Memoirs of an EY

[Edgy MD]

The last of the Mets' big league free agents gets a minor league deal. Signed away by Atlanta.

[fimg=400:2wwhygdm]http://www.bloggingmets.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Eric-Young.jpg[/fimg:2wwhygdm]

[Zvon]

And watch. He'll end up doing something big to fuck us during the season. Probably run over Harveys arm.

I liked EY. I thought he was misused. But the guy didn't seem to have any "baseball sense".

[Guest themetfairy]

So much potential, but so little to show for it.

[Frayed Knot]

Not quite sure about all this supposed potential or how he was misused - unless misused in this case means used too often.

He came here as a 28 y/o in the midst of his fifth season of being a part-time player. He immediately got more or less full time status on account of the 2013 team having a weak OF (he essentially replaced the failed Duda in LF experiment) and he proceed to hit right about where his career numbers suggest he should hit. In 2014 his playing time was reduced with the signings of Granderson & C. Young but he found his spots during Lagares injuries and CYoung's troubles before gradually seeing less as his hitting fell off and Nieuwenhuis and den Dekker were given looks.

In all he wound up with over one full season's worth of PAs (734) and a very mediocre stat line of .242/.310/.321. Definitely had that 'make things happen' vibe to him and the SB numbers were great [68 of 81], but playing at a power position where speed was his #1 asset only takes you so far. Maybe [u:11i0pwek]that[/u:11i0pwek] can be considered being misused but he wasn't going to knock Murph off of 2nd and defensively was about 4th on the CF depth chart. So then what?. Defense was decent but hardly great -- many of those diving catches coming in should have been easier but for his penchant for playing real deep; would out-run some of his mistakes in judgement but also had a noodle arm.

Bottom line: seemed like a good guy who always hustled and contributed the best he could, but ideally is more a super-sub who gets about 2/3 the playing time he wound with.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Yeah I liked that he played all-out and seemed to do his sincere best with the opportunity he had. He probably did. I also agree on the strong possibility he'll do something wildly hurtful to the 2015 Mets.

[Edgy MD]

Here's hoping he can sting the Nats first and more frequently.

It's a rare left fielder you see who plays deeper than the center fielder.

I get the idea that his legs'll stay healthy and he'll be a rare speed-first guy who plays well into his thirties � Tony Womack, Lonnie Smith, Juan Pierre... Mookie Wilson.

[Frayed Knot]

I also agree on the strong possibility he'll do something wildly hurtful to the 2015 Mets.

aka: the Willie Harris factor - only in reverse as we obtained Willie after he had burned us several times.

[smg58]

Somebody needs to tell him to stop hitting so many damn ground balls.

[batmagadanleadoff]

I also agree on the strong possibility he'll do something wildly hurtful to the 2015 Mets. aka: the Willie Harris factor - only in reverse as we obtained Willie after he had burned us several times.

Nothing in reverse about Willie Harris's Mets stint. In a Mets uniform, Harris continued to burn us.

[MFS62]

Memories?
he was fast and, um, ..., he was fast.

Later

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

I also agree on the strong possibility he'll do something wildly hurtful to the 2015 Mets. aka: the Willie Harris factor - only in reverse as we obtained Willie after he had burned us several times.

My first thought when I heard about the release was "T-minus four months until Willie Harris moment."

[Lefty Specialist]

Couldn't steal first base. Nice guy, won't be missed.

[Ceetar]

seemed like a nice guy. was fast.

Will be the aha! got you! answer to the question "Who was the last Met to lead the league in Stolen Bases?" for a while.

[Edgy MD]

Only stolen base champ not named Reyes in Mets history. Course, we need to count his Colorado steals in order to award him the crown.

He seemed major league in every way put the production. Counted himself as a Mets fan and a son of Jersey, at least lip service-wise.

[Benjamin Grimm]

This thread title keeps making me think that Eric wrote a book.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Only stolen base champ not named Reyes in Mets history. Course, we need to count his Colorado steals in order to award him the crown. He seemed major league in every way put the production. Counted himself as a Mets fan and a son of Jersey, at least lip service-wise.

Best EY line I've ever read (not mine) paraphrased: "How can a player who never gets on base lead the league in stolen bases"?

[ashie62]

He was the best Young on the team.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I would disagree with that

[Edgy MD]

WAR is not the answer, but it definitely suggests that Eric Young outplayed Chris Young in 2014.

Young	Seasons	WAR
-blood, Joel	1977�1982	9.3
Chris R.	2011�2012	2.0
Eric	2013�2014	1.7
Anthony	1991�1993	0.1
Chris B.	2014	0.0

On the other hand, it surprisingly suggests that Eric 2014 (0.9 WAR) was better than Eric 2013 (0.8 WAR), and I can't explain why (other than to guess that hit has something to do with offense going down league-wide).

That's baseball-reference.com's version above, but Fangraphs sort of agrees, putting it at:

Eric Young 2014: 1.2 WAR
Eric Young 2013: 0.7 WAR
Chris Young 2014: -0.6 WAR

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Yeah well I definitely wasn't arguing WAR there, just saying as a reserve type guy I'd rather have C than E on my team.

[Edgy MD]

Yeah, I'm just throwing that out there. I had little doubt that given enough time, CY was going to turn a corner, but the Mets had given him as much time as they could spare. I got the idea that EY, on the other hand, was playing closer to his peak potential, but still wasn't very good.

[smg58]

EY put up some solid hitting numbers in the minors, but other than a brief stretch in 2012 for the Rockies, it never translated. I kind of got the sense that somebody told him he needed to put the ball on the ground to best utilize his speed -- which, unless you have Ichiro-in-his-prime bat control, is basically the worst thing you can tell somebody. His seasonal batting averages are pretty much anti-correlated with his ground ball rates, and for his sake I hope his next hitting instructor is aware of that. His other problem is that he tried so hard to work the count and draw walks, but as long as he was more likely to take a fat pitch than do something worse than hit a single with it, nobody was going to pitch him carefully.