Baseball Musings: Stark Reality?

January 10, 2005

Stark Reality?

Jayson Stark has a short article on how the Mets are now going after Carlos Delgado. It doesn't make a lot of sense to sign Delgado at this point if you expect Mike Piazza to be playing first.

Joel Sherman in the NY Post has the Mets going for a better defensive first baseman.

The Mets apparently are turning away from Carlos Delgado, which is the right thing no matter how wonderful a slugger he is. Delgado only masquerades as a first baseman. The Mets want to emphasize defense at the position to assist Reyes, Wright and Kaz Matsui. Travis Lee is the flavor of the moment. I prefer the surer health/New York makeup of John Olerud.

Frankly, I'd rather have Piazza's or Delgado's bat at first where they can't do that much defensive damage. I suppose you could come up with a platoon where Piazza catches against righties and Delgado plays first, and Piazza plays first against lefties and Phillips catches. I'd love to hear from Mets fans on this.

Posted by David Pinto at 03:55 PM | Free Agents | TrackBack (0)

Comments

Not a Mets fan, but I saw a couple of Piazza plays at first last year. It was ESPN highlights, so they were only showing the worst, but Mike looked just gawd-awful out there. It was like he had no clue out there. Maybe he was being passive-aggressive about the move to first, but I wouldn't want him anywhere near that bag.

Posted by: Robert at January 10, 2005 04:22 PM

I wonder if Travis Lee who is getting lukewarm support will be signed as sort of a present to his agent Boras for delivering Beltran.

Posted by: John Gibson at January 10, 2005 04:55 PM

I think Piazza could be made passable out there, but it is my understanding that the first base experiment is over. He was clearly miserable and the added relief for his knees just wasn't worth it.

Although the Mets have had a terrible record in dealing with their players on issues like this (Todd Hundley, Howard Johnson anyone?) I think that's the right call.

Phillips is nice and all, but I have to think that somewhere, maybe even in the ruins of Travis Lee's potential, the Mets can scare up a better bat than his. Piazza's not a good catcher, but he's not that bad in the important things (pitchers seem to respect him, he can block the plate, etc.)

Here's hoping that after many years in the wilderness the Mets are getting a clue. (Happy about Beltran, petrified over the Pedro signing and angry about the way they treated Leiter. Kind of a mixed bag so far.)

Posted by: Jon at January 10, 2005 04:56 PM

Piazza may not be a Met beyond this coming season, so there seems to me no conflict there. Delgado is obviously a longer-term solution, and signing him would give the Mets a pretty impressive lineup to go with their fairly solid starting pitching crew.

That said, I lean towards those who say go with defense. The lineup as is already has some punch, and it would be good to have someone at first who can in a sense protect the younger infielders.

Posted by: Paul at January 10, 2005 05:01 PM

David, you'd sign Delgado to a $13M/yr contract so he could be a platoon player?!?! That's just crazy, nevermind the fact that Delgado would never sign with a team that would make him a platoon player. Delgado puts up better numbers than Piazza, anyway.

Posted by: sabernar at January 10, 2005 05:05 PM

Yea, I agree with sabernar...there is no way that Delgado will even platoon. And it would be foolish to ever platoon delgado. he is too good!

Posted by: thebiglowitzki at January 10, 2005 05:16 PM

Why would you expect Piazza to play first? Who do you foresee catching?

Posted by: Fat Al at January 10, 2005 05:35 PM

Delgado isn't that bad defensively, and (as already mentioned) is far too good to be in a platoon. He's probably among the top 10 hitters in the majors.

Not sure what they could do with Piazza though. Maybe trade him for a bad contract in the AL?

Posted by: Ron at January 10, 2005 07:54 PM

Piazza back at catcher is the way I see it. The first base experiment didn't work (partially his fault for not being into it, partially managment's for not getting him more than 20 innings at 1B during spring training) and there aren't any catchers out on the market that are better (offensively).

Delgado is a natural fit - he's an OBP machine (and the Mets are desperate to improve in this area), he's a lefty bat (and the Mets could use another), he's friends with Beltran (from what I've read today, anyway) and despite what clueless Joel Sherman has to say, he's not a bad fielder, average by most defensive metrics.

Posted by: JC at January 10, 2005 08:23 PM

Piazza will just have to catch, although if the plan is Piazza catching, you'd think Vance Wilson would have been the logical backup, not Phillips.

If you saw Piazza play first, you'd see why it didn't give his knees any rest. He did more splits on throws in the dirt in a series than most real first basemen do all year.

I'm in favor of Delgado, who's a masher, healthy, not too old and doesn't even cost draft picks. Failing him, I'd probably prefer Minky to Olerud or Lee as the glove-man fallback.

I'm also thinking if they hang on to Cliff Floyd they should platoon him in left with Victor Diaz.

Posted by: Crank at January 10, 2005 08:30 PM

Of course, I keep forgetting that they signed Andres Galarraga, although I suspect he'd be more useful platooning with Willie Randolph.

Posted by: Crank at January 10, 2005 08:47 PM

Delgado will sign with the Marlins. Ultimately he wants to be a close to Puerto Rico as possible and they have a need at 1B too.

Posted by: Javier at January 10, 2005 08:58 PM

No one who saw Piazza play first last year is eager to see it again. I know it took several weeks off my life, and it looked like it did for him as well.

Couple that with the decline in his offense, which leaves him as an above-average C but a so-so 1B, and the fact that Phillips apparently forgot which end of the bat to hold, leaving good old Mike as the backstop again. Incidentally, he is *not* a bad defensive C, despite the fact that he is totally helpless with regard to throwing guys out. But that's overrated anyway.

Dittos to everyone who already pointed out that Delgado as a platoon player makes no sense for either the Mets or him.

Posted by: MarkW at January 10, 2005 09:14 PM

I didn't think the platoon was a good idea, I was just trying to figure out how they would fit Piazza and Carlos onto the same team if they didn't want Mike to catch anymore (which was the consensus last season). Piazza would be a good DH in Seattle, taking over the Edgar Martinez role.

Posted by: David Pinto at January 10, 2005 09:25 PM

"I wonder if Travis Lee who is getting lukewarm support will be signed as sort of a present to his agent Boras for delivering Beltran."

Especially when Boras called up the Yankees and offered them Beltran for less money and years. I'm sure they're really happy with that.

Posted by: Larry Mahnken at January 10, 2005 09:35 PM

1 post, 13 comments, and not one mention of the finances. delgado at 13 would = 3 players, 50m. If one of them (or two) breaks down, then what? and the braves will prob'ly still beat them

Posted by: kvnmnnng at January 10, 2005 10:46 PM

Some of these articles purporting teams being interested in this player or that one have to be agent generated. I've reached the point where I don't believe any until it's officially announced.

Posted by: LargeBill at January 10, 2005 11:06 PM

I guess the memory of Keith Hernandez has given the Mets a fetish for slick fielding 1B.

Posted by: Jurgen at January 11, 2005 12:06 AM

Olerud makes the most sense.. financially and player wise... and he's a good guy too...

Posted by: Ed Zipper at January 11, 2005 12:44 AM

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