Friday, March 18, 2005
O, Do Not Forsake Me
The Mets released a pair of superfluous infielders in the last couple of days, with one prompting tearful remembrances and the other, not so much. Joe McEwing's departure leaves Mike Piazza as the only remaining member of the 2000 National League Champions. McEwing had one nice season with the Mets, hitting .283/.342/.449 in 283 at bats in 2001, but otherwise was a serious drain on the team's offense when he got into the lineup. In none of his other four years with the team did he manage to get both his on base and slugging percentages above .300 in the same year. McEwing is reputed to be a great guy and I don't doubt it, but it seemed that that reputation led to him getting more chances to play than his performance warranted. I'm not going to dance on his proverbial grave or anything, but I'm glad the Mets are moving on.
Also departing is Danny Garcia, who never got much of a chance to prove himself at the major league level, but then, never did much to prove himself at the AAA level either. He had a flukily high OBP of .371 with the Mets last year, thanks in part to nine HBPs though just 138 at bats, but there wasn't much reason to expect he could repeat that. His best full season was the .273/.369/.403 he put up in 2002 at St. Lucie. But aside from a couple of succesful but brief stays at other levels, like his .333/.391/.530 in 117 at bats at Binghamton in 2003, he never really progressed to the point where he forced himself into the Mets' major league second base discussion. It would have been nice to see him get a shot in one of these last couple of years when the Mets had nothing to play for but the future, but now that they've got a potentially serious major league team on the field and more proven commodities available to play the role of backup infielder, it's hard to weep for Garcia. ¶ joe | 10:35 AM |
The Mets released a pair of superfluous infielders in the last couple of days, with one prompting tearful remembrances and the other, not so much. Joe McEwing's departure leaves Mike Piazza as the only remaining member of the 2000 National League Champions. McEwing had one nice season with the Mets, hitting .283/.342/.449 in 283 at bats in 2001, but otherwise was a serious drain on the team's offense when he got into the lineup. In none of his other four years with the team did he manage to get both his on base and slugging percentages above .300 in the same year. McEwing is reputed to be a great guy and I don't doubt it, but it seemed that that reputation led to him getting more chances to play than his performance warranted. I'm not going to dance on his proverbial grave or anything, but I'm glad the Mets are moving on.
Also departing is Danny Garcia, who never got much of a chance to prove himself at the major league level, but then, never did much to prove himself at the AAA level either. He had a flukily high OBP of .371 with the Mets last year, thanks in part to nine HBPs though just 138 at bats, but there wasn't much reason to expect he could repeat that. His best full season was the .273/.369/.403 he put up in 2002 at St. Lucie. But aside from a couple of succesful but brief stays at other levels, like his .333/.391/.530 in 117 at bats at Binghamton in 2003, he never really progressed to the point where he forced himself into the Mets' major league second base discussion. It would have been nice to see him get a shot in one of these last couple of years when the Mets had nothing to play for but the future, but now that they've got a potentially serious major league team on the field and more proven commodities available to play the role of backup infielder, it's hard to weep for Garcia. ¶ joe | 10:35 AM |
