In a recent article on Newsday, Mets beat writer Marc Craig cited a strong farm system that has improved tremendously this year to produce players that have on-field impacts. “When the Mets took the field for a series opener against the Cubs Tuesday night, the starting lineup included a pair of reinforcements from Las Vegas, outfielder Matt den Dekker and shortstop Wilmer Flores,” Craig cited.
He went on to speak about Eric Campbell, Jacob deGrom and Juan Lagares as other homegrown players that are evidence of Sandy Alderson’s “significant step forward” in regards to the farm system.
However, I have a different viewpoint on this situation and I don’t believe it means I’m a pessimist, but rather just realistic.
When I think of a strong team, one that is playoff caliber, I see it as having a strong core, with an impactful rookie or two and other young players filling out the backup positions and bullpen. I have said this for the past few years now and it is something I firmly believe in.
The growth of young players on the Mets is negatively impacted by the amount of pressure that is on them. Besides David Wright, the past couple of years have featured young players at many spots in the everyday lineup. This year it is no different, besides for the acquisition of Curtis Granderson that helps redistribute some of the pressure off of these young players.
I always think that rookies can come up and be successful but it only helps if they don’t have all the pressure on them. Lucas Duda, Ike Davis, and Travis d’Arnaud are some of the ones that come to mind when I think about this theory. The pressure on all of these guys to produce as soon as they made it to the big show was higher than on an average rookie/young player. The problem is, the Mets have almost too many rookies and young players filling voids in their lineup when in reality, those players should probably still be honing their skills in Las Vegas.
They are called up to the big leagues and already have enormous pressure on them to produce. We all know how quickly Mets fans will turn on their players sometimes, especially those attending games at Citi Field. I’ve been guilty of it myself.
Back to the point of Craig’s article, which suggested the Mets are doing it right. I tend agree with him, but the way the Mets handle their young players is awful, which comes down on Terry Collins and Sandy Alderson.
It’s been over 10 years since the Mets produced David Wright and Jose Reyes, who are superstars in the league even if Reyes is injury prone and Citi Field is detrimental to David Wright’s strengths. I’d like to throw Matt Harvey into the mix as another super star the Mets have produced but in reality, he was incredible for less than a full season and is now coming back from tommy john, so we will have to see how he performs next year.
Since Wright and Reyes, the Mets have not produced another super star caliber offensive player (unless you count Carlos Gomez). Is it true that no one in the system has enough skill and persistence to become this type of player? Or maybe are the skilled players there, just not being utilized and grown properly in the farm system and in the majors? You be the judge.
well written, but not really new news, well, maybe to the Mets, the real problem is that it hasn’t been solved. You can’t treat ball players or students all the same, it never works, nor can they be micromanaged by a team philosophy that does not build on the strength of the individual member. There is no I in team but first there has to be a team believing they can succeed, that’s what ’69 and ’86 were all about.
I think there has to be a balance of youth and veterans, but they have to be the right players at the right positions. For example, the Mets did Duda no favors by starting him in RF (nor Muphy before him in the OF), it undercut his confidence and made him a target of ¨bad fans¨. The same theory applies to position in the batting order. I can see batting a player at 7 or 8 in the lineup for his first few games to get acclimated, but after that they should be put into a slot that will give them the best chance to succeed, and/or a slot that he is used to playing. Flores has hit 2nd or 3rd for much of his minor league career, so why not give him a shot there? Let the experienced veteran like Murphy make the adjustment to a different slot to help the young guy succeed.
In short, if you have duplications at a position (Davis and Duda at 1B, Wright, Murphy and Flores at 3B, etc), then someone should be traded in a package to fill another position of need. Stop trying to fit round pegs in square holes and do the best to help all of the players succeed.