BP: Start Tejada at Short
BP's resident prospect guru Kevin Goldstein cavalierly figures why not? Ruben Tejada is right now all he will ever be, a fundamentally sound young shortstop with little projection left in him.
I tend to be a little more hesitant as it was only 2 years ago that he batted .229/.293/.296(!) in Hi-A. After his completely unexpected resurgence as the youngest starter in Double-A in '09, this seems a bit like looking a gift horse in the mouth.
almost 2 years ago
Rob Castellano
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He's just going to be a temporary fill-in, though
I don’t think it would mess with his development, it isn’t like keeping a starting pitcher on an innings count (ahem, don’t mess with Jenrry). Even if he does hit that low, he’d be brought up for his highly regarded defense. That in itself is of good value to the team, namely Mike Pelfrey. I’d do it—it would be starting his clock only 1 year earlier, so I wouldn’t consider that a major issue.
Trying to believe is my full-time occupation.
Once you start the 6-year clock, it can't be stopped?
by DoghouseBlues on Mar 14, 2010 12:05 PM EDT up reply actions
It can, but you have to use minor league options to do it.
He only has three years worth, and then he’s either got to be in the bigs full time or pass through waivers.
Pinella: Where th f*ck was that pitch at?
Ump: Lou, don't you know that you're not supposed to end a sentence with a preposition?
Pinella: Where the f*ck was that pitch at, a$$h*le?
by Stephen Schmidt on Mar 14, 2010 1:49 PM EDT up reply actions
makes no sense
why throw $2 million to Cora and make him you number one priorty at the begining of the off season if he’s not your number one choice to start
If Reyes is out for the longer part of 1 to 7 weeks, doing so makes it harder for Cora's option to vest.
"Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!"
Gil Hodges IS a Hall of Famer.
by Brooklyn Dodgers Mets Fan on Mar 13, 2010 10:35 PM EST up reply actions
For the same reason why we re-signed Elmer Dessens.
Who knows?
"Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!"
Gil Hodges IS a Hall of Famer.
by Brooklyn Dodgers Mets Fan on Mar 14, 2010 4:21 PM EDT up reply actions
What made no sense was signing Cora in the first place
They’re pretty much the same anyway, if Reyes is going to miss time it makes as much sense to play Tejada as it does Alex Freaking Cora.
The fact that they’re even considering Tejada to play over a vet they did sign for 2M says a lot. Not very many good things, though.
ain't had enough...
meet the mets
"We have a plan, and our plan, I like our plan'
it's Omar's world, we're just livin in it.
I'm starting to think maybe there was a wink-wink agreement with Cora
When Cora got injured, Reyes was out indefinitely, Cora was putting up excellent numbers at the time, and the Mets were still in contention (I think).
Maybe the doctors advised Cora to have surgery, Cora agreed, and Jerry/Omar panicked—basically saying keep playing, don’t worry about your numbers in a walk year, we’ll take care of you. Omar, true to his word, resigned Cora extremely early in the offseason.
I’m not usually one to hatch or buy into conspiracy theories—the simplest theory is usually the truth—but it’s either that or Omar made a comically terrible decision—take your pick.
by DoghouseBlues on Mar 14, 2010 12:00 PM EDT up reply actions
Makes sense
And no other explanation does. Well, apart from extreme stupidity.
In theory, could be.
Looking at things objectively, there was absolutely no reason for Omar to re-sign Cora in early November, or whenever it was (Cora was like the first contract we made this Winter), especially for the contract that he got- if Omar believed he was worth $2 million in 2009, it only stands to reason that, in 2010, one year older and removed from surgery on his thumbs, he’d be worth less. But instead, he got the same amount of money, plus a vesting option, so…
"Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!"
Gil Hodges IS a Hall of Famer.
by Brooklyn Dodgers Mets Fan on Mar 14, 2010 4:25 PM EDT up reply actions
yeah, I'm not really getting what justifies this claim
The idea, I guess, is that since he’s already got pitch recognition and selectivity, and doesn’t figure ever to have much power, he’s a relatively known quantity. But I just can’t imagine that he has no upside left at all.
