Mets Hot Stove Analysis, Part II

This is the second installment of a three part series citing my opinions on the Mets hot stove movement so far this winter. I wrote about the outfield yesterday in part I, if you want to catch up. I also gave my impression on Troy Tulowitzki and why the Mets should NOT pursue him. To wit, Part II begins...

To the infield-

The corners are set. Barring injuries, the corners are locked in for a very long time. Third baseman David Wright is the face of the franchise, the team captain and the Mets ambassador to anything and everything the franchise is involved with. And what's not to love? Wright was given a long term, big money contract ensuring he will be a Met for life and he does the fan base proud. He's Mr. Met without the giant head.
There are concerns about his health. Wright has a history of missing significant time, and the nagging, lingering injuries have led to diminished offense. But I like to think David Wright has many productive seasons left, and a few great ones, too.

The Mets made a clear commitment to Lucas Duda at first base with the expulsion of Ike Davis early last season. It turned out to be the right move as despite his deficiencies against left handed pitching, Duda led the Mets in home runs (30) and runs batted in (92). Duda insists he will figure out lefty hurlers but he's been saying that all his life, and at age 28 I can't see him improving much against southpaws before he reaches the end of his prime. As mentioned yesterday, the acquisition of Michael Cuddyer will make the dismissals of Josh Satin and Eric Campbell painless, as he is an upgrade.

It is the middle infield where the Mets have some serious questions...

I have mixed feeling about Daniel Murphy at second base. I understand he led the team in hits (172) and batting average (.289) but those number aren't exactly staggering compared to other team's leaders. Despite scoring 79 runs he only drove in 57. In 596 at bats he struck out only 86 times, but he drew a paltry 39 walks. His $5.7 million price tag seems a bit steep for that offense. His defense, to put it nicely, is a liability. He has trouble turning the double play and makes more than a fair share of errors.
I can't help but think the Mets missed an opportunity to trade him at last year's deadline when he could have returned something valuable. Now they couldn't give him away if they wanted to and they can't afford to trade him, as they have a more pressing need at shortstop and don't need distractions at second.

Shortstop. (sighs) This is a position where, like center field, I would sacrifice offense for great defense. The Mets have neither right now.  At age 25 Ruben Tejada is already deemed a bust because he can't hit to save his life. Wilmer Flores is better with the bat but his glove is inferior to Tejada's. The free agent market is weak and no team wanted to trade for any of the Mets exemplary (and extra) starting pitchers. If the Texas Rangers don't want Dillon Gee, Noah Syndergaard and another piece for Elvis Andrus, then that's their (incorrect) decision to live with. I had no interest in trading with the Cubs for Starling Castro and even less interest in trading with Philadelphia for Jimmy Rollins.
The only free agent that intrigued me was Oakland's Jed Lowrie and he signed with Houston early this morning. I don't even want to know what kind of money Stephen Drew will be demanding. Met fans can complain all they want but the best shortstop right now for the team is Wilmer Flores. Keep Tejada as backup and late inning defense.
In the interim, the best thing the Mets can do is have the Las Vegas AAA club start Wilfredo Tovar at short EVERY DAY until he is big-league ready, and keep Dilson Herrera in Vegas as the every day second baseman and develop his offense. Herrera showed a lot of promise as a September call up and I think he can replace Murphy for good by the end of next year.
I truly believe the Amazin's every day shortstop is already here, be it either Flores or Tovar, but they are still a year away, at best.

Have some patience, my Met brethren, on the next shortstop and part III of this series where I do pitchers and catchers. Stay tuned...

Amity Island Harbor Master Frank Silva says, "I think Tursi be a wee bit optimistic about those Spanish fellers at shortstop. Stephen Drew played in Boston and has won many chowder-eating contests. I've seen dead tuna at the cannery that could hit better than Wilmer Flores!"

It just goes to show ---

It's amazing what you can learn with just minimal research.

I've been checking out the moderator stats for Turzman Central which I tend to do from time to time. For no particular reason I checked which of my blogs were the most popular in the last thirty days. To my surprise, listed at number two was a post from May of 2005 announcing to my readers that the guestbook was down.

2005. The guest book has been decommissioned since late 05, maybe 2006.  How the hell does that insignificant post get any traffic now?  What kind of foolish entry must be typed into a search engine to find a nine year old post about a defunct Internet guestbook?

All I can do is hope you newer readers will sift through the archives and find something more important, if not interesting.

And share with your friends.  Thanks.

Internet addict Pornocat says, "People search the Internet to watch porn. You won't get new readers until you get new naked girly pictures, meow."

The impatient ghost of Robert Shaw says, "Jesus, Mary and Joseph, no one bloody cares!"

I've been silent for too long. Mets Analysis, Part I

December the fourteenth. Eleven days till X-mas. So naturally I shall blog about baseball. With all due respect to Christmas, Hanukkah & the other elements that comprise the Holiday season, I cannot ignore that it is also, Hot Stove Season and quite frankly, I get more joy from that than Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter and Halloween combined.
It's hard to believe, I know. Any fan of the New York Mets (and any other New York area sports team, it seems. Save for the Islanders and Rangers. Yay, hockey!) knows that we are, in a word, cursed. Yes, cursed. But curses can be broken. (see: Boston Red Sox, 2004) How can the Mets be the next Bosox, before they become the next Chicago Cubs? (see: The year 1908) And why talk New York baseball in December? With baseball's winter meetings having come and gone last week, let's see what the Mets did (and didn't do) to avoid the Chicago shame...

