Please use this thread all week to discuss any Mets-specific topic you wish.
Since the last open thread, the Mets have finalized their coaching staff. At the GM meetings, Sandy Alderson opined that it was going to be tougher to fill out a coaching staff than it was to get either a manager or GM. Only Jeremy Hefner remained on staff in the same position as he held last year under the former manager.
Most of us don’t know very much about the coaches and if they’re doing a good job or not. Sure, no one likes their third base coach because there’s no middle ground for fans. They either think he’s too passive or too aggressive. It would be funny if someone just started ripping the first base coach. “Did you see how he dropped the elbow guard? He doesn’t belong on the field! Fire him already!”
Keith Hernandez said that pitching coaches were more important for pitchers than hitting coaches were for batters. Not that I would want him to be the manager but I wonder if Hernandez would have two hitting coaches if he was in the dugout calling the shots. Like most teams, the Mets will have two hitting coaches in 2022.
What’s interesting to me is how the two jobs are going to be divided this year for the Mets. Eric Chavez is the hitting coach and his job will be to implement the overall philosophy for a game or series. Jeremy Barnes is the assistant and he’s going to work on swing mechanics with the players.
No one should consider me either an expert or one with an informed opinion on this topic. But just as a guy who watches a lot of baseball, it sure seems like the assistant has the harder job here.
In “Ball Four,” the running joke was that the scouting reports for the pitchers for every batter was to “smoke ’em inside.” May Chavez come up with something more helpful for his hitters than that in his daily/series edicts.
I very much enjoyed the video conference with Eppler & Buck.
Two things:
1) Chavez as BP is so Not Sandy. Of course, I love that, because Sandy is at his worst when he’s trying to manipulate the “hitting philosophy.” Could there have been a worse move than bringing in Quattlebaum in May, mid-season. Reports indicate that a number of players wouldn’t even talk to him, didn’t respect him. Chavez is a totally different breed of cat. It matters what the players think and feel.
2) On that note: After reading all the “Cut Cano Now” comments last week (and weeks previous), I asked if anyone worried how that might play out in the clubhouse. Of course, this being Mets360, nobody cared! So during the conference I leaned in when Eppler was asked about the size of the coaching staff (small, so far, relative to most MLB teams). I rewound and wrote down what he said: “One thing that we are both very aware of is how player perceive things, and how players feel. And when you have a lot of different faces — and the vast majority of people are new — that can lead to potentially a little discomfort. And that’s not what we want. We want to move a little slower through the process.”
Which might not make sense to most of the readers here, but it makes total sense to me. The players are human beings, not numbers on a stat sheet.
So, yeah: You can slowly build up the coaching staff as needed. And you can cut Cano at the end of training camp if you feel he won’t help the team win games. And you keep him if you think he’ll help you win games. Cutting him now would be, IMO, incredibly tone deaf and would send a disruptive message.
“Of course, this being Mets360, nobody cared!”
James, why did you come back? We are a bunch of insensitive snobs, so why are you amongst us? Maybe you should dial back your zingers at Brian in particular and the site in general. We don’t all agree on everything, and in fact, we need not agree on anything! But, you took a swipe at us a few months ago at Mack’s and here you come to our face to spit in it. What are you always so argumentative about?
I’m very glad that JP is back.
Nobody has a monopoly on truth and we all have blind spots. My hope is that we can have intelligent people sharing their thoughts in constructive ways. And ultimately each reader can decide which writer – or which commenter – is operating in the dark on any particular subject.
Well Brian, if that doesn’t bother you, it sure bothers me. Why would he feel that nobody cares, did he ask any of us? Does he know what Metsense, Chris, Name, Rob, Wobbit, Bob, etc. feel about Cano, or was he pointing at the webmaster?
I have had many back and forths with Jimmy lately in a lightened and yet opinionated way. Never though did I assume what he felt or should feel about players and teams that don’t really care about the fans, anyway. So, why insult one of your own over it?
I’m not looking for anyone’s understanding but what I’m hoping for is to not deal with comments like that, which show a continuous (negative) perception of the site and us usual commenters or writers.
“What are you always so argumentative about?”
Somewhat ironic. I’ll speculate – something I very rarely do – that you’re not the friendliest bloke in town
Like I said, we don’t have to agree on anything. My point was don’t pass judgment on a group unless you know all are of one mind. You can feel how you want. I’m done with this topic.
I was responding to Jimmy, and wasn’t looking to create a community forum about it.
“Of course, this being Mets360, nobody cared!”
Well, I don’t see this as the proverbial throwing down of the gauntlet.
I’m generally ignored here, and yet my feelings have not been injured. (Necessary context – the previous sentence can be interpreted as follows: “Of course, this being Mets360, nobody cared about anything I had to say”)
Your post was fine, despite that one sentence
Speaking of great sentences, here’s John Updike after Ted Williams hit a home run in his last at bat in Fenway Park:
It was in the books while it was still in the sky.
Not bad, right?
Generally, major leage coaches shouldn’t have to teach but instead should suggest. They should observe mechanics and tweak. They should analyze the data and make decisions about players.
Minor league coaches is another story. They should teach, change their mechanics, make the young players comfortable and be like a mentor. The Mets have three 20 year old top prospects (Alvarez, Baty and Mauricio ) and Ginn and Allan will be at Binghamton this year. The Binghamton coaching staff will be compromised of promotions of 2021 Mets ‘Lower A and A” staff. That was a smart move . The player’s had success, the coaches are familiar to them and the continuity should reap rewards.
The firing of Chili Davis was a perverse move by a floundering and generally defunct front office. Assuming Chili had the respect of the players, any replacement coach would have a hard road stepping in. But Quattle seemed extremely buffoonish, like a cartoon. I also held Gary DiCarcina responsible for generally terrible base running, whether or not that’s fair… so glad to see the back of him.
I guess I like the RonWashington model. Tough, no-nonsense, not the players’ friend, and always pushing for improvement. The fact that major leaguers arrive incapable of bunting, even pitchers, is beyond me. It takes like 15 minutes to learn to effectively bunt. John Smoltz says the one-out safety squeeze is impossible to defend… seems like a mandatory play in every team’s arsenal… but you gotta put the ball on the grass.
I don’t know if we are allowed to post links here — and if not, my apologies — but today’s article by John Harper aligns very closely to my own take on the Mets hitting situation, on Chavez, on Quattlebaum, and on how players feel about things.
Last year in an interview, Sandy said something that I thought was very perceptive. He was asked about the latest, greatest stats. What were the new ones? And he replied that the frontier wasn’t so much the stats themselves, but how best to convey that information in a useful, helpful way to the players.
I think we’ve learned, to some extent, that it’s not by getting some pencil-necked geeks to explain how to hit MLB pitching to a professional athlete. A lot of them don’t respond well to that.
Harper’s article is excellent and very worth reading:
https://sny.tv/articles/sources-mets-eric-chavez-information-overload
Sad Mets news. One-time Mets pitcher Jeff Innis lost his battle with cancer. https://nypost.com/2022/01/30/jeff-innis-former-mets-pitcher-dead-from-cancer-at-59/