Agreed.
At the very least, if you go with the idea that a player reaches his peak power output at 26-28, he has potential upside, in what he is, plus a little more power. Saying that he’s already peaked out, I don’t know, that sounds a little suspect.
"Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!"
Gil Hodges IS a Hall of Famer.
by Brooklyn Dodgers Mets Fan on Mar 13, 2010 11:49 PM EST up reply actions
Well I'm assuming they mean there's nothing he could learn by staying in the minors
that would improve his power projections. He’s still not going to hit his peak till 26-28 but whether he comes up now or 2 years from now isn’t going to change what that peak number is.
"We have a plan, and our plan, I like our plan'
it's Omar's world, we're just livin in it.
thats true but
whereas he doesn’t really have too much upside left, i’d be worried that he still has quite a bit of downside. it is way to early to just assume that his plate discipline is already a sure thing and that is glove won’t waver at all even with the increased speed of the game.
in other words, IMO his bat is not at the level where its out of the question that he gets eaten alive by major league pitching, which hurts him on a number of levels. while more seasoning isn’t going to really improve his power or speed, i do think that at age 20 it will solidify the tools he does have to the point that he can effectively utilize them at any level.
by Rob Castellano on Mar 14, 2010 10:38 AM EDT up reply actions
He plate discipline isn't that good.
6.7 BB%, 12.1K% last year in AA. To say that a 20 year old, who improved his wOBA .69 points, while moving up from A to AA, has little projection left is ridiculous to me.
I don't know that a few weeks of seeing major league pitching will hurt him.
If anything else, it ought to help him better recognize pitches whe he returns to AAA. The big thing for him is just seeing regular playing time wherever he’s at. I don’t see him adjusting his swing to try to become a slap hiter, as he probably doesn’t have the speed to do it well.
Pinella: Where th f*ck was that pitch at?
Ump: Lou, don't you know that you're not supposed to end a sentence with a preposition?
Pinella: Where the f*ck was that pitch at, a$$h*le?
by Stephen Schmidt on Mar 14, 2010 1:55 PM EDT up reply actions
here's the quote, for posterity
This wouldn’t be another case of the Mets curbing the development of some high-ceiling prospect by rushing him to the majors; Tejada is pretty much all he’s ever going to be right now, and he’s certainly not going to be worse than Cora.
To me, the important part of this is less whether you buy the “ceiling” thing and more the last bit — however much better Tejada might become, he’s already unlikely to be worse than Cora.
Its more punditry and conjecture than anything
He has a glove, that’s why he’s being considered for the job, and he’s not a mega-upside prospect, so “rushing” him is less risky. The idea that a prospect can be “Rushed” is a bit of an abused term, lots of prospects pushed faster than they’re ready for eventually succeed anyway, and lots who are handled with kid gloves don’t. Its just some words that writers can put on paper when they get impatient and need a story but don’t feel like engaging in actual thought. Of course its unwise to be reckless with young, talented players, but there’s a pretty big gap between what most of the MSM refers to as “rushed” and what’s actually “reckless” (Mejia in an MLB pen, ahem).
I do agree that putting Tejada on the major league team likely won’t effect his long term projection much, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have any left. He’s not finished developing his offensive game yet and to claim he is is shortsighted. He’s not going to be a perennial double-digit home run guy, but he could be a guy who slugs a bit over .400 in most good years and has a three or four year peak where he hits 10-15 bombs. He could also improve his walk rate. The only aspect of his offensive game that doesn’t seem like it has much room for improvement is his contact rate, which is already pretty stellar, and why the organization might suspect that he won’t be completely overmatched offensively in the majors.
"All energy flows according to the whims of the great magnet
What a fool I was to defy him"
-HST
by Mark Himmelstein on Mar 14, 2010 2:54 PM EDT up reply actions
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