SCHAEFER METS PLAYERS OF THE MONTH, AUGUST 2011

[Benjamin Grimm]

SCHAEFER METS PLAYER AND PITCHERS OF THE MONTH, AUGUST 2011

The Schaefer Mets Player of the Month for August 2011 is first-time winner LUCAS DUDA. Lucas led the Mets in August with 5 home runs, 20 runs batted in. He batted .319, had an OBP of .382 and slugged .527. Duda and third-place finisher David Wright were the only Mets to play in all 26 August games. Although he finished a distant second, 7.76 points behind Duda, Angel Pagan had a strong month. He finished a fairly distant second in the Schaefer voting but led the team in stolen bases with 8 and "triple slashed" .318/.342/.477. Ruben Tejada racked up a good number of Schaefer points in August despite only playing in 20 games. He batted .348 and had an OBP of .423.

The Schaefer Mets Pitcher of the Month for August is fourth-time winner R. A. DICKEY, with his second consecutive win. In August this year, Dickey was 1-2 with a team-best 2.70 ERA over 33.1 innings and five starts. On August 31, in the final game of the month, Chris Capuano had a chance to steal the award away from Dickey, but his score of 1.17 was 2.55 points shy of what he needed. Capuano was 1-2 in August with a 4.06 ERA, but his point total benefited from the complete game shutout against Atlanta on August 26.

And the Schaefer Mets Relief Pitcher of the Month is a first-time winner, MANNY ACOSTA. Manny was 2-1 in August, with a 1.32 ERA in 14 games and 13.2 innings.




Updated award winner standings, with most recent winners in bold:

PLAYER OF THE MONTH
David Wright 10
Johan Santana 6
Carlos Beltran 5
Jose Reyes 5
Cliff Floyd 2
Tom Glavine 2
Carlos Delgado 2
Ike Davis 2
Mike Cameron 1
John Maine 1
Angel Pagan 1
Jeff Francoeur 1
R. A. Dickey 1
Daniel Murphy 1
LUCAS DUDA 1

PITCHER OF THE MONTH
Johan Santana 9
Pedro Martinez 6
John Maine 5
Mike Pelfrey 4
R. A. DICKEY 4
Tom Glavine 3
Orlando Hernandez 2
Alay Soler 1
Steve Trachsel 1
Oliver Perez 1
Livan Hernandez 1
Tim Redding 1
Dillon Gee 1
Jonathon Niese 1
Chris Capuano 1

RELIEVER OF THE MONTH
Brian Stokes 5
Francisco Rodriguez 3
Raul Valdes 2
Pedro Beato 2
Billy Wagner 1
Aaron Heilman 1
Duaner Sanchez 1
Scott Schoeneweis 1
Pedro Feliciano 1
Sean Green 1
Fernando Nieve 1
Hisanori Takahashi 1
Elmer Dessens 1
Jason Isringhausen 1
MANNY ACOSTA 1

[G-Fafif]

Duda and Acosta are the pride of Shea Stadium, while Dickey emerges from the mists of Brigadoon.

Nice additions to the 1976 set. Thanks as ever for fun cards and diligent totaling.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Wonderful work. Great writing. Great Photoshopping. And fast compiling too. It's still August in my mind.

[ashie62]

Super..Congrats to Duda and hoping for more.

Dickey wins with a losing record for the month, ouch.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Great backgrounds!

[Centerfield]

Great job BG. Thank you for doing this.

What a month by Duda. We should be talking about him more no? He and Davis could be great for us for a long time.

[Guest Edgy DC]

If Bay wasn't performing like such a load, we'd be looking at a really impressive balanced lineup next year, going righty/lefty/right/lefty.

[Frayed Knot]

Centerfield wrote: What a month by Duda. We should be talking about him more no? He and Davis could be great for us for a long time.

It's still a small sample size but he has been impressive lately which, when combined with his numbers from the high-minors (basically .300/.400/.500+ over 2010-11), shows more than a bit of promise.
What I like specifically is his plate discipline combined with the willingness to cut down on his swing with two strikes and simply stroke the ball to the opposite field/CF. K-ing at less than 15% (83 in 652 high-minors PAs) with his power is a good sign too.

Of course the fact that he'll contribute little else (speed/defense) to the cause means the bat will have to stay extra-special in order to hold a corner OF/1B job but it's looking more and more like that's possible.


P.S. - all the above could be seen as a by-product of letting a guy truly mature in the minors rather than rush him.
Being 25 y/o with 2,000 minor league PAs under your belt over 3+ seasons has its rewards (as opposed to say 1,700 spread across six years at age 22 for Fernando Martinez or barely 1K @ 21y/o when Lastings Milledge was first called up).

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Hell of a job, as always, Benj.

Duda is a guy who's maximizing his hitting talents-- it's a pleasure watching him bat, regardless of result. He learns both between and during plate appearances.

[Frayed Knot]

Props, also, to Acosta who acquired the "much maligned" nickname with many NYM fans and was still carrying it as recently as a few weeks back.
Who knows whether or not it'll last, but it's tough to simply toss aside young-ish (30 now) guys with that kind of arm.



P.S. So don't go south on me now kid after I just praised you.

[Guest Edgy DC]

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Hell of a job, as always, Benj. Duda is a guy who's maximizing his hitting talents-- it's a pleasure watching him bat, regardless of result. He learns both between and during plate appearances.

I'm placing a few Craneybucks on the notion that Duda will one day be revealed to be diagnosably on the autism spectrum.

[Ceetar]

raise a glass for the winners.