Worries Here, 2007 Edition

[Benjamin Grimm]

The Mets didn't miss the playoffs by much in Rusty Staub's last season.

I don't recall contemplating this at the time, but I wonder if having a more versatile player on the bench instead of Staub might have made a key difference. Four additional wins (or just two against the Cardinals) would have given the Mets the division title.

[Edgy MD]

I agree with all that.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

A more effective shortstop playing every day would have done more than a more versatile pinch-hitter.

[metirish]

Is Franco the # 1 bat of the bench,I really would have thought of him as the second to last option.....Glavine being the last.....well Castro then.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I think what Ira is saying is that if you carry a guy solely for his bat it ought to be a good one.

Franco isn't only a bat, though. For better or worse, he's been Delgado's primary backup. I think that may change this year: Green can play first and Milledge can play right.

[Edgy MD]

Franco's the number one bat off the bench because he's the first pinch-hitting option in a game-turning situation in the eighth or ninth.

The primary pinch-hitter is like the closer. You get fewer spots because they're saving you for the biggest ones.

[metirish]

We're fucked then....

[Guest iramets]

The difference, I think, is that a good-hitting, good-fielding shortstop is pretty rare. Raffy was the best we could find at the time, and we had some reason to hope he'd have a good year. But Staub could have been replaced easily. His last few years were nothing special, he was fat, he was old, he was ineffective, and he was taking up space (a LOT of space)on the roster.

[Edgy MD]

I don't agree that Staub was ineffective, nor that there were other guys ready to do it.

Staubs OPS+'s in his second tour as a Met

1981: 147
1982: 79
1983: 122
1984: 84
1985: 127

[Guest iramets]

The last figure is a little misleading, in that , yes, he had a very good OPS but he only got 45 ABs and was on the roster the entire year. That's sorta my point.

You know if you add those five seasons together, you get about one full year's worth of ABs.

Considering that he was batting against disproportionately righthanded pitchers (I'd assume), and batting with a disproportionate number of men on base, his RBI (and HR) numbers look pretty sad. (His RS totals are pretty low, but about what you';d expect from a slow runner.)

[Guest iramets]

102 RBI
13 HR
29 RS (pinch-run for a lot)
169 for 612 (.276)


In five years, that's not a lot to show for a guy who can't run, can't field, and can't fly. It ain't nothing, but five years of a roster spot ain't nothing either.

[Edgy MD]

I'd expect his runs scored totals to look a lot like his home run totals, as he was lifted for pinch runners after every hit.

Your point that I was responding to was that he was ineffective.

Did you and Davey Johnson talk about this in your dream?

[Benjamin Grimm]

I think Rusty pretty much had to hit the ball over the fence in order to score a run. Virtually every time he got on base he'd come out for a pinch runner. Which means he was really burning roster space: when he'd get a hit or a walk Davey would have to go to his bench yet again.

[Edgy MD]

No, because he used a starting pitcher that wasn't getting into the game anyhow.

As for power. You know, singles are inportant in ninth inning situtations too.

I don't get this at all. Every team has a primary pinch hitter who doesn't do much else. I'd beat up on Chris Jones or Matt Franco or Lenny Harris first.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Edgy DC wrote: No, because he used a starting pitcher that wasn't getting into the game anyhow.

Sometimes he'd use Ron Darling, but there were many times when he used Lenny Dykstra.

Does every team have a guy who only pinch hits? I'd think that most of them can probably stay in a game in the event of a double switch. Franco can do that, he's played first and third. He's certainly more useful than Staub in that regard.

[Edgy MD]

Rusty was an extreme case, but somehow we got away from Franco.

[stevejrogers]

I'm a bit worried that we are a few bad Maine-Perez-Pelfrey starts away from Chan Ho Park and Aaron Sele making 15-20 starts this year. Not that the starters have short leashes, but I'm concerned about the Mets taking a "lets win now" approach and plug in veterans like Sele and Park at the first sign of ineffectiveness with the back end of the rotation.

While I do agree with the notion that bullpens by nature are transient in this day and age, but what if the current crew doesn't measure up to last year's standards? I'd put last year's pen right up there with the 99-00 and 86-89 pens as the best in Met history; and while Heilman, Feliciano and Wagner are still there, and Mota and Sanchez will return (though major question marks with them both when they make their returns) it seems too much of the pen has turned over for my taste.

[Guest iramets]

Edgy DC wrote: Rusty was an extreme case, but somehow we got away from Franco.

Yes, I did hijack this thread in Rusty's direction. Franco's only a little less extreme than Rusty was, my little tiny point being that, like Yancy, I value the guys at the end of the bench being able to do more than one task. Admittedly, hitting is no small task, but you've got to be able to actually, you know, hit. By being pretty powerless, and pretty speedless, their ability to hit league average is minimized. I'd imagine many utility players who could pinch-run sometimes couldn't be that much worse than a .270 BA and an OPS between .7 and .8.

And that's the upside!

I've probably told you Bill James observation that Manny Mota, an honest-to-Cobb .400 hitter for Lasorda's Dodgers at the end of his career, had to be let go because, while he could hit .400, he could only hit against certain pitchers, and needed a pinchrunner any time he got on base, and almost never hit the ball beyond an outfielder, and never walked, and could play the field with about the mobility of an ashtray and--well, he lost his job while hitting .400.

And no one picked him up. Because he wasn't worth the roster spot. I'm just saying....

