Infielder Next

[Edgy MD]

David Wright's injured pink should give anybody pause. Maybe it's nothing. Maybe it's the end of the world. (It's probably not the end of the world, but maybe.)

Last year, when Wright and Davis got injured in the same day, they moved Turner from second to third, and Murphy from second to first, and called up Ruben Tejada to play second. It was amazing to see, as they essentially replaced one of their two best hitters with a guy with a career .588 OPS to that point, and the other with the weak-side inverse of the Murphy/Turner platoon --- and survived on that diet for a while, if not prosperously so.

So I don't know if they'll do it again (and again, it's if Wright is down), but Murphy looks more or less like the fulltime secondbaseman this year, which makes Turner more free to move, so maybe he gets the hot corner, or maybe a callup, but who are you calling up to join the Mets?

[ashie62]

Zach Lutz..kinda like catching Nieuwenhuis in a bottle.

[Guest vtmet]

Lutz mostly because he's a RH'd hitter with some power...with Wright not playing, would mean Bay/Tejada would be the RH'd power in the lineup to go along with mostly lefties...

[ashie62]

Jordany? Ceetar where are you?

[Edgy MD]

That was me, baby.

I like his versatility and I think he's got big league aplomb, unintimidated by anybody. My thinking is that Turner becomes the thirdbaseman and Valdespin becomes the infield reserve with outfield utility too. But the argument that they need righthanded batsmanship is indeed compelling.

Still, I don't see it as a particularly Ceetarish vote

[Ceetar]

Ashie62 wrote: Jordany? Ceetar where are you?

I was at the game witnessing that first hand.

I think David guts it out personally, two more days off and a splint.

But if he does DL I'd be surprised if it's anyone but Satin due to 40man issues.

edit: I'd forgotten they added Lutz to the roster. hmm...probably still Satin.

[Edgy MD]

So, we got a pinkie fracture. That's no fun and it could be an issue all season. I guess they should DL him, but they'll probably wait a few days and then do it. With five-man benches, that's no good.

I suppose they could call up an infielder and send down Gee or Parnell for a week. Give Batista the next start and do another transaction if they feel a pinch in the bullpen.

The Uni-Watch blog has been popping up with folks who wear a hand-protector while on the bases. Maybe they'll be universal someday soon.

Here's Posednik's makeshift thingie from 2010:


Here's Rafael Furcal in a more formal thing last week.


Looks goofy, but I suppose they should be perfectly legal as long as they don't artificially extend the hand too much.

[Edgy MD]

Collins:

• Holding off on DL decision, probably until Friday.
  
• If Wright's to be disabled, will probably move Murphy to 3b.
  
• The latter could mean Valdespin is called up, but not necessarily.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Get well, David.

[Edgy MD]

On second thought, adding Valdespin certainly won't improve the defense of this team too much. Maybe adding Lutz might.

[Edgy MD]

Cede�o back at third today. Certainly wasn't the problem last night, anyway.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I like the idea of adding Valdespin at 2B and moving Muffy to 3B. Then when Wright comes back moving either Valdespin or Muffy to LF and moving Bay to the MFYs.

[MFS62]

Any word on the results of the X-Rays yet?
If the DL, any official announcement on the replacement?

Later

[TransMonk]

The X-rays showed a fracture. I think they are taking a wait-and-see approach for the DL. They can always back-date it.

I'm really hoping it is only a few days.

[Ceetar]

I imagine they won't make a decision until tomorrow or Friday. Have a minor leaguer prepped on the runway, and see if David can grip the bat with the splint and all that.

The worst would be the "It's much better, but I just can't quite grip it" answer that leaves the Mets convinced it'll be less than a week and has them playing short.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Bringing up someone who actually plays the position might help. Also, you can maybe raise Lutz's trade value a bit with a successful ML-stint. Lutz for [crossout:1hv2fmx9]President[/crossout:1hv2fmx9] Third-Base Fill-in.

[Edgy MD]

Eh, Murphy and Turner play the position.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I predicted Lutz, but I'd rather see Jordany. Install him at second and move Murphy to third.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

They're both champing at the bit to move up: Lutz smacked two monster HRs in today's home opener; Valdespin whacked one of his own, and scored on a Josh Satin flyball... from second.

[Edgy MD]

A two-base tagup from second is one of the half-dozen or so plays I've always wanted to see.

[Edgy MD]

Wright:

"During the game last night I kind of tested it out a little bit and it felt good, and it feels a lot better today, obviously. I think I'm ready. I got a lot of treatment yesterday, and a lot of the techniques that the hand specialist gave me to speed up the recovery, I was just doing it nonstop, and it surprisingly felt pretty good. So during the game I messed around with it a little bit and it felt OK. And then I took it to the next level this morning and it feels pretty good."

Collins:

Wright has a bone chip in the finger.

Wright:

That is not the case.

Satin:

@#$%!

Wright:

"The fracture didn't break off. It now a matter of it's just got to heal itself. I guess in an ideal world, if you weren't a baseball player, you'd splint it up for a little while and let it heal that way. But I don't have that luxury of the time right now. It's going to heal on its own. It might take a little extra work doing it while playing at the same time. But I'm confident it will heal correctly on its own."

