Resuming Baseball Activities: Injuries in 2012

[Edgy MD]

Keep it coming.

Centerfield Depth Chart

[crossout]Andres Torres
Scott Hairston[/crossout]
Adam Loewen
Jason Bay
Kirk Neiuwenheis
Mike Baxter
Ronny Cede�o
Matt Den Dekker
Raul Reyes
Lorenzo Scott
Jonathan Malo
Darrell Ceciliani
Sean Ratliff

Fates, what else you got?!

[Benjamin Grimm]

I keep getting more and more of a vibe that Kirk N. will arrive sooner than expected.

[Edgy MD]

Depends on whose doing the expecting. If you expect him to arrive before he's expected, he's expected, to hammer a semantic point.

It's the nature of reinforcements. Virtually all arrive before you would like them to. Because their arrival comes in response to an unwanted breach in the line.

But I think wise teams leave breachable spots in there --- not bad players, so much as players they have little commitment to beyond tomorrow --- and so leave places for the coming talent to manifest itself.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Okay, then. How about "before the conventional wisdom"?

I think he'll be on the team by May 1. I would say that most people (at least up to now) have been projecting him later than that.

[TransMonk]

metsblog wrote: According to MetsBlog.com�s Matthew Cerrone, Torres felt tightness while stretching with the team yesterday morning...

[Frayed Knot]

And is the Duda-(maybe more)-sized Adam Loewen really a potential CF candidate?
A quick perusal of his BB-Ref pages shows him playing there over a handful of games during his (admittedly brief) minor league and major league stints, but has been much more likely to, unlike baby, find himself in a corner.

[Edgy MD]

It all depends on context. Like "We Are Young" by fun. featuring Janelle Monae, he's number one on the charts this morning.

[Frayed Knot]

Then, using the same analogy, even if circumstances find him there I wouldn't expect him to be the answer up the middle for anything other than the shortest of short-terms.
Not that being Adam Dunn-ish in proportions automatically means he moves & fields like him too, but I suspect it's not coincidence that you don't see a lot of CFers of his size and shape.

[Edgy MD]

To the extent that you can believe the official numbers, he's two inches taller than Duda, but 20 pounds lighter.

I don't expect him there for long either, certainly. Like "We Are Young" by fun. featuring Janelle Monae, being number one doesn't necessarily make him any good.

[Ceetar]

They're also probably not going to baby Torres, so if he's aching he'll still play. He's just filler. Adam is mostly an emergency backup right now, particularly if Hairston is already swinging when camp goes north.

[metirish]

I would agree with calling him "filler" if he wasn't the starting CF and there was someone of youth coming mid-season.

[Ceetar]

metirish wrote: I would agree with calling him "filler" if he wasn't the starting CF and there was someone of youth coming mid-season.

Well, there is! he's filling the roll of starting CF for roughly as long as Nieuwenhuis takes to confirm that he's outgrown with AAA, as the Mets front office has hinted that he has.

Barring Torres needing a hip replacement, what I find most interesting is if they'll slide Torres into a super-sub 4th OF type guy for Nieuwenhuis even if he's doing alright. As Edgy said, are they leaving an opening in the ranks for him to push through, or waiting for someone to fall?

[Edgy MD]

I'm not sure I get you, Gael. Loewen isn't really the starting centerfielder. I mean, I describe him as number one, but that's more like, in this instant, he's number one. But we have little reason to think Torres has been incapacitated beyond a few days, do we?

And even so, New-win-hice is starting today, not Loewen. And I think many of us expect Newness to appear by mid-season, if not sooner.

[HahnSolo]

Edgy DC wrote: And even so, New-win-hice is starting today, not Loewen. And I think many of us expect Newness to appear by mid-season, if not sooner.

Which will make Mrs. Solo a very happy Met watcher.

[Frayed Knot]

Of course the jury is still out on whether Nieuwenhuis will ever be a major league CF too.
Many think he'll wind up in a corner spot - either from the very start or at least eventually. Either way, my instincts tell me he'd be better out there over a short/medium run than Loewen.

[Edgy MD]

Yeah, little doubt in my mind too. The main advantage Loewen has at this point is the capacity to sit on a big league bench without making too many people feel particularly guilty about wasting development time. If the Mets have a gap in center that lasts longer than a weekend, I certainly imagine they'd look to fill it with a New rather than a Low. They have enough chinks in their defensive armor.

