There's a Reason You Played Right in Little League

Mets.com has an article up by Kevin Cserwinski detailing the right field situation. Karim Garcia has a cast on his arm because of a case of tendinitis. My guess is he picked it up at the team chapel, after keeping his hands locked in prayer for seven days and seven nights in thanks to whatever merciful deity was responsible for putting him on the only team desperate enough to put up with his classless behavior. It also has a great shot of Shane Spencer (the second one down) in which his resemblance to Rudy Giuliani’s bulbous and irritating offspring is unquestionable. The article also fills us in on Cedeno’s struggles by pointing to his weak batting average, and says that Timo Perez is still being talked about as trade bait (although no one seems to be offering examples of the specific batting practice equipment he could be dealt for), while Raul Gonzalez has almost no shot to make the team despite a good start.

Now, I know that Spring Training statistics are usually fairly meaningless, as the level of competition is much lower due to player and team experimentation. Yet there are always some situations ever year in which roster spots are determined by Spring performances, tainted and useless or not. Here’s what those five have done so far:

R Cedeno 11 G, 32 AB, .125 BA, 1 2b
T Perez 10 G, 21 AB, .143, 0 extra base hits
S Spencer 15 G, 35 AB, .229 BA, 1 HR
K Garcia 13 G, 29 AB, .276 BA, 2 2b, 1 HR
R Gonzalez 14 G, 19 AB, .368 BA with only one extra base hit (2b)

It certainly appears that Raul Gonzalez is hitting well. Jorge Velandia remarked recently (after being praised by Duquette as the kind of backup second base bat he was interested in) that year in and year out, he would put up great numbers in the Spring and get nothing for his troubles. A closer look at Gonzalez’ at bats in the Spring reveal some reasons for the inflation of those numbers and why they’d be ignored. You can see by his ratio of G/AB that he’s not starting much, so obviously he’s subbing in late in games against pitchers with very little chance of playing in the majors this season. It’s true that his ABs so far are a small sample size, but considering the way the Mets are playing him it’s obvious his performance will have no impact on his role for the upcoming season. He could hit .400, slug 10 homers, and even urinate only in bathrooms, and it wouldn’t make a difference.

Timo Perez has gotten a similar number of 1 AB appearances, and has performed dreadfully anyway. Doesn’t he know he’s being shopped? Shouldn’t he be trying to pull a Kieschnick at this point, or even a McCarty? Oh Timoniel, whither will Duquette’s love of flamethrowing underachievers send you?

That brings me to a moment here at East Coast Agony more special than when Kyle admitted he was stalking Edward Cosette and sought counseling. (You can do it, bud! Please, readers, e-mail with your support!) That’s right, it’s time for my last lame reference to the pizza-gate incident. I’m tearing up. Ahem.

You could say that Spencer and Garcia appear to be pissing away their chances, if it weren’t so obvious that the Mets can no longer have any intention of giving anyone else playing time.

Both of them have been given a handful of starts, and mostly made spot appearances later in games against the likes of Tanyon Sturtze and other future minor league pitching instructors. They’ve been the best of the lot so far, which obviously isn’t saying much. Cedeno, on the other hand, has sucked just about as everyone predicted (or hoped?) he would. Roger has been starting an awful lot, with awful being the operative word, though in his defense he’s been facing the Oswalts, Dotels, and Gagnes of the world, while his competitors have mostly been pitted against the Narvesons, Horgans, and Parontos. (Yeah, me neither.) Because he’s been starting, it looked like the Mets were hoping he’d build on his finish to the previous year so they could justify overpaying for him. He hasn’t performed, so my guess is they’ll just go with their platoon, and occasionally give Roger a start to take our minds off of Glavine’s failed comeback bid. It’s gotta be tough to make a decision based on suspect figures and subjective analyses, but I guess the Mets executives are fairly experienced in that area.