Smithereens

[Edgy MD]

Can I be the only one who'd like to see Smithtown get a little time in left again?



I mean, not a whole lot, maybe two games in 10, to go with his one game in 10 at first. (It's hard to sit Alonso even that much.) I just love everything I've seen from him this year, and I'd hate to see him lose his groove from so much disuse.



Let leftfield be Smithfield! On occasion!!



https://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/cd488265e594adc536c5885093bd3714e752f3a3/c=0-113-2669-1621/local/-/media/2017/09/28/Bergen/NorthJersey/636421601777794558-20170927-gav-bm4-095-16695904.jpg?width=3200&height=1680&fit=crop>

[Lefty Specialist]

https://onmilwaukee.com/images/articles/static/baitsign.jpg>

[Edgy MD]

Really? I mean, I've proposed more out-there schemes than that.

[smg58]

I don't think it's unreasonable to give Smith a game or two in left while McNeil is playing second. But things are awfully crowded, and Alonso and McNeil are forcing the Mets to keep them in the lineup. Not sure how this all resolves.

[MFS62]

As long as those two keep hitting the way they are, I'm not too concerned about who they are keeping on the bench.

Later

[Edgy MD]

Well, the idea certainly isn't to find Smith more playing time at the expense of the players who are hitting the best, but rather at the expense of those who aren't: Broxton and Lagares, for starters. Maybe Nimmo and Cano, too.



If he takes one start in ten from each of those four guys, he's suddenly in the lineup 50% of time and we get an idea if his improvements are for real.

[Lefty Specialist]

Smith was Alonso insurance, just like Adrian Gonzalez was Smith insurance. I think Alonso is a keeper, even if he slumps a bit as the league adjusts. So if we can get a piece of value for him, I do it. I'm guessing Frazier can be an effective backup at first if needed.

[Edgy MD]

Well, as a first rounder who is younger than Alonso, I'm guessing he has more value than an insurance policy. And if he gets a chance to play a little, he could well have more value on the trade market.

[Chad ochoseis]

In an Alonso-less world we'd be talking about Smith as this year's ROY. We need to find a spot for him in the lineup until he proves that he's last year's Smith and not the one we'd been counting on when he was coming up through the minors. Somewhere. I don't care if we sit Rosario and put Smith at short.



OK. Maybe that's a little extreme. But put him in left for sure. Unless he's Murph-level bad, I'd much rather see an OF of Smitty-Nimmo-Conforto than anything involving Brox or Lagares, at least against righties. My eyeball metric has always had Nimmo as a decent CF.

[Lefty Specialist]

Playing guys out of position always seems to work out well for the Mets. Not.



If Smith is going to be Alonso's caddy, so be it. A start every two weeks and a couple of late innings for defense. But he kind of proved he's not a left fielder last year. Jeff McNeil's not a left fielder either, but at least he's got a little speed to make up for it. The problem is that they have too many bats for too few positions. What happens when (if?) Lowrie gets back? Cespedes? Smith is going to have to go down to Syracuse where he's got nothing to prove. If he could catch or play short, fine. But they can't really maximize his value at the major league level.



On the one hand it's a happy problem to have, but it's still a problem.

[Frayed Knot]

After years of complaining about a lack of depth and about why we didn't have a dynamite-hitting backup at each spot, and about how shortsighted it was that we had only [fill-in blank] to play while [fill-in blank] was hurt,

too many bats for too few positions is a Good thing. Make the most of it.

[Edgy MD]

And finding him PT in left is as much as anything about keeping him sharp in case of any possible Alonso outages.

[nymr83]

looking ahead, i don't see DH games until 2 in June, so you aren't staying fresh there. do you try LF? I don't know. maybe if you sign groundball machine Keuchel?

[ashie62]

I'd like to see Dom get reps in leftfield

[Edgy MD]

Here's to winning advocacy threads!

[bmfc1]

I thought that this was a discussion of one of the new "Black Mirror" episodes.

[Edgy MD]

I just want to salute this flag one more time.



Mickey cycled through seemingly every possible option before working Smith into left, and Dom's only gotten better and played more since then.



As historic as McNeil's and Alonso's seasons are to this team, Smith has the best OPS of the three right now*, which is kinda staggering.



The season feels kind of 1996-y, when the Mets got offensive seasons for the ages from three different players, and it wasn't enough to get them to .500, or particularly close.





* Smith:1.035 | Alonso: 1.008 | McNeil: .931