Memories of Quint

[Edgy MD]

Our shortstop insurance for the better part of the last three seasons, signed away by Colorado.

Whatever one may say about the guy, he seems to leave a lot of goodwill behind him, as he's returning to he team he played all or parts of the first five seasons of his career. Just like he boomeranged back from Baltimore to our squad.

[Guest themetfairy]

I have fewer memories of his second stint than I had of his first. But good luck to him in Colorado.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

You wanted the best, Colorado? You got... um... a vaguely-Pitbull-shaped spare tire.

DALE con Dios, O.

[Edgy MD]

I have fewer memories of his second stint than I had of his first. But good luck to him in Colorado.

First I realize that he's not in a crouch. Then I realize he's only a few feet behind the infield lip. Last I realize he's holding his glove in his throwing hand.

Well, I'm just gonna come right out and say it: That shortstop does not respect Omar's hitting abilities.

[Zvon]

Made some good plays. He didn't suck.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

First guy to wear 0 since 0rd0nez.

Pretty useful at first and less so as we went along. Happy trails.

[Ceetar]

Biggest white flag of the last few years. The "Argenis Reyes" of our time.

[Frayed Knot]

Geez, he was the backup SS; light bats with decent gloves are the definition of that particular spot on the roster.
Backup shortstops who big bats have a special name in baseball, they're called starting shortstops. And if the bat is big enough they're called am 'All-Star'.

[Benjamin Grimm]

First, and so far only, Met player whose last name started with Q. Is it a coincidence that shortly after they got their first "Q" the Mets finally got their first no-hitter? I think not!

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Frayed Knot wrote: Geez, he was the backup SS; light bats with decent gloves are the definition of that particular spot on the roster. Backup shortstops who big bats have a special name in baseball, they're called starting shortstops. And if the bat is big enough they're called am 'All-Star'.

Yeah, but the thing is, his glove wasn't all THAT decent, either. Tejada more or less tried to hand him the starting job for two seasons running, and all he did-- occasional "clutchiness" aside-- was show you how secretly valuable Rubes was.

[G-Fafif]

Leapt more often for line drives 20 feet over his head than any SS I ever saw. Maybe being a mile above sea level will properly calibrate him.

[Edgy MD]

I liked that he looked heavy lidded and timeless � simultaneously young and athletic and old and wise. Like a sage advisor in a martial arts film who sits on a pillow in his dojo dispensing shrewd but elusive wisdom, but when the climax comes, and his dojo has been invaded and damaged and his students broken, slowly stands up, keeps his cool despite provocative and sadistic desecration, removes his robe, and beats up everybody in the room.

That's what Omar meant to me.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Colorado could work for him, but I don't know. I still think he might be a better fit down in Miami, pants a little too long, collar popped, on the roof of the Fontainebleau, blurting raspy, rhythmic pseudoSpanish while mugging for swooping crane cameras and thrusting his hips at a bemused-looking Jennifer Lopez.

[Frayed Knot]

Geez, he was the backup SS; light bats with decent gloves are the definition of that particular spot on the roster. Backup shortstops who big bats have a special name in baseball, they're called starting shortstops. And if the bat is big enough they're called am 'All-Star'. Yeah, but the thing is, his glove wasn't all THAT decent, either. Tejada more or less tried to hand him the starting job for two seasons running, and all he did-- occasional "clutchiness" aside-- was show you how secretly valuable Rubes was.

Actually I'd argue it showed how valuable Tejada WASN'T.
If Ruben didn't have such a mess of a 2013 season -- showing up out of shape, getting demoted, dropping 80-some points off EACH of his BA, OBA & SLG (he SLUGGED .260 fer crissakes!!) all at age 23 -- then we wouldn't have had to lean on Q as much as we did that season and we'd barely remember him at all. As it was, when he was the REAL backup SS, he amassed a whopping total of 99 and 29 ABs (2012 & 2014).

Look, backup SSs, virtually by definition, often have the worst offensive stats on the team (except maybe for the backup catcher but he usually gets cut some slack simply for being the backup catcher). And, as a result, they tend to get assigned a share of blame that far exceeds what deserves to be allocated. I mean does anyone really think that the 2012-2014 Mets would have been collectively even 3 games better total if they had a different backup at that position? A better starter, sure. But unless you run into some flash in the pan luck (Kevin Stocker circa 1993*) they're pretty much interchangeable parts and, as such, Q was anything but a "white flag" because if it wasn't him it wouldn't have been someone pretty darn similar to him.




