We Mets fans are use to hearing Keith Hernandez refer back to his days of playing Strat-O-Matic baseball as a teen. He mentions the game when lauding a great defensive player saying things like “this guy’s a definite ‘1’ in Strat.” But if an outfield messes up consistently he’ll label him a “4”.
The well respected game assigns a defensive grade to every player for whom it issues a card. 1’s are the elite fielders like Andrelton Simmons, Kevin Kiermeier and the other Gold Glove candidates. ‘4’ used to be the worst grade the company gave out back when Keith was playing it but now there is even a 5 for the truly awful. In the present card set Mark Trumbo was given a 4 for his work at 1B while he was assigned a 5 for his efforts in RF and LF.
Outfielders and catchers also get a rating for their throwing. Desired is the howitzer that Yoenis Cespedes has. It was rated a ridiculously great “-5” as opposed to the pop gun arms like Ben Revere (+3) or our own Curtis Granderson who is a +2.
The 2015 Mets were not a good fielding team and clearly the first month plus of the 2016 season shows improvement. Other than Juan Lagares who will likely not get enough playing time to earn it there would seem to be no candidates for the Gold Glove but clearly a level of competence has been reached.
If the season ended right now here’s how I think SOM would view the Mets.
Infield: Last year’s primary infield of David Wright–Wilmer Flores–Daniel Murphy–Lucas Duda graded out as 3-4-4-3. When Murphy played 3B the game company gave him a 3 there while Ruben Tejada was a 3 at his three primary position.
In all likelihood the current group of Wright-Asdrubal Cabrera– Neil Walker-Duda would be 3-3-3-3. It’s not inconceivable that Cabrera could even get a 2. He has impressed thus far with his acumen at short. Whether he can get to enough balls in the deep shortstop hole to his right is still in question. Too bad they can’t give him a 2-1/2 because that might best describe his range.
In any case getting away from 4’s at the keystone is very desirable.
Outfield: In 2015 the majority of outfield starts went to Michael Cuddyer (lf/rf 4), Juan Lagares (cf 2) and Granderson (rf 2). When Cespedes came aboard at the trade deadline he brought his LF-1, CF-3 with him to go with the great throwing arm. Michael Conforto impressed the fans as he played beyond his fielding reputation. The game company was not as impressed and gave him a LF-4 grade.
In 2016 Conforto still seems to be hovering between a 3 and a 4. I will lean towards a LF-3 but wouldn’t be shocked to see him remain a 4. Cespedes will likely get a LF-2/CF-3 grade and Granderson will probably remain a 2. Lagares could return to the ranks of CF-1 which was his grade in 2014. Alejandro DeAza usually gets 3’s in the outfield corners and 4’s in CF. What little we have seen him out there tends to confirm that. All in all the 2016 outfield is just a minor tick better this year than it had been.
Catcher: Last year Kevin Plawecki had 73 games behind the dish while the oft-injured Travis d’Arnaud had 67. The rookie was given a grade of 2(0) – the zero being the arm rating. d’Arnaud meanwhile was a 3(0).
Those well could be the grades in the next Strat card set. With it looking like d’Arnaud will be out for quite a stretch we can speculate about Rene Rivera who has already shown us a powerful and accurate arm. Last year as a Tampa Bay Ray the light hitting veteran was a 3(-2) defensively. That -2 arm is quite the weapon and we just may see him become the designated catcher for Noah Syndergaard to try to rein in the running game which is fast becoming Thor’s only vulnerability.
One can conclude that the 2016 Mets are an improved defensive team but we all know they are going as far as the pitching and long ball will take them.
As far as I know, Keith still plays the game.
As Cabrera’s range is 3.96 vs league average of 4.28, that will grade as a 3 or perhaps a 4. Flores was a 4.16 range factor last season and got a 4.
When I was in the Army Security Agency down in Ft Hood between 1977-1978, my and a friend of mine played endess Stratomatic games. It was a super-great game.