Wright not right

[Frayed Knot]

Under the long-held theory about the back bone being connected to the neck bone and the neck bone connected to the shoulder bone, etc.

'The Puma' @ NY Post David Wright’s chances of beginning the season with the Mets now appear razor thin.
The Mets captain returned to New York on Tuesday and was diagnosed with an impingement in his right shoulder, according to general manager Sandy Alderson, which precludes Wright from throwing.
“He’s not going to be throwing for a couple of weeks and probably not throwing with any real zip for a period after that,” Alderson said. “He can continue to DH, but in the meantime he will be doing lots of shoulder exercises.” Alderson said the impingement is correlated to Wright’s surgery last June for a herniated disk in his neck.


IOW, lotsa playing time for Flores & Reyes

[Benjamin Grimm]

I'm not at all surprised. In fact, I would have been surprised if he was throwing "with zip" by Opening Day. And if he has to lob the ball to first base, he obviously can't play third.

[Guest 41Forever]

Heartbreaking, but I can't say it's unexpected.

Can they start grooming him to be Terry's eventual replacement?

[Edgy MD]

Grooming is for barbers. He could manage today.

But I imagine he's going to keep playing baseball.

[Edgy MD]

T.J. Rivera and Gavin Cecchini both reportedly taking balls at third today.

[ashie62]

Shoulder impingment.

Guessing Reyes moves to 3B and maybe Conforto or Bruce to 1B.

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/shoulder-injury-likely-to-keep-david-wright-out-on-opening-day-but-mets-have-a-plan/

[Benjamin Grimm]

Well, there's no certainty yet that first base will be affected. We may find that Duda is just fine.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Why not Flores? He hits lefties like he's Willie Mays in his prime. What has to happen for Flores to get more playing time than he's gotten?

[Ceetar]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Why not Flores? He hits lefties like he's Willie Mays in his prime. What has to happen for Flores to get more playing time than he's gotten?

hit righties maybe?

[Edgy MD]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Why not Flores? He hits lefties like he's Willie Mays in his prime. What has to happen for Flores to get more playing time than he's gotten?

I think he's already been taking grounders over there. Gavin and TJ are new to the brigade.

[Benjamin Grimm]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Why not Flores? He hits lefties like he's Willie Mays in his prime. What has to happen for Flores to get more playing time than he's gotten?

I think that when there's a lefty starter, Flores will see quite a bit of time at first base.

[Lefty Specialist]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: batmagadanleadoff wrote: Why not Flores? He hits lefties like he's Willie Mays in his prime. What has to happen for Flores to get more playing time than he's gotten? I think that when there's a lefty starter, Flores will see quite a bit of time at first base.

Yup, I'd expect that Reyes will settle in at third now, so Wilmer will be the floater at 1st/2nd/3rd, as the rest of the infield will need days off.

[Ceetar]

Lefty Specialist wrote: Benjamin Grimm wrote: batmagadanleadoff wrote: Why not Flores? He hits lefties like he's Willie Mays in his prime. What has to happen for Flores to get more playing time than he's gotten? I think that when there's a lefty starter, Flores will see quite a bit of time at first base. Yup, I'd expect that Reyes will settle in at third now, so Wilmer will be the floater at 1st/2nd/3rd, as the rest of the infield will need days off.

well, it's February. no one's really _Settling_ in anywhere yet.

[Frayed Knot]

Ceetar wrote: batmagadanleadoff wrote: Why not Flores? He hits lefties like he's Willie Mays in his prime. What has to happen for Flores to get more playing time than he's gotten? hit righties maybe?

That, plus not hitting the DL at the same time a position is wide open for him because someone else is on the DL would be a fun new idea.
That was essentially his story for much of 2016. Between Wright & Duda & Walker & Cabrera all needing time (and sometimes months) off, Wilmer could easily have had 500+ ABs last year.

[Zvon]

Very sad news about The Captain.
No talk of Cabrera playing some third? He's only played the position once in his entire career but he's a big guy with quick hands and I don't see any problem there if he would be okay the move. Reyes can take short for most of the time and then we have Cecchini, Flores, Reynolds, & Rivera to plug in the rest gaps. And is Rosario slated to start the season with the big club?

We'll probably end up with Reyes at 3rd mostly, and I'm totally okay with that as well.

[Edgy MD]

It depends on whether and why you think moving Cabrera at third and Reyes at short is the better alignment.

The Mets general attitude is to defer to incumbent starters and avoid moving them at all costs.

