this — you take a LOSS in the short term (gasp!) to . . . make money in the long term. WHOA!!!! And sometimes, when you have a winning team, more people show up and you make more money, such that the baseball and financial incentives are happily coincident. Imagine that!
Yes, Mr. Rockefeller, but sometimes businesses can make more by spending less, if profits are their number one goal, and especially in a major league sport with giant corporate revenues.
Think the Mets would have had a better chance of winning with Manny or CC? I bet they do too, but they would rather have that $50–200 million than spend it.
Not every owner cares equally about winning, and not every owner puts winning before profits.
Sending a productive player making the minimum to the minors, rather than a non-productive player currently signed making more, has nothing to do with what you are saying. Castro making 1.5 mil of whatever and being dead weight gets to stay just cause he is making a million or so more than Omir- thats the kind of stuff that makes no sense to me.
As far as Manny, he would have paid for himself and then some between merchandise and postseason revenues, no question about it. You would think the Wilpon’s, who own Sterling Equities- which specializes in investments- would have been able to figure that one out.
I like this guys approach at the plate..i hope jerry gives him more playing time.
Seems like he always hits the ball hard, even his outs are hard hit balls.
Honestly, I hope he continues on this tear, but this is simply another case of overreacting (Like Castillo early in the season) after a very tiny sample size.
Look at his minor league numbers for his career, and even the last 2 years in the minors. He is a career .652 OPS in the minor leagues and expecting anything more than that in the majors would be foolish. Maybe he finally figured it all out but the chance of that is not particularly high.
Every team has guys like this. Career minor leaguers who get hot briefly and then are never heard from again. Every once in a while, though, you get a great story, and we can hope that’s what’s happening here. Generally, though, I tend to agree with you.
well lets hope for the best.. he is a career .300 hitter in the minors..hopefully that will translate into something good for us..
“overreacting (Like Castillo early in the season)”
What about Castillo’s year after year after year production prior to his injury plagued 2008. the guy can hit, hes done it before throughout his career and theres no reason not to think he cant keep this up as long as he stays healthy
I meant when people wanted to run him out after a 1 for 10 start.
i’ve been saying this about castillo for a while now. i think the overreacting would be how every one was ready vote him off the island after one bad year. if i’m not mistaken, he hit .290 or higher every year for the past 7 years or something before last year
Even last year, he had an OBP of .355, stole 17 of 19 bases, and scored 46 runs in limited duty, and was nowhere near as bad as his detractors insisted.
He has been a very good player for a decade, and when healthy, he still seems to be one.
His career minor league numbers are:
.258 AVG, .304 OBP, .348 SLUG
Remember Coste was a carear minor league catcher without great numbers as well, He has been a spark plug for the Phills
Well coste has much better minor league numbers than santos, even if they are not “Out of the world” numbers.
.299 AVG, .350 OBP, .447 SLUG
His major league numbers are almost exactly in line with those.
.282 AVG, .332 OBP, .442 SLUG
Despite all the negativity surrounding Schneider, he is the only catcher on the ML roster who has shown he is willing and able to block the plate when an opposing runner is trying to score. I am interested to see Santos in that situation before insisting he stay on the ML roster.
Is it legal to plane the bat handle?