Luis Guillorme Has a Thread Coming to Him

[Edgy MD]

Showing off some of the best defensive hands in Mets history, and despite not a lot of snap, speed, or muscle in his swing, is translating that hand-eye coordination into some solid and consistent bat-to-ball skills on offense.



Also, starting to get a little New Yorkish in his accent.



[media=youtube]uvlg9J9Igcw[/media]

[Gwreck]

If he's going to hit like this while also playing his usual fine defense, Eduardo is going to lose playing time.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

It always seemed like he had the tools be very good and now he's just getting there. Exciting player.

[Lefty Specialist]

=Gwreck post_id=93183 time=1653274176 user_id=56]
If he's going to hit like this while also playing his usual fine defense, Eduardo is going to lose playing time.

[Fman99]

Happy to be so so wrong on him when I assumed that he'd never hit enough to justify regular starts at any position. But yes, if he's going to show this glove and also get some singles & doubles at the dish, then keep trotting him out there.

[seawolf17]

=Fman99 post_id=93188 time=1653306522 user_id=86]
Happy to be so so wrong on him when I assumed that he'd never hit enough to justify regular starts at any position. But yes, if he's going to show this glove and also get some singles & doubles at the dish, then keep trotting him out there.

[smg58]

The .396 BABIP won't last, but even if it normalizes you have a pretty good stat line with excellent defense from a lefty reserve infielder. Winning teams make room for guys like that.

[roger_that]

Valuable guy to have around. Good OBP, so he's not a clear-cut loss on offense compared to Escobar, about .050 point difference.



Escobar hits a little bit better vs. righties than he does lefties, so there's a little platoon situation advantage here, plus both could be the precise sort of backups you need for Lindor and McNeil, capable off-days rest-guys, and injury-regulars.

[Chad ochoseis]

I generally pay no attention to All-Star balloting, but at what point does he become a legit candidate in the same way that Martin Prado was for the Braves a few years ago?

[Edgy MD]

His gummy bear physique has worked against him. He can't always get his glove down when he's running down a grounder in the hole or up the middle.



Many of the guys with the best hands in Mets history have lacked speed (Ordóñez, Santana) or flexibility (Muffy). Or you get a guy like Wilmer, how had terrific hands but he had not speed, nor quickness, nor nimbleness to help him get those hands into play. But this guy certainly has other skills as well.



I tend to think his claws are pretty close to the best, and I'm glad the Mets have found a role for him while he rounds out his game.

[Frayed Knot]

There's another alternative as to what to do with Luis ... as in we were wondering what it would take to pry away a pitcher off someone's roster.

Not by himself probably, but including him might be seen as a case of selling high and would lessen the quality of prospect being sent away.

[G-Fafif]

[roger_that]

Frayed Knot wrote: There's another alternative as to what to do with Luis ... as in we were wondering what it would take to pry away a pitcher off someone's roster. Not by himself probably, but including him might be seen as a case of selling high and would lessen the quality of prospect being sent away.

Again, I want to go on record as being opposed to the acquisition of a pitcher for a position player on principle. I think it's a loser move.

[Frayed Knot]

Well it's not that I'm lobbying for it, just throwing the idea out there given as how the Scherzer news from last week made this board light up with

speculation of what kind of mound talent was potentially available.



But it's also not like Luis is an everyday player; the playing time he's had over five ML seasons to date doesn't even add up to a full season of ABs yet.

Now maybe at age 27 he's proving in front of our eyes that he can be one. Or maybe that BABiP will come back to earth and we'd be selling high on a

guy who'll top out at being a very versatile good-glove and good-OBA/low-power LH stick off the bench.



Whatever the case, depending on how desperate we are or will be for pitching, you've got to give up something to get something and, although it

obviously depends on the details, I don't quite understand the concept of being against trading position players for pitching "on principle".

I mean, what's the alternative? Trading pitching for pitching? (presumably future pitching for present pitching). Or more boatloads of recent

high-round draft picks for pitching?

I don't see how either of those choices is, by definition, superior to position players for pitching.

[metsmarathon]

trading a role player for a decent starting pitcher strikes me as almost always a good move.



not that i'm willing to part with luis just yet, mind you. i'd be pretty worried about our middle infield depth without him - particularly at shortstop. but if guillorme was the missing piece keeping us from a needed acquisition of castillo or montas, it'd kindof be a no-brainer, right?



i don't know that we're at panic-and-get-a-starter mode yet, though, so let's just hang onto him for now, and appreciate him for what he is.

[roger_that]

I have a very complicated theory, that I've worked out to my satisfaction (at great length) that says that pitchers are twice as prone as position players are to career-ending injury, so a trade of "equals" is usually lopsided. You'd need to get back twice the perceived value in pitching to make a position-player deal worthwhile, and few teams will agree to that.



The way to get pitching, I concluded, is to grow your own (and swap it out as soon as you can for position players) and to get it on the FA market, preferably at the trading deadline, for short term fixes, and sometimes for middle-term deals, knowing you're overpaying in $$$ so you don't get burned too badly when the pitcher's arm blows up, as they will most of the time.

[roger_that]

I came up with that theory BTW around 2015 when I, unlike every Mets fan that I knew, was screaming "Trade Harvey! Trade Thor! Trade DeGrom! They're all worth much less than you think, and you could get great position players back in a deal. They're injuries waiting to happen, and they're perceived as potential HoFers right now. Trade them today!" Then I did a very careful, lengthy study of equal-value young pitchers and position players and traced out their futures, and came up with the conclusion that a 25-year-old pitcher with a WAR 5.0 had half the remaining WAR in his career than a 25-year-old position player with a WAR of 5.0, though most teams think they're of roughly equal future value.

[smg58]

The A's don't want major league help, certainly not from somebody who's arb-eligible but still establishing himself.