I don’t want to burst anyone’s bubble here, because I got plenty of comments and e-mails this offseason from Mets fans eager to see the return of Mike Jacobs to Flushing.
And I don’t want to waste too many words on the subject, because I don’t really want to imagine a situation wherein Jacobs plays too big a role with the big-league club.
But Mike Jacobs is about as one-dimensional a baseball player as could possibly survive in the Major Leagues. He is a power hitter. He does not hit for average, he does not get on base, he does not steal bases in the rare event he gets on, and he is not a good defender. Mike Jacobs sometimes crushes the ball. That’s his game.
It is not enough to make him a good Major Leaguer, or even really a capable Major Leaguer. By WAR, Jacobs has been below replacement-level for the past two seasons, and only barely above it in 2007.
That’s not to say it’s a bad move for the Mets to scoop him up on a Minor League deal. It’s a Minor League deal, after all. It will likely be a bad move if they cite his Major League experience and 32 home runs in 2008 and give him a 25-man roster spot over a more capable and deserving player, but since they haven’t done that yet, I’ll wait on it.
What’s a little bit baffling is where Jacobs fits in with the Buffalo club he’s likely destined for, since Ike Davis seemed destined to be the team’s starting first baseman. Plus the Bisons already have corner bats in Val Pascucci and Mike Hessman, and also Nick Evans and/or Chris Carter if they don’t stick with the big club out of Spring Training.
I guess Davis could be heading back for another go-round at Double-A to start the season, but given the way he torched that level in his half-year there in 2009, I can’t imagine he needs much more time there.
This is speculation upon speculation and I have no idea that it could be the case, but it would sure be neat if adding Jacobs to the Triple-A mix had something to do with giving Davis some time in right field. Davis played two games in right field at Double-A Binghamton last year and supposedly has a great arm — he was a pitcher in college — so having him take some turns in right could give the Mets some flexibility in their future handling of Davis.
Of course, since Hessman, Pascucci, Evans and Carter all have plenty of experience at first, I have no idea why Jacobs would change the way the team uses Davis in Buffalo. I’m just fantasizing, really.
On the whole, Jacobs is a low-cost, low-risk pickup. Since he’s unlikely to post a Major League on-base percentage north of .300, I wouldn’t call him a potential “high-reward” guy, but who knows?
This might be more of the Mets’ whole “doing better by the city of Buffalo” thing they pledged last season. But if that’s the case, man. I sure wish they’d have paid as much attention to the Major League roster as they did to the Triple-A one.
Tedquarters 
All I know is that the Mets have had a heck of a AAA offseason!
“He is a power hitter. He does not hit for average, he does not get on base, he does not steal bases in the rare event he gets on, and he is not a good defender.”
Sounds like Murphy… only minus the power hitter part.
Could they be looking to move Murphy for a pitcher?
I think Murphy has the potential to be a much more complete hitter and much better defender than Jacobs. Murph might not know what he’s doing at first yet, mind you, but he’s not lead-footed like Jacobs is. Plus he’s exhibited some patience at the plate — albeit not a ton — which is more than Jacobs can say.
Jacobs also has a 30+ home run season. Something I think Murphy is incabable of.
Jacobs walked more times then Murphy last year in less at bats, so I dont know how you can say hes more patient.
Let Murphy be the utility guy/pinch hitter. I see no reason to really develop him at first base if Ike Davis is the future anyway.
That’s a good point — Jacobs’ sub. 300 OBP shrouded the fact (for me) that he walked at a higher rate than Murphy last year. My bad. They actually have nearly identical career walk rates.
Still, I’ll take Murphy moving forward, if only because he’s younger, and so hasn’t yet had enough at-bats to prove he won’t get on base at the Major League level, as Jacobs has.
His stats compare favorably to Murph’s , especially rbis! He has much more power and he is a 1B. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s the starter by July!
I don’t mind this pickup, Ted. I know you can dismiss 2005 as a flash in the pan, but he’s got the ability to be a solid lefty bat off the bench, which we desperately need. Sure, he’s not versatile, but he’s better than having, say, Mike Hessman as the 25th man. And they have the DH in AAA. Jacobs has more upside than Hessman.
I’d have to check, but I think NL Triple-A teams do not use a DH, at least not when they play other NL Triple-A teams.
I believe the rule in the IL is that games featuring two NL affiliates do not use the DH, but the NL team has the option of using a DH in games against AL affiliates.
I watched Davis play on TV back during his college years and got to see him live at Brooklyn and Binghamton. A few things struck me:
(1) He has a strong arm for a 1st basemen. He pitched in college and probably could have made it to the majors as a set-up man. His arm definitely can play in right field. His arm seemed fine the few times I saw him play it in college.
(2) He have average speed, so his range in right is not great, but he gets to most balls hit in his area. His range is playable in right.
(3) That said, I’m all for giving Davis time in right field. I think it’s smart to do so in order to give themselves enough flexibility. Who knows if by some miracle the Mets trade for Adrian Gonzalez or Prince Fielder (while managing to hold on to Davis – not likely but maybe), then he’d have to play the outfield.
Still, his best position is 1st base and not because he’s limited there because he’s not. He has good range and movement on balls hit to both sides of him. He has some hands and good footwork. He could be an above-average defender at 1st base.
