A New York Times writer was the most visible of critic of Billy Wagner for playing it safe and not pitching Tuesday. Many have insanely criticized Jose Reyes for not running out of the box on his 3-run game-winning homer Wednesday. The obvious fact that with Brian Schneider on first and one out Reyes had no choice but to jog to first on his high fly ball. What exactly was he supposed to do, run full speed and then stop when he reached Schneider?
Back to Wagner. Rushing back from injury sounds like a great idea in July for a 38 year old.
The Mets biggest problem right now is that they don’t have any corner outfielders. Anybody remember what happened to Ryan Church. First he and Marlon Anderson hustled to try to catch a fly ball in Spring Training and Church got a concussion. Church got his second concussion trying to break up a double play. Today there’s general consensus that at that point he should have flown back to New York for tests and rest. But no, Church decided to be a gamer, and he flew on to Colorado and played hurt. 2 months later, the Mets are starting 5th and 6th outfielders while Church waits to be cleared to return to baseball.
Remember Angel Pagan? Well, he made a beautiful hustling catch in Los Angeles in May. That ended his 2008 campaign. Really could have used him when Church and Alou went down.
Let’s go back to Tuesday’s game. Can we PLEASE hustle less? Chavez should not have been sent on either of those plays at the plate. In the ninth, Reyes tried to get a double play that wasn’t there and got nobody. Then Chavez aggressively played in and got beat, watching what was essentially the game winning hit go over his head and down the line. A little less hustle, we probably would have taken that game.
OK, I’m not against hustling. And often the Mets need to hustle more. But can we be intelligent about it, and agree that sometimes you need to hustle more, and sometimes you need to be more conservative? And can we stop just bad mouthing players when they make conservative choices? And can we realize that a decision to play it safe is not the same as not hustling? And can we please not make everything a morality tale? Yes, it’s always fun to badmouth athletes for not playing hurt or making other conservative decisions. But come on, haven’t the 2008 Mets displayed how over-aggressiveness can kill you?
Two good negative examples came in Carlos Delgado’s game winning double today. Yes, since Carlos is Mr. July, because he won the game on that play, and because he’s really stepping up as the team leader on and off the field, we’ll give him a pass on his baserunning on that play. But he jogged out of the box and around first. That was the time to hustle. He didn’t. Then when the throw came home, Delgado decided to try to take third on it. That was not the time to hustle. He did. Would have been fine and he been hustling earlier, but it was too late to turn it on now. That’s OK, Carlos. You da man. Can you believe that it’s become a real possibility that the Mets will pick up his option for 2009? I didn’t see that one coming. Well done, Carlos.
