The Stretch Run – Bench
The Mets bench is an odd collection this season — primarily because of all the injuries. At the beginning of the season, it was a collection of Omar Minaya’s favorite Ex-Expos and scrap heap players. Now, it’s a collection of Omar Minaya’s favorite Ex-Expos, scrap heap players, and some guys from Double A Binghampton sprinkled in.
Robinson Cancel: Scrap heap. Cancel had 42 games with the Brewers in 1999 and hit to an OPS+ of 18. Yes. 18. Since then, he’s bounced around Double and Triple A before landing in the Mets’ system this year. Cancel (and occasionally Raul Casanova) fill up the “third catcher” role on the Mets bench, freeing them up to use Ramon Castro in late-game pinch hitting situations against a lefty-reliever. I mentioned Castro already in the infield portion of this piece since I’m pretty sure Jerry Manuel considers him 1/2 a platoon. Cancel has been as generally worthless at the plate this year as you’d expect the back-up catcher to be so he’s generally a non-entity. While I’m sure he (or Casanova) will remain on the roster, I don’t think they’ll get much playing time as the season draws down.
Ramon Castro: Castro and his jaw take up two roster spots but the bench-catcher offense is worth it. Inexplicably, the Mets didn’t use him in every interleague game as DH, instead opting for some of the other terrible hitters on their bench. Blah blah blah back-up catcher as DH is a bad idea blah blah. I’d argue Castro is probably the best bench-catcher in the league and am very happy he’s around.
Marlon Anderson: Scrap Heap. I had a decent exchange John Peterson at Blastings! Thrilledge over Anderson in his comments section. He posed the question about why the Mets considered Marlon Anderson a good pinch hitter when he was, in fact, a very bad hitter. Anderson inexplicably has very good numbers as a pinch hitter vs. his career numbers. As a PH his line is .284/.347/.428 in 324 PA vs. a 2007 league average PH .226/.309/.351 and vs. his own career line of .266/.315/.392. It was more an argument about stat-head’s dogged insistence that situation in an at-bat never matters. My argument is that, while it may be over-rated like most of the mystical seam-head bullsh*t, it’s not meaningless (ie: Jason Giambi’s near 150 pt OPS improvement as a 1B vs. DH). Anderson, for whatever reason, is really good at coming in and taking one at bat. He’s not so good getting 4 plate-appearances per game. As such, I’ll take him for what he is – a pinch hitting “specialist” who probably shouldn’t ever sniff a starting spot.
Argenis Reyes: AAA New Orleans. I don’t know how we got Lil Reyes… maybe the Indians sent him as a belated thank you to Minaya for the Grady Sizemore/Cliff Lee/Brandon Phillips for Bartolo Colon deal. He’s another in a pretty long line of Mets’ 2B prospects that are vacuums on defense and relatively awful on offense. Reyes was called up to become the bench middle-infielder after Luis Castillo’s injury turned Easley into the starting 2B. As Easley’s cooled off, he and Reyes are splitting time as the starter until one of them volunteers to be the every day starter.
Damion Easley: Scrap Heap. Easley’s was a great bench player for the Mets for the last season hitting for a 114 OPS+ in somewhat of a renaissance season at 37. He gets a decent amount of playing time because of Luis Castillo’s $6M knees. He hasn’t been quite so successful this year but has managed to ride a hot streak in to a starting job following Castillo’s extended absence and Ruben Gotay’s free trip to Atlanta. A knack for clutch hitting this season (.355/.429/.452: 2 out, RISP; .260/.283/.460: Late & Close) has allowed Met fans to pretty well ignore his less than impressive replacement level OPS+. I’d rather him not be our starting 2B in big game situations but with Castillo still not really on a return timetable and Argenis Reyes unable to decide if he wants to be good or bad — he’s what we have.
Nick Evans: Double A Binghampton. Evans made his debut against the Rockies in May and immediately discovered the Coors Field Effect by hitting three doubles in his first game. Teams quickly realized he was a Double A guy and he went 1 for his next 20 with 9K before getting sent back down. He was inexplicably called back up as an injury replacement instead of giving one of the other prospects a look at the major league level. This call-up has been moderately more successful. He’s hit .277/.308/.340 in round 2’s 52 plate appearances. He’s still relatively over-matched at the plate and I expect him to be the candidate for demotion upon Ryan Church’s return. Why he was given a second look over Triple A New Orleans’s Val Pascucci (a rare member of both the Ex-Expo AND the Scrap Heap club), who’s been destroying Triple A all season, I have no idea. I suspect Pascucci will be given a chance to impress as a September call-up and will probably leave via the Rule V draft this December.
Daniel Murphy: AA Binghampton. Murphy has quickly turned himself into a fan favorite by having a 3/4ths Jay Bruce debut. He also has Nick Evans’s exile ticket to the frozen wasteland of Binghampton and has the hole puncher in the other hand. In his first 45 plate appearances, he’s picked up 16 hits, with 2 HR, 2 doubles, and a triple with 6 walks and only 5 K. For those scoring at home, that’s a .421/.511/.684 line and Met fans have a chance to get excited for a farm system guy for the first time in a while.
Endy Chavez: Ex-Expo. Still good as a 4th outfielder. The Mets-bloggers, oddly, are evenly split on Endy’s worth. Some argue he’s replacement level and should be replaced. Others point to the 2006 catch and say that if Carlos Beltran gets a hit or Yadier Molina dies, Endy’s catch goes down as the greatest play in Met history, one of the greatest plays in NLCS history, and gives the Mets the win. Replacing that type of late-inning defense is very difficult. They’re both right. Endy’s an incredible defensive replacement outfielder and, so long as the Mets continue to employ aging left-fielders, he’s a good person to have on the roster.
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