Don't Give Up On Jason Bay

By The Common Man

The Common Man has been trying to wrap his head around the notion proposed by ESPN’s Matt Myers today.  In his kiss off to the Mets' 2011 season, Myers suggested that the Mets should just release former All Star and MVP candidate, and current financial sink hole, Jason Bay. He writes,

“Bay's recent revival could be the worst thing that could happen to the Mets, because it might actually give the front office enough reason to talk itself into keeping Bay around for the life of the contract.

Why is this a bad thing? Because as good as his past 140 plate appearances have been -- and let's be honest, they're still not that good -- we have another 700 PAs as a Met that suggest he is toast. Not to mention the fact much of the recent damage he is doing is against pitchers who were called up when rosters expanded on Sept. 1, and are of Triple-A caliber. Having lived through the Roberto Alomar experience, Mets fans are quite familiar with the idea that good players can suddenly lose it in their early 30s, which is what appears to have happened with Bay. And even if he somehow can manage an .800 OPS in 2012, the Mets are still better off without him.”

The Jon Matlack Trade Tree and His Legacy on the 2011 Mets

By The Commmon Man

This went over very well last week, when The Common Man put up the transactional family trees of Chuck Knoblauch and Glenn Davis, so it’s going to become a regular feature here on The Platoon Advantage. Today, we reach far back into baseball history to find a Mets draft pick that is still incredibly important to the team today.

In 1967, with the 4th overall pick in the amateur draft, the Mets chose a big, 17-year old, Pennsylvania lefty named Jon Matlack. Matlack worked his way up through the system and debuted in July of 1971, throwing seven innings of two-run ball in a Mets loss. That was the first of 199 starts that Matlack would ultimately make for the Mets, for whom he’d win 82 games with a 3.03 ERA and 27.0 Wins Above Replacement. That’s good value. But Matlack wasn’t done.

The Mets slowly deteriorated through the mid-1970s, until they finally caved in to a proper rebuilding effort and sent away Tom Seaver and Dave Kingman on June 15, 1977, in what became known as the Midnight Massacre. As The Common Man has previously written, it actually wasn’t all that bad of a day for the Mets in the long run. After the season was over, the Mets continued to purge, and dealt away their only real remaining players of value in Matlack and John Milner in a complicated four-team deal. They really didn’t get back a lot. Willie Montanez was a former Wunderkind who was a pretty bad 1B, Ken Henderson was a former star on his last legs, and Tom Grieve (Ben’s father) was a decent 4th outfielder. But from that deal would spring forth an abundance of players, some of whom would lead the Mets to glory, some to ruin, and one of whom is still leading the team today. Observe:

3 Questions: New York Mets

The Common Man kept putting it off and putting it off, but it’s finally time to finish our 3 Questions series with a look at the New York Mets (you can find links to all of our 3 questions series here). Really, TCM just kept waiting for the Mets to do something…anything…but it never happened. And with the big transition in the front office, there are a lot of questions that loom for the Mets. Here are the three biggest:

The Delusion and Downfall of Jeff Francoeur

By The Common Man

By now, you've probably figured out that The Common Man thinks he's pretty damn funny. But really, there’s nothing funnier than Jeff Francouer thinking that he should have a starting gig in Major League Baseball. Jeffy, the league could expand by 5 teams next year, and those five teams could find 10 corner OFers better than you. That said, Craig's right that the minute Francouer decides he doesn't want to play everyday is the day he's done as a big leaguer.

The trouble, of course, is that he has hit .267/.309/.426 for his career, which is a 91 OPS+. That means that Francouer has been below average for a major league hitter, let alone one who plays a premium offensive position. If we discount his amazing run as a 21 year old rookie in 2005, Francour has an OPS+ of 88. The problem, as always, is that Jeffy just has no strikezone judgment to speak of. Frenchy’s 3.65 K/BB ration is 13th highest since 1920 among players with more than 3000 plate appearances. And his stubborn refusal or complete inability to learn how to hit for 6 years has demonstrated that Jeff Francoeur is now what he always will be, and that is a 4th or 5th outfielder, at best.

