Coach Seating '22

[kcmets]

At quick glance I read Endy Chavez and was like holy shit. Nevermind.

[Willets Point]

What's Eric Chavez's experience in driving in runners from scoring position with fewer than 2 outs? And can he teach that skill to Mets batters?

[Edgy MD]

As the assignment of bench coach is seemingly holding up the announcement of the Mets staff, recent news reports have the Padres denying the organization the request to talk with advance scout/development coach Ryan Flaherty. Jeff Pickler, who holds the title of "game planning and outfield coach" with the Reds, has removed himself from consideration as well.



In the "big splash" department, buzz is being picked up regarding Bobby Valentine returning to the organization as a special assistant. That's not a uniform job, certainly, but if the vaccuum persists at Showalter's right side, speculation will start to seep in.



Also, the Yankees have just hired affiliated baseball's first female manager, Rachel Balkovec to command the Class A Tampa Tarpons.

[kcmets]

Things are so slow that MLB Network turned off the bottom scrolly bar.



Maybe the Mets can summon the Ghost of Don Zimmer to take the bench helm.

[ashie62]

Tampa Tampons?

[Edgy MD]

Well, that's what makes the name unfortunate — the team has long endured such derision well before gaining a female manager.



We might want to avoid that appellation.

[G-Fafif]

Residents of Tampa are Tampans. Try not to chortle.

[Fman99]

=G-Fafif post_id=84322 time=1641843041 user_id=55]
Residents of Tampa are Tampans. Try not to chortle.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Well, that would be a bloody shame.

[Willets Point]

Stick a plug in it, guys!

[kcmets]

I have to admit something that some may find mildly amusing. I never knew

that the Tampa affiliate is named the Tarpons. I'm pretty up on MiLB namesakes,

for some reason (probably the yankiness) just never really noticed.



They have some cool logos.

[G-Fafif]

The Tarpons were long a Reds affiliate, someone who went to college in Tampa feels compelled to note.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tampa_Tarpons_%281957%E2%80%931988%29https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tampa_Tarpons_(1957–1988)



Several players who became Mets on June 15, 1977, wore the T in their professional youth, as did some guys named Bench, Rose and Concepcion.

[Edgy MD]

On a Turn Back d'Clock day in the late nineties, the then-Tampa Bay Devil Rays took the field as The Tampa Tarpons in a game against The Mets.

[G-Fafif]

The 1969 uniforms the Mets wore that 1999 afternoon were crazy baggy.

[Edgy MD]

Every time I think I have useful memory to add to the record, G-Fafif out-details me by a laughable amount.



I tip my baggy hat.

[Edgy MD]

Giants deny Mets request to talk to pitching coach Andrew Baily about becoming Mets benchie.



Andy Stankiewicz, currently the Grand Canyon University head coach, has declined the Mets inquiries for the same position.



I'm feeling kinda John Russell-y.

[bmfc1]

There's a theory that SD and SF coach-blocked the Mets to get back at big-spending Steve Cohen.

There's another theory that it's late in the off-season (wasn't that a Paul Simon song?) and it's fair to deny this permission.

Who the heck knows?

[Benjamin Grimm]

None of these guys are the headline-grabbers that we had been teased. Not that that really matters, of course, but it was a briefly intriguing notion.

[Edgy MD]

Andy Stankiewicz stops presses!

[seawolf17]

Mostly because the press runs out of Z tiles.

[Edgy MD]

Anybody remember a "Letters from Columbus" feature in The Village Voice in 1993?



A staffer had fallen in love with the out-of-nowhere story of Stanky in 1992, and when The Yanks instead went with Pat Kelly at second and Spike Owen at short the next season, they piled on the insult by farming Stankiewicz out, so this writer (Allen Barra?) took it upon himself to imagine an exiled and lonely Stanky corresponding with his former teammates as if it were a voice from fallen into another dimension, as if to be farmed out by George Steinbrenner was to be cast out of all time and space.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Glenn "No Shit" Sherlock is the bench coach.

[bmfc1]

I note that 61 year-old Sherlock is the opposite of the two up-and-comers that they tried to get from SD and SF. That doesn't mean it was a bad choice.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Sherlockhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Sherlock

[Fman99]

M to the izz-ehh



I guess this is all about what helps Buck, so, in that sense, I suppose it's a good pick.

[Edgy MD]

https://www4.pictures.zimbio.com/mp/jqqU5fBKHv9l.jpg>

[Willets Point]

Now they need to hire someone named Watson as their director of medical.

[bmfc1]

Interesting article by Ken Rosenthal in The Athletic. He writes that Buck might have wanted old friend Brian Butterfield as his Bench Coach but that Butterfield won't get vaccinated.

[bLOCKQUOTE]...When the Mets named Showalter manager last month, it seemed likely he would pursue Butterfield, who had been dismissed by the Angels early in the offseason. But the possibility of Butterfield joining the Mets ended before it got started.

Why? Because Butterfield is not vaccinated for COVID-19.

...

Butterfield offers a different perspective than Goodwin because he simply does not believe in the vaccine. His departure from the Angels, according to a club source, was unrelated to his stance. “There were some other things. I'd rather not talk about that. It was a little bit of a difficult situation,” Butterfield said. Showalter reached out to him after getting the Mets' job, but Butterfield said because he was unvaccinated, the talks could not proceed.

“It comes down to what I believe in,” Butterfield said. “The stuff that I've felt for years about our Food and Drug Administration, everything that goes on behind the vaccinations,

...

“I know him too well to try to talk him into something like that,” said Showalter, who regards Butterfield as the best infield coach in baseball, adding that the Phillies' Bobby Dickerson, Mariners' Perry Hill and Braves' Ron Washington are also among the elite and that he might regard Mets new third-base coach Joey Cora just as highly once he gets to know him better.

“I love him to death,” Showalter said of Butterfield. “If he called me tomorrow and said, ‘I've changed my mind and I'll come,' I'd figure out every which way I could to get him.”

...

“Honestly, I feel like it's a blessing in disguise,” [butterfield] continued. “I didn't see my wife for the last two years. She's a little bit of a risk, so we didn't bring her out to the West Coast. I'm as far as you can go on the East Coast, and then I was working the last two years as far as you can go on the West Coast. I'm glad to be back in the snow and the cold, I really am. I'm glad to be with my family. I'm in a great spot.”[/bLOCKQUOTE]

https://theathletic.com/3083575/2022/01/21/rosenthal-vaccination-decisions-put-two-mlb-coaches-at-a-crossroad/https://theathletic.com/3083575/2022/01/21/rosenthal-vaccination-decisions-put-two-mlb-coaches-at-a-crossroad/



He won't get vacc'd but his wife is at risk? Also, did the Mets pursue the other IF coaches before Joey Cora since Buck doesn't know him as well?

Edited January 21, 2022 by Guest

[Benjamin Grimm]

It sounds like he's not smart enough to be a bench coach.



And is his wife a bottle of maple syrup?

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

What a dope

[Edgy MD]

I'm not a subscriber. I'm not sure if that last quote belongs to Butterfield or to Showalter. I suppose it could also be from a Covid variant.