“People moving out,
People moving in.
Ball of confusion;
That’s what the world is today…”
— The Temptations
From the top down, the entire Mets’ organization is in a state of flux. There’s all sorts of things happening.
There was a New York Times story published which indicated that Saul Katz was considering selling his share of the team. Then Katz denied the allegation and said that he had no intention of selling shares.
Then earlier this week at The National Museum of American Jewish History with Fred Wilpon in attendance, Bud Selig said that he had no concerns about the Mets. Directly quoted, he said, “I’m very optimistic about what they’re doing. The only people telling me to have concerns are people who don’t know and haven’t see any facts”. This comes after Selig told broadcasters during the Rockies-Mets series in Colorado earlier this month that as far as he was concerned, the team was heading in the right direction. Meanwhile the team was managing to lose three of four including a gut-wrenching loss to the Rockies on May 3rd .
After the Colorado series, the Mets traveled to Miami and lost three games to the Marlins. The day after the series with Miami ended, the Mets began a series of player moves.
On May 8th, the Mets designated back-up shortstop Omar Quintanilla for assignment. On May 9th, the team called up Wilmer Flores from the Las Vegas 51s. On May 10th, the Mets sent Josh Satin to AAA and called up Eric Campbell. On May 13th, the Mets placed Gonzales Germen on the 15-day DL and recalled Jacob deGrom (deGrom was called up to take a spot in the bullpen only to get the start). On May 14th, the team called up Rafael Montero and placed Dillon Gee on the 15-day DL. On May 15th, the team brought up Josh Edgin (who has been working with Wally Backman and Ron Romanick to change where he stands on the pitching rubber) and released their erstwhile closer, Kyle Farnsworth (that’s the second time this season that the Mets have released Farnsworth). They also placed Travis d’Arnaud on the 7-day Concussion DL and brought Juan Centeno up (Centeno was the starting catcher for deGrom’s debut on Thursday).
During this same time-frame, Terry Collins moved Jenrry Mejia out of the starting rotation and indicated that he would be a strong candidate for closer once he became acclimated to pitching on consecutive days out of the bullpen (something he hasn’t done since 2010). On Thursday night, Gary Cohen called Mejia “the team’s closer du jour”. Both he and Ron Darling said that out of all the changes that have been made, this might be the most important one.
To be sure, there are enough changes throughout the organization for Cohen and Darling to choose from. Oh, and in case you forgot how the song ends, the last line is….
“…and the band played on.”
Terry collins should be fired he either leaves pitchers intoo long or takes them out to soon he doesn’t play Lagares everyday he plays Chris young cause he makes more money puppet for sandy. Talks from both sides of his mouth. Sandy should be fired signs wrong players granderson young colon should have resigned Byrd Hawkins and Harang.
Sorry, I see no point to this article.
What the NY Times reports is not the responsibility of Katz or the Mets; nor is the latest from Dear Leader Bud. Yes, the Mets have made a series of personnel moves recently, and with the questionable exception of promoting Josh Edgin I believe every move made good sense, both in terms of pure talent and preparation as well as the Shake up the Troops benefit of letting the players know that poor play isn’t acceptable. Farnsworth’s era wasn’t so bad? Then congrads to Alderson and Collins for seeing beyond that and moving to improve the team’s bullpen, rather than waiting until Farnsworth’s era resembled his effectiveness, as it surely would a few more losses down the road.
I only hope that Caesar Puello’s apparent resurgence turns out to be real; the outfield could use a little pressure too.
DD…here is a point to consider….why bring Flores and Campbell both up and then give them minimal ABs?
That’s a fair question. I can offer some speculation.
Wilmer came out of the lineup with he was taken sick; some bug must have made its way around the clubhouse. Once he felt better….well, the Mets had just taken two games from the Yankees, and Collins took that as an excuse to leave Tejada in; the old Revealed Preference example from Econ class. I am certainly not in love with that knee-jerk sort of decision making, if that in fact is an accurate portrayal of what happened.
Campbell was promoted to be a role player; he has gotten a few moments, he has come up big and no doubt he’ll be getting more chances; as will Flores; and as will another position player or two, I’m betting, partly because of Campbell’s early success. I really think Eric Campbell has done the entire minor league system a huge favor; given an improved image to the Mets product, with his situational hitting and with that slide. It will take a few more such players before anyone touts the “Mets way of playing baseball,” as they used to with the Oriole’s system, but it’s a beginning.
Speaking of kneejerk: the matter of Collins sitting Lagares is not easy to fathom, but one thing you’ve got to admit is that it wasn’t the kneejerk decision. The impulse decision would have been to keep him in the lineup despite him developing a bad habit, and waiting until his OBP hovered below .290 to bench him. I can remember, oh, a hundred such cases in my years of fandom; for purposes of this conversation let me just say, Jeff Francoeur. No, this is a case of Terry taking the difficult path, which I respect even if I don’t see what he was seeing.
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I agree with Jim OMalley…..why were Flores and Campbell brought up if they aren’t going to be played? It seems that only by accident ( injuries), that the youngsters get to play on this club. Lagares was a “last person left standing” last year when placed in CF….and he was a revelation. So what does the organization do? Comes up with excuses and reasons NOT to play Lagares. “Oh he needs his bat to equal his glove”. Being young, you should know that he had the potential to be a better hitter…if he plays. Yes, he’s in a mini-slump right now, but so what. What do you call what Granderson has been doing all year? Sorry; we now have 1/4th of the season in, and it’s now obvious that Granderson is the second reincarnation of Jason Bay.
Again, for an organization with $$$ problems, they do an abysmal job allocatting resources. We will be stuck with Colon for two years, when Gee, Niese, Wheeler, Montero, deGrom are in house. Soon we’ll have Syndegaard. What happens when Harvey and Hefner returns? You know the Mets will STILL waddle Colon out there.
I also agree that Abreu has no business being on this club when Campbell is available. Face it, I knew that 2014 was lost when Collins was given his contract extension at the end of last year. This is all so frustrating having the Wilpons in charge; doesn’t it remind you of the Donald Grant era?
I would like to know how the $36 million dollar Williamsburg real estate deal went through by Sterling Equities when the Mets are cutting Farnsworth to save his $750 K in salary.