Collins:

"He just hit. The swelling is down. The grip's good. The strength's good. He just took probably, I don't know, 20 tosses and took some batting practice in the cage and looked great, so we'll put him in there today.

Wright:

"I'm going to go with a little extra padding, but nothing that's going to prohibit me from feeling the bat the way I normally would."

Lutz:

#&*%!!

Wright on Sliding:

Feet first, or at least with a closed fist. Wearing a splint away from the ballpark.

Collins:

"The doctors actually told us the other day, when he could tolerate it, he could play. It wouldn't get worse. It's all about the discomfort side, getting the swelling down. The swelling is down."

Valdespin:

$*&!!

Wright on Throwing:

"Well, I guess it's always been an issue for me, but not any moreso. Throwing should be fine. Mainly the focus was hitting. Like I said, I feel confident enough where I'll give it a go today. ... Obviously how it feels after the game is a pretty good indication how it's going to feel for the short term. I'm sure it's going to be a little sore and a little stiff afterward. It will be good to get in there and just prove to myself that this is something I can play through. I wouldn't go out there and play if it was a coin flip how I felt. I feel pretty good, and I feel close enough to where I can go out there and help the team more than I could hurt it."

Collins:

"As much as I said a few days ago that my gut was that he was going to be able to play on Friday, yesterday talking to him I was doubtful he was going to be OK," Collins said. "But he is OK."

Tuiasosopo:

GARRR!

Wright on his Practice:

Not played since suffering the injury Monday.

Collins:

"One of the things I hope everybody reads into this is that this guy is tough. Very tough. He loves to play. He wants to play. But he's also professional enough to understand that when the medical people say, 'Look, our expertise says this needs rest,' he rests. It's my fault we didn't get him checked last year when he hurt his back, but nobody ever thought it was anything more than he dove and tried to tag the guy and maybe tweaked his back a little bit. We might have saved ourselves time had we addressed it earlier. I'm certainly responsible for that." "I think it's going to be huge for us. When you see this guy who is going out there -- the face of this team and the face of this organization -- playing with a broken finger, the hamstrings may not be as tight. I'm serious. I don't mean to make a joke about it. If you're a guy on this team and you're saying, 'Well, I've got a star on this team that's playing with a broken finger, I've certainly got a sore shoulder, but I'll throw some aspirin down and let's go."

Pascucci:

I hate you, David Wright.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

16 hours ago:

New York Mets third baseman David Wright's fractured right pinkie remains so swollen that he cannot bend it around a bat or throw a baseball, even if he could tolerate the pain.

I'm certain that injected anti-inflammatories had nothing-- NOTHING-- to do with this.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

Howie was saying that Josh Satin was in uniform and ready to go -- and now will likely be headed back to Buffalo.

[Edgy MD]

One thing about Valdespin: replacing Cede�o with him ain't a step forward defensively. We really have no viable defensive sub for Murphy now.

[Ceetar]

Edgy DC wrote: One thing about Valdespin: replacing Cede�o with him ain't a step forward defensively. We really have no viable defensive sub for Murphy now.

Turner's fairly sure-handed if not great, in my estimation.

Is Valdespin that bad? I know he gets a little bit of a bad wrap, but I figured growing pains and what not.

Then again, tell me right now the last play Murphy muffed. It's been a couple of days hasn't it? Or did he butcher something when I was averting my eyes recently?

[Benjamin Grimm]

Going "a couple of days" without making a defensive miscue hardly makes you a Gold Glove candidate.

[Ceetar]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Going "a couple of days" without making a defensive miscue hardly makes you a Gold Glove candidate.

nor was I making him out to be one. pondering if perhaps he isn't the opposite of a Gold Glove candidate isn't declaring him to be one.

[Edgy MD]

One thing about Valdespin: replacing Cede�o with him ain't a step forward defensively. We really have no viable defensive sub for Murphy now. Turner's fairly sure-handed if not great, in my estimation. Is Valdespin that bad? I know he gets a little bit of a bad wrap, but I figured growing pains and what not. Then again, tell me right now the last play Murphy muffed. It's been a couple of days hasn't it? Or did he butcher something when I was averting my eyes recently?

Rap, a bad rap.

Turner and Murphy are both guys capable of refining their game, but have physical limitations, with regards to speed and grace.

Valdespin is superior athlete, but he muffs and muffs and muffs. The discipline in his game can be seen in his inexplicable swing at the first pitch making his big league debut after two walks loaded the bases for him. A terrible move.

[Ceetar]

Edgy DC wrote: Valdespin is superior athlete, but he muffs and muffs and muffs. The discipline in his game can be seen in his inexplicable swing at the first pitch making his big league debut after two walks loaded the bases for him. A terrible move.

I knew he was undisciplined at the plate, but I hadn't realized he was like that in the field as well.

Terry's style seems to be more give the young guy a start and then pinch hit for him later. Murphy's probably due for a day off anyway.

[Frayed Knot]

Edgy DC wrote: Rap, a bad rap.

No, he has a bad wrap too.
I mean did you see the coat he was wearing on the way into the park? Awful.