I have no idea if it’s notable or if he’s just being nice, but Jerry Manuel said yesterday he’d be at least open to the idea of starting the season with Josh Thole behind the plate:
The one thing about Josh that is definitely different than Omir is that Josh kind of balances out the lineup. He’s a lefthanded hitter. We’ll take a look at him and talk to the people who saw him in winter ball and see how much progression he made and go from there. It’s not out of the question.
So that’s cool. Anyway, I figured a poll is in order:
[poll id=”3″]
I left the question intentionally vague. I guess I’m just trying to see how y’all1 feel about Thole in regards to the other options, and in light of all the talk that he needs at least another year of Minor League seasoning.
Also, I didn’t include trade options, because it’s impossible to really judge a trade option without knowing what he’d cost in return. Granted, we don’t know exactly what Barajas or Torrealba would cost either, but it’d only be money.
1– I really wish English had a word for the second-person plural, and it very much bothers me that Spanish does — vosotros — and most Spanish-speaking countries opt not to use it. I tried adopting it into English for a while, but it didn’t catch on, so instead I use “y’all” and sound like a dunce.
Tedquarters 
Thole def. has the most upside of all and would probably be the best hitter over the season, but his lack of experience at defense and game calling concern me. I would like to see Blanco be the primary guy, but split time with Santos, keeping Thole in AAA until summer then re-evaluate.
Thole reminds me of Murphy. Let him prove himself at Buffalo. Think he might end up being a “super-sub”.
My dad has a unique form of the second-person plural: you bastards. Says it all the time, “One of you bastards go get me another Schlitz,” or “God damn you, NBC, I’ll show you bastards,” or, to cops, “You bastards have no business telling me I can’t drive just because I’ve been drinking.”
Rod Barajas makes the most sense. An inexpensive veteran with good game calling skills and is a good power/RBI guy. He also threw out 34% of would-be base stealer’s last season which is also his career average.
“Ye” was the second person plural pronoun at one point, back when “thou” was used for the second person singular. Then the two words did it and made “you” (the word, that is, not you, Ted).
“Vosotros” has fallen out of favor as the Spanish “y’all,” but “ustedes” (the plural of “usted”) does the same job–albeit somewhat more formally–and it’s widely used, especially when a mother celebrating her 58th birthday has one glass of wine too many.
I think that, since they had two words that do the same job, they dropped one.
So really, you should be upset that Spanish speakers have so many words, they’re dropping excess and not recycling. But if the “I’m With CoCo” movement can grab nearly 800,000 fans, surely TedQuarters readers can get used to you trading “y’all” for “vosotros,” “tutti voi,” or “vous tous.” They certainly sound classier.
Unless you want to go Germanic. In that case, you’re on your own.
Have to love that most of the responses are to vosotros.
I took Thole, but I guess there should be an asterisk or something. I took him because that means he’s come along enough defensively to play regularly at the ML level, and I think that’d be the best possible scenario for the Mets.
Otherwise its some combination of Omir/Blanco for me. I think a good tenet for the team to start using is “don’t spend money on mediocrity”.
“If we have one already don’t buy more”… something short and memorable and sound-bitey.
Very nice work,
BUT what NOONE proposes is that Josh should be the THIRD catcher. His bat off the bench could secure that spot plus give other lineup options…at the expense of say Anderson hernandez. PLUS Josh can be sent down to AAA. blanco wont catch everyday, maybe 2x week…So I think we need another catcher…but lets not hand the reigns to Josh 2 months before Spr tng cuts.
Does anyone catch in some type of league, because I will vote for you instead of those washed up, never was, never will be’s and the guy they switched schnieder out for from Philly. THE NEW YORK METS making fans hopeless since 2006! Swing Beltran, just swing.
Ted, Sorry you left snyder off that list, his worst day is better than all those guys best day combined. Omir did start off against the red sox pretty well.