This new (and surprising) youth movement that Omar Minaya has established at Shea certainly wasn’t planned. There were injuries, specifically in the outfield. Then there were injuries to the bench players who replaced them. After seeing this, it seems as if Minaya threw up his hands and decided to raid Double-A Binghamton.
Oddly enough, though, the “star” of the Mets farm system is not among them. Fernando Martinez, a man Mets fans had clamored for in light of the outfield injuries, remains in the minors. Metsblog had the story on July 24 when he left the game with a hamstring injury. He returned on August 5, but one would suspect with his recent injuries and his .287 average with 5 HR and 26 RBIs, he isn’t getting the call tomorrow.
Metstradamus interpreted the non-call of Martinez as reason that Minaya’s youth movement is not simply to appease fans, and I agree. For example, the call-up of Nick Evans came out of nowhere, and he was the first player from Double-A up on the Mets squad. Mets fans might have heard of Dan Murphy before his call-up, perhaps in the kind of semi-fame Mike Carp enjoys with Mets fans, but I don’t think anybody was clamoring for his appearance at Shea. It’s not just throwing the cards on the table; there seems to be a method to Minaya’s madness.
But some would call it simply that — “madness.” In Ted Berg’s latest column for SNY.tv, he criticizes the arrivals of Murphy and Evans, saying both have had little time at Triple-A and both are not traditional outfielders. These are valid complaints, but ultimately, both were called up for their bats. Evans hit .311 with 14 HRs and and 53 RBIs in 296 at-bats at Binghamton, while Murphy hit .308 with 13 HRs and 67 RBIs in 357 at-bats. The team has shown a willingness to sacrifice defense at the corner-outfield positions to bring more offense (see: Fernando Tatis, Marlon Anderson, et al.)
In the same breath, Berg again cheerleads for Triple-A New Orleans slugger Valentino Pascucci, who is batting .283 with 24 HRs and 66 RBIs in 321 at-bats with the Zephyrs. His OBP is a sparkling .409 with them. Pascucci becomes especially relevent, since another Triple-A slugger, Fernando Tatis, has enjoyed success at Shea in 2008. But for whatever reason, the Mets brass don’t seem to be as enamored with him. With an older player such as Pascucci, they certainly aren’t protecting him in any way, to be sure. There is just something about him they seem to dislike, which has caused the team to choose countless players over him. One would then begin to wonder why he is still in the organization if he is so decidedly not in favor.
Ultimately, I have no problem with the moves Minaya has made in bringing up Evans, Murphy, Argenis Reyes, and Eddie Kunz, but I feel Mets fans have irrational expectations for young players to be excellent right off the bat. For example, since Mike Pelfrey wasn’t a lights-out ace right off the bat, he was much maligned for a good two years. A. Reyes is an example of a player that Mets fans have conditioned their expectations for and accept on the basis of his strengths and weaknesses. Meanwhile, Evans impresses with a debut day of three doubles and then disappoints greatly when he doesn’t have follow-up games in the same vein. Murphy has come out to a good start, but I fear he may suffer the same fate as Evans has.
It’s hard to manage the careers of youth during a pennant race. Berg argues that these tryouts would be acceptable in a forgotten, lost year but not in 2008. This makes sense because in a pennant race, if Kunz doesn’t show the results of a big-league closer immediately, the team cannot have time for him. In the same way, if Tatis continues to hit and Ryan Church comes back, suddenly Murphy and/or Evans are simply riding the pine and potentially stunting their growth as players. The ultimate goal for the Mets, of course, is winning and doing whatever it takes to win. But the odd timing of the youth movement truly complicates matters.
