It’s simple to look at players and say that the New York Mets ought to have signed x instead of y. There isn’t enough information available about persons, especially someone who hasn’t performed the work before, to be able to predict what will actually occur.
We witnessed what may have been the biggest miss of the Mets offseason unfold in game one of the doubleheader on Thursday. After signing rookie Carlos Mendoza from the New York Yankees, the Mets sought to replace the experienced former skipper Buck Showalter.
Mendoza, like the majority of inexperienced managers, was highly praised. The fans of the Mets took it, without knowing what he would give. The year’s fifth game then arrived. In addition to the customary dubious managerial decisions, one particularly egregious one occurred when he instructed rookie third baseman Brett Baty, who was ranked fifth, to bunt when he had little prior experience doing so. When you need Craig Counsell, where is he?
Is the hiring of the Mets manager the biggest off-season error?
Being one of the more potent hitters for the Mets, Baty had much less chance of successfully bunting a ball down than a deep fly ball or a weak groundout to the second baseman. Either would have been adequate. Rather, Baty struck out after fouling two.
A recent instance was when faced with some difficulty. Despite the loss of Justin Steele, the Cubs managed to ask southpaw Luke Little to start an inning two against two lefties before turning the bat over to rookie Ben Brown because they were able to keep the bullpen fresh. Counsell capitalized on the strengths of the players even if this isn’t nuclear science. Mendoza didn’t, at least not in Baty’s case.
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