[metirish]

That's a hell of a story about Mota.

[Edgy MD]

Yeah, and the Mets aren't in that situation, yet. I agree that he'd be more useful on another team, and only as long as he hits.

I looked up Staub's 1985. The only extra hitter the Mets burned as a pinch runner for him was three appearances by Terry Bocker, who really was a waste of a roster spot --- going 1-15 filling in for injured Mookie until they realized that Dykstra was more ready to help.

Staub's Pinch-Hit Successes in His Last Season:

4/9:

With the score tied at nine, Staub bats for Orosco with two out in the ninth and a runner on first. He walks and Darling runs for him. Wilson flies out with the bases loaded, but Carter wins it with a walkoff homer in the 10th.

4/17:

With the Mets up 9-6 in the seventh, Staub bats for Champman with one out and a runner on second. Staub doubles the runner home, and Backman --- who was going in anyhow --- pinch-runs for him and dies at second. Mets win.

5/13:

Staub pinch-hits for Lynch, down 1-0 and with two out in the bottom of the eighth. He singles and Blocker runs for him, failing to advance, as the Mets go on to lose.

5/18:

In a 2-2 game, Staub leads off the eighth, batting for Lynch and singling. Blocker runs, fails to score and big sad late rally by the enemy causes the Mets to fall 8-2.

6/1:

Mets are up 3-2 in the seventh. Staub bats for Chapman with a runner on second and one out. He singles home the runner. Blocker runs for him and the Mets win 5-3.

6/22:

Down 2-0 in the seventh, Staub pinch-hits for Dykstra with two out and two on and hits a three-run homer to put the Mets on top. They go up 4-2 after that, but Orosco and McDowell give it back and they lose. Ouch.

6/25:

Mets up 3-2 in ninth. Staub pinch-hits for Backman with runners on second and third with with two out. He walks and is pinch-run for Chapman, who is coming in anyway. Dykstra fans to end the rally but the Mets hang on and win.

7/4:

Game is tied at 11 in the bottom of the 19th. Runner on second with one out, and Staub pinch hits for Gorman, where he is walked intentionally. He runs for himself and comes around to score as the rally continues and the Mets go up 16-11. Darling comes in for the bottom of the inning and yields two before the Mets win 16-13.

7/9:

Mets up 10-2 in the ninth. Staub pinch-hits for Gooden with a runner on third and is walked. He runs for himself as Dykstra drives the run in and Backman grounds out.

7/12:

Game tied at twosies in the top of the tenth. Straw walks but is caught stealing. Foster whiffs. HoJo doubles and Santana singles him home, going to second on the throw. Staub is walked intentionally batting for Darling and stays in as Dykstra flies out. McDowell seals it in the bottom of the inning.

7/20:

Mets up 12-1 in the sixth, Staub pinch-runs for Gooden and runs for himself.

8/14:

Mets down 2-0 with a runner on and no out in the ninth. Staub pinch hits for Santana and walks, putting the tying run on. Aguilera pinch-runs, but the Mets score only once as a Hernandez double-play ends it.

8/16:

Mets are down four in the seventh. Staub pinch singles with one out. Darling runs for him and is on third when the inning ends.

8/25:

Mets are up by three in the seventh. Staub bats for Santana with two out and singles home Straw. Bowa, going in anyhow, pinch-runs. McDowell doubles him home before Dykstra grounds out.

8/29:

Game tied in the seventh, Staub pinch-singles for Aguilera with one out. Darling runs for him and is on third when the third out is made.

8/30:

Tie game in the ninth. Heep scores the go-ahead run on a one-out double by HoJo. Hurdle is walked and Staub bats for Santana. After a wild pitch advances the runners to second and third, Staub is walked and pinch-run for with Bowa, entering the game anyhow. Johnson --- p[laying gutsy --- leaves Foster and Knight (among others?) on the bench and lets Darling bat for himself with the bases loaded. Darling flies to center, but gets them in the ninth after runners reach second and third. Wow, what a nail-biter.

9/1:

Mets down by two in the ninth, Staub doubles in a run batting for Santana. Bowa, who was going in at short anyway, runs for him, and is thrown out going from first to third on a Mookie Wilson single. Mookie scores the tying run and Keith Hernandez the go-ahead on a pinch homer by Hernandez.

9/20:

Mets down by two n bottom of seventh. Staub pinch-singles for Backman to bring the Mets within a run. Gardenhire, who was going in at second anyway runs for him, and scores the tying run.

9/21:

Singled, stayed in to run for his fat self in a Mets blowout.

9/28:

Mets up 3-1 in the ninth. Staup pinch-walks with one out and runners at first and second. Billy Beane runs for him before Mookie grounds out forcing Beane at second.

Billy Beane's appearance is hardly a waste as the Mets would have had a deep bench on 9/28.

[Guest iramets]

Well, technically he did get one more AB, two years after being released with a .429 BA. But look at his last few years--from age 37 through age 44, he never batted 60 times in one season, and he had years of .395, .357, and 429, at which point they let him go.

[metirish]

Kinda wondering where Wrights power has gone...everything else seems in place except that..

[Guest iramets]

How much power do you need from your #2 hitter?

[Guest Kid Carsey]

You're chewing on that like a puppy on a old chocolate-dipped slipper.

Wright's been batting fifth, give it up already.

[Guest iramets]

You sure? I thought he was batting #2 in ST for a reason. Guess not.

Chocolate slippers. Yum.