Read between the lines at second base

Hey remember last week I mentioned Mets Police was looking for some new writers?  Tom stepped up…he’s on to the second round where he test his work to make sure he’s not secretly a Braves fan, before I tell him all the secret Mets Police passwords. 

Let me know what you think.  The goal isn’t to stray from what the site is about, but to add some diversity to the posts, espically from a point of view of someone not hung up on Tom Seaver.  Don’t worry, there will be plenty of Mazzilli posts…

Read between the lines at 2B
by Tom Borowski

With the Mets washout on Wednesday night, it gave an extra day to think about Justin Turner throwing the ball – and the game – away in the 9th inning Tuesday night, leaving the Mets back at .500 again. After dropping 2 out of 3 this weekend to the Braves, it appears that this Mets team may finally see the wildcard race out of reach as we get into the dog days of August. As painful as that is to say, I like that Sandy Alderson and his staff have not been fooled into going “all in” on a playoff race that the team realized they were likely on the outside looking in, and thus not repeated mistakes of past regimes. Alderson has said all the right things, but acted with purpose- moving Carlos Beltran and K-Rod’s contracts to poise for a run at resigning Jose Reyes, and to provide flexibility, while even adding a quality pitching prospect who may only be 2 years away from the show.

After watching Murphy go down today, which could potentially end his 2011 season, I feel that the Mets may have the missed a deeper opportunity to understand what they had moving forward. The handling of Daniel Murphy perplexed me all along, as he should have been given every available opportunity at 2B. Even if he weren’t struggling at first base as he had at late- including his 10th error of the year on Saturday against the Braves, he clearly has no future at that position with Ike Davis looming on the sidelines. The question remains when the Mets get healthy; where does Murphy fit in? If the answer isn’t on the bench, the only real choices are either at 2B or to re-visit putting him in the outfield. With 2 months remaining in this season and Murphy hanging around the league leaders in batting average, I couldn’t figure why the Mets wouldn’t want to put him at 2B every day and give him a chance to win the job in 2012? Are the Mets showing through their actions that they feel Justin Turner has a better chance at being our opening day second baseman next season?

When Beltran was ultimately traded, it quickly became clear that Lucas Duda was going to be given the opportunity to prove that he is an every day major league player. Certainly Terry Collins and company feels that they will learn something about him, by keeping him in the lineup every day, primarily in RF. The Murphy situation is confusing, as he continues to show his lack of baseball IQ at first base, a position he is only playing due to Davis’ injury.

Looking at internal options for 2B aside from Turner, the Mets have available Ruben Tejada, who the Mets faithful know what we have there, despite some strides he made this season with the bat. There’s also Reese Havens, who was touted to be a prospect and a potential offensive 2B at the Major League level. However, Havens (who is 24 years old), has been sidelined with a plethora of injuries ranging from his lower back, to oblique, and even his ribs. He’s currently on the shelf and appeared only in 22 games this season for double A- Binghamton, and hit .262. So there’s not much confidence he will step in next spring and be the second coming of Chase Utley. There’s a thin class of expected free agents out there as well at 2B, unless if you believe that Brandon Phillips’ option won’t be exercised. Even if that weren’t the case, the Mets’ financial problems would likely keep them out of any competitive bidding for an established 2B outside of the organization.

This brings me right back to Murphy, who remains a low cost option for 2012, who happens to be hitting .320 on the season after leaving today’s game with the injury. I’m not sure what putting Murphy at first base every day was accomplishing, and one has to wonder if his often talked about lack of proper footwork contributed to his injury after being moved around the diamond in an emergency situation when Reyes left the game. Collins was commenting about Murphy’s first base woes with Joe and Evan on WFAN last Wednesday, reminding the fans that Murphy is really a 2nd year player and not as experienced as many think. He downplayed taking grounders and drills and stated, “Its the experience in the game where they get the most out of it.”

He added that he doesn’t think you will see the same mistakes over and over from Murphy in the field. If that’s the case, why not get Murphy every game opportunity at 2B? From now until the end of the season would have been a decent sample to see what he can give you consistently in the field, and with Collins’ philosophy, he could progress through his growing pains at 2B now instead of potentially next season. Why was he playing first base every day, when the likes of Duda, Turner, Nick Evans and others could fill in for Davis? Could it be that Justin Turner is a more attractive option for Mets’ management moving forward? Regardless, if this is the end of the 2011 season for Murphy, he will be expected to come to camp in the spring and compete for the job at 2B or presumably take another shot at the outfield. It just seems a waste that spent the last month filling in for someone else, instead of letting us see what he could do on a regular basis at one position that he has a chance of holding onto in the Mets future. Now its just another question mark for next season, before this season is finished.