After an off-season of avoiding the type of reactionary moves that fans love but never actually work out the Mets may have ruined everything by signing Gary Sheffield after he was released by the Tigers.
1) Sheffield sucks right now. Look at his stats over the past three years. He hasn't just been average, he's been bad. And he's 40, what would make the Mets think he can turn it around?
2) He's old, and slow and can't play defense. The Mets refuse to realize the intangibles young players bring. They obviously haven't been watching over the past three years as rallies were killed when the slow-footed Mets grounded into double plays and failed to take extra bases. Adding him to a lineup of Delgado and Schneider and maybe on some days Tatis creates a base-running disaster.
3) The Mets are so stubborn they will stick with Sheffield the entire season no matter how badly he plays because they won't want to admit mistakes.
4) This stunts the growth of the promising Danny Murphy. He could potentially be the solution to the Mets problem with the #2 hole, but this guarantees he'll be sitting almost all the time against lefties this season. It also relegates Fernando Tatis to pinch hitter only. Tatis was better last year than Sheffield has been in any of the last three years. Sure, Tatis is old and injury prone but so is Sheffield.
5) Sheffield was a steroid user. The steroids were keeping him young and in shape, now that he quit (we think) he got old fast.
6) Sheffield is a bad guy. A horrible selfish player. Do you really think he is going to accept playing only against lefties? No way. He's going to cause problems in the clubhouse, a clubhouse with a new manager and devoid of the leadership necessary to handle an asshole like Sheffield.
Agree - there was absolutely no reason to sign him. Disagree that this cuts into Murphy's playing time. I think he'll be platooning with Church. Relegating Tatis to a PH role is perfect. They need an extra RH bat on the bench and Tatis stinks. They got lucky with him last year.
ReplyDeleteI hate Sheffield, too, and agree with alot of your points, but I kind of like this move.
ReplyDeleteHe's looking for one last contract next year, and if that motivates him to shut his mouth and give the Mets 15 or so homers as a 4th outfielder, that works for me. I really don't see Jerry Manuel tolerating his crap at this stage in his career, and since they're paying him less than $400k he can easily be cut if this turns out badly.
I like it. We needed a right handed bat, and we got him for basically nothing. I disagree with you that we will play him all year even if he sucks. I think they would cut him loose if he sucks or acts up.
ReplyDeletei think damino should be the 4th OF
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