* I often think about Stocker as an example of how many things have to go right when a team wins. In 1993, the Phils had a good team but were struggling at SS. They had tried 3 different guys out there over the first half of the year: Mariano Duncan**, Juan Bell, and Kim Batiste, but none were working. So on July 7th they dipped into their farm system to call up 23 y/o Kevin Stocker who was hitting .233 at the time and virtually handed him the everyday job. He proceeded to ht .324/.404/.417 over 300+ PAs as the Phils won the pennant, very much typifying a year in which virtually everything fell right for the Phightin's: first good season out of Schilling, last good one out of Mitch Williams, last healthy year out of Darren Dalton, only good season out of Dave Hollins, etc.
Stocker went on to play parts of seven more seasons in three orgs but never matched that initial half year - hitting just .246/.331/.336 during the best offensive era in half a century and was out of the game by age 30


** OK, why does Duncan's picture on BB-Ref show him in a Mets hat?

[MFS62]

Now that Colorado has a shortstop, I guess that frees up Tulo for that trade to the Mets.

Later

[ashie62]

I take it as a sign of progress that Qball is no longer a Met.

[Edgy MD]

Well, he hasn't really been a Met since he got sent down about five weeks into the season.

[Frayed Knot]

Ashie62 wrote: I take it as a sign of progress that Qball is no longer a Met.

It's only a sign of progress if the position improves, meaning that either Tejada becomes the backup due to Flores being able to handle the position full-time, or that some better option gets imported prior to the season.
But if all that happens is that a different warm body backs up Ruben then things are likely to be pretty much status quo to what they've been over the last three years.

[dinosaur jesus]

Frayed Knot wrote: Ashie62 wrote: I take it as a sign of progress that Qball is no longer a Met. It's only a sign of progress if the position improves, meaning that either Tejada becomes the backup due to Flores being able to handle the position full-time, or that some better option gets imported prior to the season. But if all that happens is that a different warm body backs up Ruben then things are likely to be pretty much status quo to what they've been over the last three years.

And you know what status quo stands for, right? It stands for "Man, the middle-class, everyday Mets fans are really getting taken for a ride."

[Frayed Knot]

dinosaur jesus wrote: And you know what status quo stands for, right? It stands for "Man, the middle-class, everyday Mets fans are really getting taken for a ride."

And, hey, I'm all for improvement. I'm just not going to act as if the dropping of O.Q. is an improvement on its own.

[Edgy MD]

We all know Quintanilla made exactly 31 trips to the plate in 2014, right?

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Frayed Knot wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: Geez, he was the backup SS; light bats with decent gloves are the definition of that particular spot on the roster. Backup shortstops who big bats have a special name in baseball, they're called starting shortstops. And if the bat is big enough they're called am 'All-Star'. Yeah, but the thing is, his glove wasn't all THAT decent, either. Tejada more or less tried to hand him the starting job for two seasons running, and all he did-- occasional "clutchiness" aside-- was show you how secretly valuable Rubes was. Actually I'd argue it showed how valuable Tejada WASN'T. If Ruben didn't have such a mess of a 2013 season -- showing up out of shape, getting demoted, dropping 80-some points off EACH of his BA, OBA & SLG (he SLUGGED .260 fer crissakes!!) all at age 23 -- then we wouldn't have had to lean on Q as much as we did that season and we'd barely remember him at all. As it was, when he was the REAL backup SS, he amassed a whopping total of 99 and 29 ABs (2012 & 2014).

My point exactly... Tejada was terrible that year. TERRIBLE. Like, he'll almost certainly never be worse, because very few players could feasibly be worse. Like, this is not hyperbole-- depending on what valuation system you use or stats you want to employ, he was somewhere like a -1 WAR player in just about 30% of a season, with defense that was something like bottom-quartile among all ML middle-infielders. Extrapolated to a full season, that's, like, Johnnie-LeMaster-batting-with-his-eyes-closed-for-a-year bad.

That year, in about 50 more games, Quintanilla was worth about as much. And it was a career-average season for him. Actually, that's not quite true... it was close to a career peak. (2012 was a .222/.306/.283 year for him; he's put up a career .220/.287/.295.)

I liked him just fine, sorta, as a cameo Met during an expectations trough. And it's barely worth discussing, really... but this team will be better without him, almost regardless of who replaces him.