What Willie Has Learned This Season

[Elster88]

]no excuse for not using Lambin

Considering that Lambin's stats from 7-22 on in AAA were not good, and that his good stretch prior to that came in the enormous sample size of 41 at-bats, the Mets decision not to bring him up was correct.

Looks like the Mets keep getting them right. Strange.
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This post had the designation 151) Glendon Rusch

[nymr83]

in what alternate reality do you live? if they were "getting them right" they wouldnt be 4 years removed from a winning record

[Elster88]

So instead of saying either:

a) "You're wrong, and here is why Lambin should've been brought up," and explaining why the Mets were wrong.

or

"The Mets were right, leaving Lambin in AAA was the right move."

or something along those lines, your reply is "The Mets haven't had a winning record in four years, their moves are wrong."

Very compelling.

My head really hurts from banging it against the wall.
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This post had the designation 151) Glendon Rusch

[Guest sharpie]

Cairo did, of course, play a lot for the MFYs last year and hit 292/346/417. Randolph can be excused for thinking maybe he'd get that player and, for a while, he did. Matsui and Keppinger's injuries happening when they did was unfortunate. I still think Matsui has an upside but I'm perfectly happy to watch Hernandez these next couple of weeks. Ultimately, the giant hole at first base for most of this season hurt us more than the hole at second.

[Elster88]

I wonder if Jacobs could fit the hole at first.
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This post had the designation 151) Glendon Rusch

[Guest sharpie]

We've got a couple of weeks to maybe find out.

[Elster88]

It's a tough call. I'm sure he'll need at least a full season of play before being a solid starter at first base, if he has that potential at all.
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This post had the designation 151) Glendon Rusch

[Guest Edgy DC]

Largely meaningless projection of Mike Jacobs first 19 games over 150 games:

G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	TB	BB	SO	SB	CS	OBP	SLG	AVG
150	474	103	134	40	0	47	103	316	63	119	0	0	.368	.667	.283

You've got to look hard at him.

[Guest sharpie]

I'd like to see him get a start or two against lefthanders.

[nymr83]

more jacobs = good, because he is a possible component of the future while the other options aren't.

[Guest Rotblatt]

Elster88 wrote: Considering that Lambin's stats from 7-22 on in AAA were not good, and that his good stretch prior to that came in the enormous sample size of 41 at-bats, the Mets decision not to bring him up was correct.

I disagree, especially given how bad Cairo was throughout July & August. Despite some ups and downs (which are totally normal for any player), Lambin ended up with a .289 AVG/.350 OBP/.526 SLG/.876 OPS in 211 AAA ABs and I don't think his OPS ever dipped below .830.

That's really damn good for a middle infielder in his first AAA stint. Throw in some simply amazing AA stats--.331/.396/.657/1.053 OPS--and I don't see how you can cavalerely state that the decision to leave him down was "correct" especially when Cairo was posting an OPS of .515.

Lambin was on pace for 34 HR over 550 at bats between AA & AAA while getting on base at a .373 clip. As a 2B. If that's not enough to warrant a call-up when you're fielding the worst regular 2B in the league, I don't know what is.

The fact that we had Hernandez down there too is really just adding insult to injury. And Jesus, Basak was pretty damn good this season too, and he played some 2B as well.

Again, it's probably not a slam-dunk to call one of them up, but IMO it's pretty darn close. The only real hesitation I have is that I seem to be the only person talking about him. I haven't heard any scouts mention him despite a pretty amazing season and he's gotten zero coverage in the press.

Makes me wonder if he's really bad in the field or what.

[nymr83]

go with your numbers, if the mets scouts were any good we wouldnt have to wait 10 years between strawberry and alfonzo and another 8 between alfonzo and wright.

[MFS62]

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/story/349800p-298444c.html

Apparently Willie is letting his perception of the player decide a player's future rather than looking at the results. Aaron has been borderline spectacular the last half of the season, but Willie thinks it may not last.
Funny, hitters didn't catch up with changeup pitchers like John Franco, Stu Miller and one of the Jones boys (Todd? Doug?), and they didn't have 90+ fastballs to complement that pitch.

Later

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

Shouldn't it be clear by now that WWSB uses the beat guys to send messages to his players (and/or trial balloons to fans), and the beat guys use WWSB to stir up their readers?

We've had an awful lot of threads based on quotes that turn out to be little more than smoke-blowing only days later. Like:

Willie's saying that Heilman doesn't have enough experience to close or set up a closer, AND HE'S NOT WILLING TO GIVE HIM THAT EXPERIENCE EVEN IN MEANINGLESS GAMES.

Boxscores say Heilman's got 2 saves and we ain't even eliminated yet.

[Guest Rotblatt]

Yup, you're totally right JD. Heilman's gotten chances and we haven't seen Graves yet, so I'm pretty happy with Willie at the moment.

At least bullpen wise. Not happy about Cairo over Hernandez, but I'll let that slide for now.

From what I'm seeing out of Willie, it looks like if 2006 started today, he'd be using Heilman as his closer with Robo & Padilla setting him up and I can't find anything wrong with that.