Nonetheless, they have a chance to look at both NOW!!!!

[Benjamin Grimm]

Edgy DC wrote: They have enough chinks in their defensive armor.

Is it time for a "Fire Edgy" rally?

[Edgy MD]

Sign me up.

[Vic Sage]

Centerfield Depth Chart

[crossout]Andres Torres
Scott Hairston[/crossout]
Adam Loewen
Jason Bay
Kirk Neiuwenheis
Mike Baxter
Ronny Cede�o
Matt Den Dekker
Raul Reyes
Lorenzo Scott
Jonathan Malo
Darrell Ceciliani
Sean Ratliff
Vic Sage

[ashie62]

Frayed Knot wrote: Of course the jury is still out on whether Nieuwenhuis will ever be a major league CF too. Many think he'll wind up in a corner spot - either from the very start or at least eventually. Either way, my instincts tell me he'd be better out there over a short/medium run than Loewen.

Kirk has had his own health issues...

[Frayed Knot]

Ashie62 wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: Of course the jury is still out on whether Nieuwenhuis will ever be a major league CF too. Many think he'll wind up in a corner spot - either from the very start or at least eventually. Either way, my instincts tell me he'd be better out there over a short/medium run than Loewen. Kirk has had his own health issues...

Well, he got hurt last season which set his readiness back somewhat but isn't, at least as far as I know, anything that's an ongoing concern.
What IS still up in the air for those planning who's going to be the CF in CF over the next number of years is that not everyone is sold on the idea that Kirk is ever going to possess the skills to be an everyday ML CFer; that his speed, glove, instincts, etc. are more suited to one of the corners over the long term.

[Frayed Knot]

That's a pretty good list, although you did leave out a few people so I fixed it for you

• Centerfield Depth Chart
  
  [crossout]Andres Torres
  Scott Hairston[/crossout]
  Adam Loewen
  Jason Bay
  Kirk Neiuwenheis
  Mike Baxter
  Ronny Cede�o
  Matt Den Dekker
  Raul Reyes
  Lorenzo Scott
  Jonathan Malo
  Darrell Ceciliani
  Sean Ratliff
  =#0080FF]Mike Piazza
  Nancy Pelosi
  Nelson Mandela
  That guy in your office who walks kind of funny
  Snooki
  Vic Sage

[Ceetar]

I'd put myself higher that list, at least above Snooki. I'm not particularly fast but I can catch and hey, i'm in my (baseball) prime!

As for Nieuwenhuis, He appears fine at CF right now, but he can sorta fake it by still being young and more nimble/quicker than most expect him to be in a couple of years. Part of it's also who the Mets project to have in the corners.

[Frayed Knot]

Yeah, I don't think anyone's projecting him to be a disaster out there; in the short term he should certainly be adequate at worst.
It's in the long-term where things become a little more questionable and I'm just warning against the idea of too quickly penciling him in as the CF of the future.
And of course this is all assuming that he proves he can hit ML pitching because, without that, this whole argument gets tossed out the window anyway.

[Edgy MD]

It'll be interesting to see what happens with Raul Reyes. He's sort of been the guy at every level who plays centerfield after somebody else gets promoted or hurt. But he had a nice breakthrough season last year, and it'll be interesting to see if he can pull it off in 2012 at Buffalo --- you know, after Nieuwenhuis* gets promoted or hurt.

*What a vowel dump this guy is. Can we use an abbreviation? It takes so much concentration to type that name.

[Ceetar]

Edgy DC wrote: *What a vowel dump this guy is. Can we use an abbreviation? It takes so much concentration to type that name.

could just go with Kirk.

or Captain. Cap? N-House?

[Ceetar]

btw, not to distract from the awful need for this thread, Lucas Duda has a stiff back and won't play today. Torres doens't appear to be back in the lineup either.

[Edgy MD]

Yeah, well, I'm writing that off as "no need to put the big guy on a bus to Disneyworld" move.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I'm terrified.

[Ceetar]

Edgy DC wrote: Yeah, well, I'm writing that off as "no need to put the big guy on a bus to Disneyworld" move.

I sense a super-overly cautiousness to the Mets right now, but still wish these random things would stop piling up.