This is the first of three parts analyzing the Mets hot stove movement so far in the winter of 2014/15. Here, I opine on the outfield and why Troy Tulowitzki should NOT be wearing orange and blue next season. Pitchers, catchers and the infield will come later...

First of all, you morons with hard-ons for Troy Tulowitzki need to step back and reconsider. Or at the very least, go away! Trading for Tulo may be the absolute WORST thing the Mets can do. He's expensive, unhealthy, unreliable and over-rated. Yes, his offensive numbers are impressive at home, but in this case, home field being Coors Field, those offensive numbers are rather pedestrian. His stats are inflated by Coors Field. Look at his less than stellar numbers on the road and intelligent people won't see a ballplayer worth the $106 million he's due over the next six years. The Mets cannot afford that ridiculous salary plus whichever starting pitcher(s) the Rockies would demand via trade. The frightening thing is, GM Sandy Alderson would make a move like that; typical Met nonsense to appease an impatient fan base.
No, no, no, no says I. The Mets cannot afford to be that stupid! Be reminded, Tulo is always hurt!!! If the Mets were to bring him in, he would get injured in spring training, leaving themselves in the same position they're in now, except two starting pitchers fewer and $106 million poorer.
The Rockies offered that contract, and Tulo signed on. He has NOT played up to expectations therefore let the buyer beware. Do not make the Rockies mistake. Tulo will never play a full season of baseball again, and the Rox deserve him. Let him descend to obscurity in Denver, counting his money.

Met fans, forget about Troy Tulowitzki, please. To the outfield-

Center fielder Juan Lagares, fresh off a gold glove award. Love him. Center field is one position where I don't mind sacrificing a little offense for exceptional defense and that encapsulates Lagares quite nicely. His offense isn't horrible, but it is barely pedestrian and the Mets plan to stick him in the leadoff spot. Yuck. I wouldn't have anyone but Juan Lagares roaming the chasmal confines of Citifield's outfield, but in order for all to go according to plan he seriously needs to step it up at the plate. His ceiling is high, but can he reach it?
The outfield corners are slightly better now than a year ago. You know what? Say what you will about the signing of Curtis Granderson last off season but he's a welcome member of my outfield, any time. Grandy is the epitome of veteran leadership that every clubhouse needs and he's hardly a liability defensively. Granted, he had possibly his worst season at the plate last year including two separate stretches where he went almost a month without getting a hit! But consider; despite those tepid slumps, at season's end Grandy hit 20 home runs, 27 doubles, drove in almost 70 runs, scored 73 more and drew almost 80 walks. IN AN OFF YEAR! Unless he spends an inordinate amount of time on the disabled list, ALL those stats will be improved upon and we will be lucky to have Grandy in Flushing.
Michael Cuddyer is, from an offensive standpoint, a slight improvement over Eric Campbell, Matt Den Dekker AND Kirk Nieuwenhuis. But at age 35 his health is an issue, and between the outfield and first base the Mets expect Cuddyer to be a full time player. It's unreasonable to expect him to play 162 games, but can he give them 120? Will that be enough to help? If not, can Cuddyer play in at least 100 games? Hey, for two years at $20 million, Michael Cuddyer is a bargain and worth the gamble. Welcome aboard.
So, with Cuddyer playing first base against lefty pitching, the Mets ideally want a right handed bat to join Grandy and Lagares in the outfield. Nieuwenhuis and Den Dekker are both lefties, and Campbell with little more than offensive flashes here and there, did NOT impress anybody.
Enter John Mayberry, Jr, the fourth outfielder and starter against righties. With Cuddyer as a part time infielder the Mets may carry five outfielders on the roster. If not, then fan favorites Campbell, Den Dekker and Nieuwenhuis will start the season at AAA Las Vegas, if in the Mets organization at all.

Check back later for part II of my Mets analysis where I opine on the infield and catchers. My thoughts on the pitching staff will be part III.
Thanks for reading, feel free to leave comments-

Guardian of the Universe Gamera says, "Wait just a damn minute. No film critiques, no porn stars, no sharks and no Star Trek references. Instead you give us a thousand words on baseball. In December. This is a refreshing change, I'm proud of you, Turz."

STORMY NIGHT available from Amazon

I know what you're thinking...

You're thinking, "Turz, we've all heard this before."

And you have.

But this time it's different. This time, it's true.

And that's not to say that I was lying before. On the contrary, every time I posted something along the lines of, "Stormy Night is available now," I thought it was truth. I had certain assurances from (what I thought were) very credible sources that Stormy Night was in fact, actually available. But with every post, tweet, Facebook like/share and screening the accompaniment of a DVD release was sort of like the Loch Ness Monster. It was supposed to be there, but in reality, wasn't.

Ever since, I promised myself I would never get excited about Stormy news again.  Not until I had proof would I ever make a Stormy mention to my progressively dwindling list of readers again.

I have kept that promise and I offer proof-

Here is the STORMY link to the Amazon page.  Now you can purchase and purview the events leading up to the epic battle between Gray and Andrew-

And if for some reason you still can't, now you have a corporate entity to complain to instead of me!

Guardian of the Universe Gamera says, "The irony is, everyone reading this blog has probably already seen the film since Turz gave out bootlegged copies as gifts over five years ago!"