Tag: Fernando Tatis

Tatis Leaving Mets For World Baseball Classic

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Fernando Tatis will be leaving the Mets to replace Alex Rodriguez on the World Baseball Classic team from the Domincan Republic. I’m sure that you’re all well aware by now that A-Rod is having a cyst removed from his hip surgically and won’t be available to play for about 10 weeks.

Tatis was approached by Domincan team GM Stan Javier and Assitant GM/player Moises Alou about representing DR in the WBC.

The Mets approved Tatis’ play in the WBC despite a minor hand injury that’s hampered his playing time early this spring.

Manuel Works Mets, Media With Mind Games

Jerry ManuelJerry Manuel has been busy working the local beat writers to his own ends this spring. And as such, he’s been working us in the blogsphere that write and talk with friends and fellow fans about the Mets.

Is he really going to hit Luis Castillo leadoff? Is he really going to platoon Ryan Church and Fernando Tatis in right field? Does he really think Daniel Murphy is a better hitter than Ryan Church? Is he really going to play Brian Schneider more frequently than last season? Why is he discussing these issues with the media before telling the players that are impacted?

Manuel is proving himself to be a master manipulator, using the media and us for his own purposes. He’s verbalized the fact that he’s going to challenge his players this year. We just didn’t know he was going to do it through the media.

Although Manuel took over the Mets last June, we were used to three plus years of Willie Randolph’s stoic personality. Randolph didn’t give us much except a quiet, occasionally bewildered, discussion of the day’s events.

Manuel is using all of us to push, pull, and prod the players. He’s poking at them with his comments, giving confidence to some while putting others on notice. He clearly knows what he wants from the players and is busy preparing them mentally as well as physically for the season.

I like what he’s doing this spring. Each player needs to be treated differently, in the way that will draw the most out of them during the season. Castillo and Murphy are getting confidence building comments. Church, Jose Reyes, and Ramon Castro are being challenged to improve.

While I applaud Manuel’s ability to read his players, I take his comments with a grain of salt. I anticipate that Reyes will get the vast majority of games batting leadoff, and Fernando Tatis will get most of his playing time in left field. I’d like to see Manuel take advantage of Ramon Castro’s big bat at least twice a week. But Manuel is sure showing that he’s a manipulator… He’s gone gangsta on the media.

Mets Won’t Platoon Murphy In LF

Daniel MurphyMets manager Jerry Manuel told the media today that he likely won’t employ a straight platoon in left field this season. The bulk of the playing time will go to Daniel Murphy. Fernando Tatis will come off the bench and spell David Wright and Carlos Delgado in the infield.

I was tentatively supportive of the left field platoon idea originally. And I’ll do the same for handing the job to Daniel Murphy. I like what I’ve seen from Murphy generally. But he’s a below-average outfielder and hasn’t shown tremendous power at the plate either. He’s definitely more of a gap hitter than a power hitter. I like his attitude and the little things that he does well though. He seems to fit perfectly into Manuel’s team-first concept. I’ve told some friends this too… Murphy reminds me a little bit of Pete Rose in his approach to the game. Go 100% all of the time.

I also was cool to the idea of seeing too much of Fernando Tatis in left field. I love what he did for the Mets last season and was thrilled that they rewarded him with a good one-year contract. He deserved that after what he did last year. But some players are better seen in small doses on the field. Ramon Castro and Endy Chavez are perfect recent examples. Tatis is a guy that I’d like to see get one start per week in the field and come off the bench to do some damage. He seemed very adept last season at coming in cold and succeeding in pressure situations. That’s an unusual talent and he seems to have it.

Now that I’ve voiced my cautious support of Murphy getting the bulk of the time in left field, he should know that there will be some huge names available at the trading deadline if he doesn’t produce. My guess is that Matt Holliday and Maglio Ordonez will both become availabe via trade at some point this season. Even in a down economy, and despite the Bernie Madoff damage, the Mets will have the resources to bring one of them in to play left field for half a season. So the pressure will be on Murphy to produce.

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Mets Re-Sign Fernando Tatis

The reigning NL Comeback Player of the Year will be back with the Mets next season. Fernando Tatis signed a one-year contract for $1.7 million today.

I’m thrilled that the Mets were able to keep Tatis. He had such a great season and his clutch hitting was astounding. Just the other day I wrote about his award winning season.

He seems like a good guy and at 33 years old he certainly doesn’t appear to be past his prime, even though he was out of the league for several years. Sure, he’s an adventure in the outfield sometimes but he usually manages to get his glove on the ball.

Great start to the off-season Omar.

Mets Tatis Comeback Player Of The Year

Mets outfielder Fernando Tatis received a well-deserved award this week from the Major League Baseball Players Association, the Comeback Player of the Year Award. His work in the outfield was a little shaky at times, but you can’t deny that his offense was fantastic. Tatis had more clutch hits this season than any player, including the guys that were out there every day.

Tatis’ line was awesome: 92 G| 273 AB| .297| .369| .484| 11 HR| 47 RBI| 123 OPS+. Compare that to Carlos Delgado’s OPS+ of 127.

Tatis was even more valuable to the Mets than expected with Moises Alou going down for the season again in May. There’s no way that Omar Minaya expected to get 273 AB’s out of Tatis when they brought him up to the majors. Hopefully, the free agent will sign a new deal with the Mets. If they signed Marlon Anderson last off-season to a two-year deal, they should certainly offer two years to Tatis.

Check out this Q&A that David Brown from Yahoo Sports did with Tatis.

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Mets Crush Nationals 12-0

The Mets put on an offensive show tonight in Washington. They were aided by some really bad pitching by the Nationals Jason Bergmann. There were too many highlights to count but the Mets had homers from Fernando Tatis and Daniel Murphy, who raised his batting average to .467.

John Maine did a really nice job in his return from the disabled list. He went 5 innings giving up one hit and four walks on 90 pitches. Brian Stokes pitched the final 4 innings giving up three hits and no walks to complete the shutout.

Playing against the Nationals is a great way to get right coming off the Mets horrible loss at home to the Pirates on Monday. The Nationals are absolutely horrible.

Box score