Saturday, July 14, 2007

Sometimes You're the Hero, Sometimes You're the Gotay...

Although I'm firmly in the camp of playing Ruben on an everyday basis (Valentin is turning to dust before our eyes) last night was an abomination.

This guy's got a worse glove than Ty Wigginton displayed at 2nd.

I still think he's the future at the position, barring the pickup of a proven vet (aka Mark Loretta?), but last night's travesty set him back a few notches in the eyes of the critics.

During the radio broadcast yesterday, Howie made a few comments on the Mets naming HoJo as the hitting coach and the reasons for the move. Apparently the idea is for HoJo to work with the younger players (specifically Wright, Reyes, and Gotay) to teach them about developing their approach at the plate and situational hitting--WHAT THE F??? These are the only guys in the lineup that can get a hit with men in scoring position and Wright and Reyes are top-ten in the league in walks. Once again, let's find what works and put the kibosh on it...

How about we make force some of the vets to put down the buffet plates and get into the cage for a bit. Yeah, I'm talking to you Beltran, Delgado, LoDuca, Valentin, and Green. These guys are the freakin' problem, not our young guns...

4 comments:

Fredo said...

Good call. That's the new coach taking the easy way out, and not wanting to rock the boat.

As for Gotay, while the bobble on the routine grounder was bad news, it wouldn't have been fatal if the guy running the bases hadn't been so darn fast (they'll even run on you after you score...). Gotay still would have thrown out most runners on that play.

The shovel to Reyes on the next play was bad judgment more than bad hands. He should have settled for the sure out at first. Or Reyes could've helped him out and tried to grab the throw with his glove. Sure he would've taken some contact, but c'mon, he gets paid enough to endure a little jarring every now and again.

SheaHeyKid said...

Ha, way to work in some classic SJU quotes fredo!

Reyes is not the biggest guy, i'd just as soon he get out of the way of a hard slide then be laid out on DL for a month or two, which would kill us.

Two things:
1. What if milledge really turns out to be "that good"? Can you imagine? Looks like he's picked right up from where his AAA action left off.

2. That HoJo thing kills me if it's true. I think clearly having Rickey work with Reyes has paid off beautifully (Reyes' improvement in almost any batting stat of importance is astronomical from season to season). Also, as DC points out, it is the shi**y approach that the VETS have at the plate that's killing us. The young guys are getting on, then just sit around waiting for beltran and delgado to offer meekly at a 92 MPH fastball or better yet get caught looking at a straight down the zone meaty strike.

Fredo said...

The one really nice development is that Milledge and Gomez seem like they really might be the answer next year at the corner spots. If we don't have to go after big contracts at those positions, we'll have some serious money to chase an infielder. Are there any good ones available this year?

Fredo said...

BTW, D.C., what's with the Loretta talk? I just heard Carlin talking about getting him on the Fan yesterday. Is he being made available?