September Callup Thread

[Guest Edgy DC]

Just so long as he isn't over-hyped by the Mets to dupe me into buying tickets. I hate that.

[Elster88]

]the super-stud that some NYM fans are rushing to treat him as now.

This is one of the things that I get disproportinately angry about. The desire of Joe MetFan to promote some guy because he's hitting .300 in the minors. I have to learn to deal with this.
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This post had the designation 157) Alex Ochoa

[Frayed Knot]

It's understandable, just a bit annoying when it goes overboard. A sizable percentage of Met fans have become so starved for young, good, homegrown talent that "Play the Kids" has become their virtual mantra with little discrimination as to which one(s). It's come to the point where I hear these calls to talk radio saying; 'the Mets gotta bring up this young stud infielder they got down there ... ahhh whatsiname' ... and it's obvious they know nothing about him, only that they heard he's good (likely from an another equally uninformed caller) and so they then assume that means he's a star. If/when said prospect turns out to fall short of their imaginations the fan quickly - as Edgy implies above - blames the team for "overhyping him".

As I mentioned in the "Sid" thread on the NBF I heard Jody Mac - for the first time in months - on ESPN radio the other day when a caller started clamoring for A. Hernandez saying that "he may become the next Wright" - as if all prospects are created equally and one stands as good a chance at stardom as another. Jody - one of the few who knows a bit about minor leaguers - was smart enough to set him straight. I started thinking about how that call would go over w/the FAN crew:
- Sid/Joe would have flat-out agreed with the caller that the Mets were somehow holding back greatness
- M&MD would go the opposite and claim that any prospect who was worthwhile must suck or he'd already be here.
- Steve Somers would have mis-heard the caller ... and then made a lame joke which wouldn't come close to answering the question.

[MFS62]

According to Eddie C on M&MD this afternoon, Hernandez is not currently in their plans to be called up. (Koo was).
He added that Willie is still trying to win all the games possible and that "Matsui has an 8 game hitting streak." (he left that dangling out there, leaving us waiting for the answer to "and.....?")

But Coleman did say that there would be an organizational meeting tonight to discuss other callups.

Later

[Elster88]

LOL, LFK. Your synopsis was dead-on.

[smg58]

Super stud is definitely unreasonable, but Hernandez wouldn't have to be that good to be an upgrade over what we've had all year at second base. He seems to have turned a corner with his batting average, even if he doesn't appear to have much power and his walk ratio still needs some work. A .700 OPS with good speed and a solid glove might be optimistic, but not out of the question.

Of course, the only way to get any sense of what the Mets have in Hernandez is to see the guy play, which is ultimately why I want him to get the call. Granted you can only learn so much in a handful of games, but I don't see why a quick look is too much to ask for.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Remember that it's also similarly not unreasonable to think Matsui is better than he's shown this year. But Hernandez will get a look, be it in September or May.

The big problem between calling him up today or tomorrow is that he's not on the 40. Now, if you want to designate Jose Offerman for assignment, I won't stand in your way.

(Or Cairo.)

[Guest Rotblatt]

We should be looking at who of our veterans is going to be on the team next year, and take off anyone who won't be. One of Cairo, Woody, Anderson & Offerman will NOT be on our 2006 roster, which makes one of them expendable.

Management should figure out who, take him off, and call up a kid--whomever management thinks has the best shot at contributing next year. Maybe Hernandez, maybe Redman, maybe Lambin, definitely Valent . . .

At this point, there's no harm in seeing what they can do in limited duty.

The advantage to letting Matsui start is that every good game he has increases his trade value, and right now it's increasing dramatically.

We're almost definitely going to try & move him this offseason, right or wrong, so it makes sense to play him as much as possible right now.

That being said, there's no reason not to bring up Hernandez and see how he does as a pinch hitter and defensive replacement. Matsui can get the starts, go 7 innings, then we can see Hernandez for 2. Matsui's trade value goes up (hoepfully) and we get a better sense of Anderson.

I actually think we should start Zambrano now as well to increase his trade value. Maybe we shut down Benson. Or Petey, although watching he & Seo pitch might provide one of the few bright spots of the next 18 games.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I think we should stop advocate shutting down apparently healthy productive players. The Ghost of September Past tells me that teams don't do that. They reduce workloads, but they do not end seasons prematurely.

The NBA actually forbids teams from doing this.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

I don't see any reason to shut anybody down, either.

Let Pedro and Benson pitch. Let Beltran play.

[Guest Rotblatt]

Fair enough. How about a six-man rotation, then?

I'm just thinking we should showcase Zambrano a little.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

I like that idea better. It would be a good idea to get Zambrano a start or two.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Seems like a better idea every day.

[Frayed Knot]

Not sure if Anderson Hernandez [u:c602a13b14]needs to be[/u:c602a13b14] protected on the 40-man this winter or not. If no, then putting him on just to bring him up and get some PR/PH/late inning appearences probably isn't worth it. You're not going to learn a ton about him at this point that they don't already know and it could make for one fewer guy who can be protected at Rule 5 time. In other words, whether you can find room for him now might not be the only consideration. Supposedly the brain-trust was going to pow-wow over this and presumably other questions.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

I wouldn't bring him up unless the plan was to let him start about ten games the rest of the way.

Otherwise, it's not worth the trouble of juggling the 40-man and starting the clock on Hernandez's service time.