Any team that offers him any more than a chance to platoon against lefties is filled with boobs, ninnies, and nincompoops. Come to think of it, he may fit in well in Houston.

Nickname Review: New York Mets

The Common Man’s nickname review picked up an additional endorsement today with the support of friend of the blog Craig Calcaterra, of HardballTalk. Craig is concerned, however, about the long term potential of this project, writing “I'm not sure that TCM is going to get to them all -- there's scant scientific data on the traits of "metropolitans" and most varieties of "sox" -- but it should be enjoyable while it lasts.”

Oh really, Craig? That’s how it’s going to be? Fine. To put Craig at ease, TCM is going to break from his avian theme from the last few days (sorry, Baltimore), and take his friend up on his challenge. The New York Metropolitans it is.

Basic Stats:
Name: New York
Nickname: Mets (Metropolitans)
NicknameTypology: Human
Definition: “A person who has the sophistication, fashionable taste, or other habits and manners associated with those who live in a metropolis.” (dictionary.com)
Fig. 1 Metropolitans
Characteristics: refinement, sophistication, sissiness, ninnism, laziness

Best thing about the Metropolitan: The Metropolitan generally know where to go to get the best lattes, what time the gallery opens, and which symphony is in town. This is exceedingly important if you are a fan of such things. Frankly, TCM doesn’t know how this helps you if you’re a baseball player, except that someone once told The Common Man that knowledge is power.

Worst thing about Metropolitans: Metropolitans are apparently so lazy they have to shorten the name of their team to the Mets. Perhaps that’s why the team has become a haven to Oliver Perez.


More good news: Metropolitans might appreciate the game in the way that other great artists do and have. US Poet Lauriat Robert Pinsky is a devoted Red Sox fan and wrote in 1998, “There's too much high brow writing about baseball. And the idea of baseball as a bit sacred is corny, I know. But still, this splendid season reminds us that there is something about the game. Baseball combines the predictable, the ordinary, with the extraordinary in a way that more obviously exciting sports don't.” Robert Frost famously compared his profession to the game, “Poets are like baseball pitchers. Both have their moments. The intervals are the tough things.” John Updike wrote one of the greatest essays ever about baseball, in chronicling Ted Williams’ final game. Jack Kerouac privately created, maintained, and wrote about his own fantasy baseball league. Walt Whitman was a fan of the game in general, “I see great things in baseball, It will take our people out-of-doors, fill them with oxygen, give them a larger physical stoicism, tend to relieve us from being a nervous, dyspeptic set, repair those losses and be a blessing to us.” He also told Horace Traubel, “it's our game: that's the chief fact in connection with it: America's game: has the snap, go fling, of the American atmosphere — belongs as much to our institutions, fits into them as significantly, as our constitutions, laws: is just as important in the sum total of our historic life." Metropolitans should eat that stuff up.

On the other hand: Metropolitans tend not to be very athletic. There’s not a lot of space to run freely in the metropolis. TCM tends to imagine half of them going to work in tall office buildings, grabbing quick smokes outside every couple hours, and heading home to order take out from the Chinese place on the ground floor. The other half spends every available daylight hour in a coffee shop, then goes home to get ready to go clubbing. In other news, TCM has a bad imagination. These aren’t the same kids who were playing stickball in Little Italy in the ‘40s. Rather, the Metropolitan is a high falootin’, upper crust, snob if you ask this Common Man from the Upper Midwest. There’s a difference between hailing from a city, and being a Metropolitan.

Final Analysis: It’s hard to take Metropolitans serious as a nickname. Yes, they are likely to be impressed by the people that like baseball, but they probably would never deign to dirty their hands, let alone put on a sweaty glove or grimy helmet. And when the Metropolitans show up with their opera glasses, cigarette holders, and upright posture how can the other team even hope to be intimidated. So you’re from a city. Big deal. So is The Common Man. He doesn’t make a big deal about it. D- Deal with it yuppies and hipsters.

More nickname reviews available here and here.