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Copy, paste. Copy, paste. That's what Gothamist will be doing many times over as the Mets have traded for Doug Mientkiewicz to fill the hole at 1st base when the team's 1st choice, Carlos Delgado, decided to sign with the Florida Marlins. While the bat of Delgado will be missed, at least Mientkiewicz has a great glove. That's the consolation prize, and it could very well come in handy - as will that World Series ball.
Mientkiewicz has a career .272 batting average, hit .238 in 2004, and a Mendoza-threatening .215 in with the Red Sox. Clearly, his bat isn't the reason the Mets signed him. His defense, however, will certainly help the Mets, who committed 137 errors in 2004, enough for the 3rd most in baseball. Mientkiewicz has 21 career errors and a .996 career fielding percentage (the Mets had a .978 team percentage last year). This is even more useful, considering the infield of Kaz Matsui (2nd base, .956), Jose Reyes (SS, .980), and David Wright (3rd base, .942) isn't exactly error free. We'll see how the position swap between Matsui and Reyes works out and we're totally ignoring the fact that Delgado had a better fielding percentage last year.
The Mets had to give up single A prospect, Ian Bladergroen (copy, paste), for Mientkiewicz. The NY Times reports that Bladergroen is rated as the 4th best Mets prospect by Baseball America. Now that's something long-time Mets fans are used to, trading away prospects! Obviously Gothamist isn't thrilled with missing out on Carlos Delgado, but we've seen the sieve like qualities of the Mets infield, so we're more than happy to see some defense on board. We'll remember that next October when we're watching the Marlins in the post season.
Photo by AP via Newsday
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You know that fielding percentage is an awful metric for gauging defensive proficiency, right? Although none are universally accepted, two -- UZR and defensive zone rating - are much more advanced, better statistics.
but you do know that mientkiewicz will be a better fielder than all the other stop gaps the mets had last year, right? and the mets had a lot of errors, right? that's what i was trying to drive home.
besides, i don't have access to the other numbers.
Why don't they just make an offer for the entire Red Sox team and get it over with! I understand that they won the series, and that's great, but has a team other than the Yankees win back to back?
Does your computer have Macros tien? You could just set one so every time you hit F6 or something it types Mientkiewicz. How bout we just call him Malkovich. malkovich, malkovich, malkovich.
if you must know, 7 teams have won back to back world series.
"besides, i don't have access to the other numbers."
Tien, yes you do: www.bb-ref.com
His lifetime fielding percentage (.996) is just a hair above league average for the position (.993), as is his RangeFactor (8.35 vs. 8.18). While his defense (at a position on the far right of the defensive spectrum) is above-average, a corner player with a lifetime OPS+ of 101 is only going to prevent his team from scoring runs against the league average. A weak move by the Mets.
with all these numbers, we're ignoring the fact that the mets had 13 errors at first base last year credited to the 1st basemen last year. compare that to the 21 doug has in his career. and who knows how many errors that the other infielders were credited with could be eliminated with a good first basemen rather than a platoon. i'm not happy that they didn't get delgado, but this isn't horrible.
besides, have you seen the highlights of doug? man, those web gems from the twins were impressive. and that's on the turf.
I'm a lifelong Sox fan, and I'm disappointed to see Mientkiewicz go. We only had him for half a season, but his fielding is so solid, he seems like a decent guy to have in the clubhouse, and odds are he'll pick it up a bit at the plate this year.
I think he'll be a great role player for the Mets.
You could always take to referring to the new Mets 1B by the name given to him on the Sons of Sam Horn -- Malphabet.
Mets suck. Yankees rule! For any Met fan to diss the Yankees, and I know all you Mets fans do, just remember the 2000 World Series. Hahah.
David Ortiz calls Doug Mientkiewicz 'Snook'.