[Frayed Knot]

Yeah, I don't think they're moving Cabrera off the position to make room for Reyes who is 2-1/2 years older and has played all of 57* games at SS since the end of 2014.


oe: 114 actually (I ignored his brief Colorado stint). But still, his last full season at SS was 2014 (134 starts) and his last full one on grass was 2012

[Zvon]

Edgy MD wrote: It depends on whether and why you think moving Cabrera at third and Reyes at short is the better alignment. The Mets general attitude is not to defer to incumbent starters and avoid moving them at all costs.

I agree and like 99.9% I share the same sentiment. My reasoning is not sound, especially after what Cabs gave us last year. I just would love to see Reyes manning SS again I think it might be the best set-up for the left side. I suppose the other way around does not make much of a difference.

I just love Reyes at short so my thinking in biased. The great thing is that I loved Cabby at short too, so I'll be happy in any case. I want Reyes to play a lot. I think he's going to make some major contributions.

[Lefty Specialist]

This kind of solves the 'who leads off' problem, until Reyes gets hurt of course.

[Ceetar]

Lefty Specialist wrote: This kind of solves the 'who leads off' problem, until Reyes gets hurt of course.

not really, but for Collins probably yeah.

[ashie62]

Lefty Specialist wrote: This kind of solves the 'who leads off' problem, until Reyes gets hurt of course.

Yes, we are praying for Jose to stay healthy, lmao.[flash=]

[Centerfield]

SIGN KELLY JOHNSON.

[Fman99]

Sucks. Rest up, Cap'n, we wanna see you on the damn field.

[MFS62]

Centerfield wrote: SIGN KELLY JOHNSON.

I think that ship has passed In 2013 and 2016 he was pretty inconsistent, only hot when the weather was. In 2014 he was awful. In 2015 he was consistent the whole year. Its time to let him fade into Mets history.
Of course, he does hit lefty, and has played first base, so ..... ah, I don't know.

Later

[batmagadanleadoff]

Ceetar wrote: batmagadanleadoff wrote: Why not Flores? He hits lefties like he's Willie Mays in his prime. What has to happen for Flores to get more playing time than he's gotten? hit righties maybe?

Why not make a case to give Flores more AB's against righties on the theory that he's young enough where he might show improvement? It's the same argument many make to get Conforto more AB's against lefties. Except that Conforto, not even at his best, ever hit righties the way Flores crushes lefties. If every pitcher out there were a lefty, Flores would be putting up Babe Ruth numbers. He'd be like Cespedes during his incredible run in 2015.

[Ceetar]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Ceetar wrote: hit righties maybe? Why not make a case to give Flores more AB's against righties on the theory that he's young enough where he might show improvement? It's the same argument many make to get Conforto more AB's against lefties. Except that Conforto, not even at his best, ever hit righties the way Flores crushes lefties. If every pitcher out there were a lefty, Flores would be putting up Babe Ruth numbers. He'd be like Cespedes during his incredible run in 2015.

his career wRC+ against lefties is 125. If everyone he faced was a lefty he'd have been 33rd best hitter in baseball last year, with the likes of Jean Segura and Wilson Ramos.

And honestly, that _might_ be just enough to make him a useful player, since he's got a career 84 wRC+ against righties. About 1/4 starters are lefty, so if you gave him his off days against righties, liberally, you'd probably have a case.

But he's had 900 PA against righties. His splits got _more_ extreme last year. It was the selective usage by Collins that even made him look good at all. Sure, he can learn, anyone can learn. Conforto too, who's numbers against lefties are nearly as bad as mine. But we've seen a lot of evidence and I don't think the percentages of that gamble are worth it, barring necessity.

Of course, he's also slow and maybe bad on defense depending where we're playing him.

[batmagadanleadoff]

If you give more weight to Flores's recent seasons and less weight to when he was barely in his 20's, you're looking at Babe Ruth numbers against lefties. Babe Ruth.

[Ceetar]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: If you give more weight to Flores's recent seasons and less weight to when he was barely in his 20's, you're looking at Babe Ruth numbers against lefties. Babe Ruth.

Do you want me to find you 100 PA stretches where garbage players you've never heard of were awesome against lefties? Because that's a small sample.

Also Babe Ruth was _still_ another 20% or so better than that. over his career. Hell, in 1920 he was roughly TWICE as good.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Unlike Conforto, who's been so great for so long, that they've probably already made him his HOF plaque.

[Ceetar]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Unlike Conforto, who's been so great for so long, that they've probably already made him his HOF plaque.

I'm also skeptical about Conforto, fwiw. Those numbers against lefties are beyond pathetic, and I take zero stock in Spring Training. I'm hoping the wrist problems he dealt with last year were a lot of the problem, but that's besides the point of what Flores needs to do to get more playing time.