Chat with Adam Rubin

[ashie62]

Cora has earned the money

[Gwreck]

I'd still rather have Felipe Lopez and his .818 OPS than Cora's .585.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Cora has earned the money

...

With his:

A) .234 BA
.312 OBA
C) .314 SLG
D) .286 wOBA (with average for a middle-infielder being in the high .320s so far this year)
E) 4 XBH in nearly 100 PA
F) Slightly-better-than Castillo-level range?

[Guest attgig]

Gwreck wrote: I'd still rather have Felipe Lopez and his .818 OPS than Cora's .585.

but Coras VLCI* is at .935 while Felipe's is only at a .610

Veteran Leadership & Clubhouse Influence

[duan]

the problem with Cora is Jerry putting him at the 2 slot just because that's what his brain tells him is the perfect place for a guy who "knows what to do" with the bat.

Is it not obvious to anyone that we should be going

Reyes, Pagan
followed by
some form of
Bay/Wright/Davis
followed by
Catcher/RF (order dependent on groove)
then
2b

[Guest Edgy DC]

Yes, but, being honest with myself, I think that lineup wouldn't change things so much besides forcing Pagan to stoically receive and obey Chip Hale's bunt signals.

[duan]

yes, that's probably true.

Do you reckon if they moved Wright to the 2 hole (which was mentioned) they'd have him bunt every time Jose was on base too?

[Guest Edgy DC]

Nope. Not so much. Wright is established as a name-brand run-producer. Castillo is established as a small-ball practitioner.

Pagan, not fully established on either track, would likely end up with the assignment that Jerry associates as specific to the batting order position. So say I, anyhow.

[Ceetar]

Frayed Knot wrote: Maybe Daniel Murphy keeps Cora from vesting? (Doubtful, giving Jerry's feelings about the two of them) Should I ask what Jerry's feelings for Cora & Murphy are and where/how those were made known or is the answer going to confuse me more than if I let it slide?

You should probably let it slide, because you're not going to take my observations seriously.

But it's my opinion that Jerry wouldn't play Murphy over Cora very often unless Murphy really forced the issue with some power numbers, which isn't out of the question either.

[Guest Edgy DC]

That wouldn't strike me as particularly personal, but rather partiality to middle infielders with experience as middle infielders

[Frayed Knot]

I'd take them seriously if they were based on something real - but if the answer is along the lines of 'Jerry hates Murphy because ... er, because he does' then, yeah, I'm probably not.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Jerry's not gonna play Chris Carter over Cora either, no matter the power numbers. What's the point? Other than that it's gonna be Jerry's fault if Cora vests and Jerry's fault if Cora doesn't vest because if Cora doesn't vest, it means that Castillo is playing and that's also Jerry's fault. Plus Castillo's hurt so there's that and that's Jerry's fault because if Jerry didn't personally come to all of our homes to tell us what the team's plan is for dealing with Castillo's injury, then that means that there is no plan and that's Jerry's fault. Not having a plan to heal Castillo means that Jerry caused the injury in the first place. Jerry also spilled all that oil that everyone's talking about.

[Guest Edgy DC]

GAH! I knew it.

[Ceetar]

Edgy DC wrote: That wouldn't strike me as particularly personal, but rather partiality to middle infielders with experience as middle infielders

Still represents a disconnect between Omar and Manuel. If the Mets 'plan' with Murphy is a utility guy and specifically 2B given what he's doing right now, and they put him on the Mets roster in that role, and Manuel chooses not to use him, or to use him differently?

[Guest Edgy DC]

But we're in an entirely speculative realm here. We have no idea how excited Omar Minaya is to get Murphy in at second, or if he's more or less-so than Manuel.

[Ceetar]

Edgy DC wrote: But we're in an entirely speculative realm here. We have no idea how excited Omar Minaya is to get Murphy in at second, or if he's more or less-so than Manuel.

I guess it's speculation, although it does seem widely reported that they're going with the super-sub type role for him. And he played 2B last night. And the other positions are pretty well nailed down. Guess they could be just doing it to raise his overall value as a utility guy for a possible trade. who really knows what the overall plan is with him.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Edgy DC wrote: But we're in an entirely speculative realm here. We have no idea how excited Omar Minaya is to get Murphy in at second, or if he's more or less-so than Manuel.

Speculative? I�ll say! Why we don�t even know if Murphy � you know � can even play 2B. Though I have a feeling that someone�s gonna figure out how to blame Jerry for that, as well.

�Why should Murphy report to Buffalo? How does Murphy know that while he�s in Buffalo, Jerry isn�t gonna sublet Murph�s Long Island apartment to a family of goat herders and their nine goats without Jerry guaranteeing not to? And how can Murphy be sure that after playing a game at second for Buffalo, Jerry won�t promote him right back to the big club and insert him into his god-given entitled-to cleanup spot in the batting order? If I was Murphy, I�d insist on learning 2B in the big leagues. This is all Jerry's fault.�

[Guest Edgy DC]

I think he's being prepared for a super-sub role, and he may see time here, or maybe there, but where he gets in isn't necessarily personal. None of us know how well he's going to be able to do at second, or how much opporutnity he'll get. It's all so pre-emptive.

Murphy got into 155 games last season (tops on the team, even more than Feliciano). He has twice been given starting jobs at positions that he played little of in the minors. He was inserted into the lineup at one of those positions in the midst of a pennat race after coming up from AA. All this has happened under Manuel.

Given a chance to take some at-bats away from Murphy against lefties, Manuel publickly stated that he'd rather take them away from Ryan Church, because Murphy was too good a young player to get tracked into a platoon role.

Jerry Manuel disappoints me on a near-daily basis, yet I can't see a doodle of this evidence that he's got a problem with Murphy.

[Ceetar]

Edgy DC wrote: I think he's being prepared for a super-sub role, and he may see time here, or maybe there, but where he gets in isn't necessarily personal. None of us know how well he's going to be able to do at second, or how much opporutnity he'll get. It's all so pre-emptive. Murphy got into 155 games last season (tops on the team, even more than Feliciano). He has twice been given starting jobs at positions that he played little of in the minors. He was inserted into the lineup at one of those positions in the midst of a pennat race after coming up from AA. All this has happened under Manuel. Given a chance to take some at-bats away from Murphy against lefties, Manuel publickly stated that he'd rather take them away from Ryan Church, because Murphy was too good a young player to get tracked into a platoon role. Jerry Manuel disappoints me on a near-daily basis, yet I can't see a doodle of this evidence that he's got a problem with Murphy.

Well, we know Church is basically the anti-christ based on stepping a few inches to the left of where he should've, so Murphy always would look good by comparison.

Maybe it was the basic platoon with a washed up pathetic DH in LF weeks before Manuel said Murphy is not a LF and he doesn't know if he can play 1B, followed by saying he'd have to play him there for a while to get him used to it, and thenplaying him I think it was twice, before giving him a 'rest'. or playing Tatis who at the time was averaging more outs than PA. And then using Murphy as a PH against lefties anyway.

So if Murphy gets a couple of weeks at 2B and is deemed fit by the rest of the Mets oragnization, what would Manuel do? Because based on the way he does things, I'm not so sure he _would_ play Murphy. But I guess what we really need to know is if he plays second, does he bat second, and if plays third oen day, does he b at fifth?

[Guest Edgy DC]

I'm really confused.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

This whole arc of discussion got tiresome a long while ago.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

12 noon. Johnny from Brooklyn wants to know how likely the Mets would be to considering a Beltran trade and how willing Beltran would be to leave.

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