The Mets farm system takes some hits, but it’s not that bad. Think about it – the Mets have a number of prospects that could help out in 2010 and early 2011: Niese, Davis, F-Mart, Thole, Tejada and Mejia. They there is Nieuwenhuis and Havens behind them. It’s not great but a number of them have a chance to be contributers at the major league level.
Look on the bright side. At least he’s got a higher career OBP than Francoeur… a whole .002 higher.
My question is, how do they find time for 6 guys at first base at Buffalo? Are they all going to play 1 and 1/3 inning and rotate like volleyball? Buffalo is starting to look like a beer league softball team. Tons of power, and no one that can field. Should be fun up there.
I think anything that slows Ike Davis’ arrival is a mistake, and this cavalcade of 1bs seem like hurdles for him. He’s there’s best option at first base Right Now. He’s 23, with college experience, he’s not that raw. Nothing against Murph, I think he could be a decent utility guy if they ever let him try to play some second base.
I really really hope the Davis in rf, at least experimentally, thing happens just because if he could provide average defense there he’d probably be a more valuable major leaguer.
And, if the team ends up stinking anyway, then I kind of hope Jacobs ends up on the major league roster at some point. In fact, if they stink regardless, I’m rooting for a line up Tatis in lf, GMjr in cf, Frenchy in rf, Cora at ss, Castillo at 2nd, Murphy at 3rd, and Jacobs at first for at least 2-4 games. It would be a thing of beauty.
“I’m rooting for a line up Tatis in lf, GMjr in cf, Frenchy in rf, Cora at ss, Castillo at 2nd, Murphy at 3rd, and Jacobs at first for at least 2-4 games. It would be a thing of beauty.”
Obviously your main goal as a Mets fan is not winning, which i have hinted at in previous discussions. You seem to be content with just playing the guys we have and for some reason you are completely biased to the guys we have on the roster or in the minors. It’s like a little league parent thinking his/her sons team can do no wrong.
Huh? My point was if the mets are going to be crappy anyway we should see how deep into the depths of crappy they can go. I think all those guys, except Tatis and Murphy, suck and shouldn’t be on the roster to begin with.
I find it amusing that you think
311avg 10hrs 41rbis (75 games)
260avg 29hrs, 103rbis
293avg 19hrs 105rbis
sucks. Is there person on earth that would not sign up for any of those seasons right now from Murphy??
Those stats would be Francouer. Who is 1 year older then Murphy. But nah, we don’t need him on our roster.
As for comparing Tatis to Francouer, I’m not even going to waste my time.
All of the guys you listed are going to be on our Major League roster and are going to get some playing time. You say they all suck, but then in previous posts you are so quick to defend their offseason moves (or lack there of)
The difference is Murphy is making like .5 million, Tatis is making about .8 million and Frenchy is making 5 million. For 5 million a guy who plays awful defense, since he decided to bulk up and try and become a slugger, can’t hit right handers, which make up about 75% of the pitchers he sees, and has an obp that struggles to stay above .300 sucks.
And if you read all my posts in the other thread you’d notice I didn’t defend their off-season moves, I just said they weren’t wasting anyones primes by sucking in 2010 since Wright and Reyes should just be entering their primes and unless they can’t resign Reyes after 2011 they won’t have wasted anything.
Gina,
Again, why are you concerned with the money part of it? Signing Branyan would cost the same as Tatis and Cora. Tatis is making 1.7 million… not .8.
And would you take
293 19 homers 105 rbi
260 29 homers 103 rbi
from Murphy? WITHOUT A DOUBT. And Francouer is average tracking flyballs and an above average arm. He is not awful defender.
Not to mention Murphy plays 1st. A position that you need to have a good stick at. I can argue that Murphy is the worst starting 1B in the Major Leagues. Kind of hard to compete like that.
Spending an additional $10 million this year will not jeopardize our future which you seem to be more concerned about then this years team.
My main point is that this team has the talent to compete in 2010 and beyond. Im not saying they should have signed Marquis, Pineiro, Hudson etc etc to 4 year deals, but a couple of 1 year deals would greatly increase our chances to compete this year.
Because we could have gotten the same production for much less than 5 million and used that money towards other players. And he is no where near average at tracking balls, he was before he decided to bulk up to 240 in the 08 off-season, when he did that he completely ruined his range, if he slimmed down he’d be an above average outfielder again but right now he’s a complete mess in rf. And if Murphy obp .290 with that line then I wouldn’t take it. Murphy is a mediocre 1st basemen but more than likely he won’t be any less valuable at first than Frenchy will be in rf if he doesn’t completely turn around his defensive play and if his bat returns to what it was his last few years in atlanta.
I’d like to know what your plan is to get a RF for “much less than 5 million” that has the potential to hit 280 with 25 homers and 90 RBI with arguably the best RF arm in baseball at the age of 26.
Let me get this straight. You wouldn’t take Murphy
.260 29 homers 103 rbi with .290 OBP this year??? WOW
What you are failing to realize is Murphy is the worst 1B in baseball besides maybe Steve Pearce on the Pirates.
Francouer puts up similar stats to most RF in baseball. He is not the problem with the Mets. First base is an offensive position. The lineup is not the good where they can carry Murphy at first.
Frenchy didn’t put up near similar stats to most rf, 28 right fielders, with more than 400 plate appearances so these were regular right fielders, had a higher ops than him. How is that similar stats, especially when on top of that he’s been playing subpar defense for the last 3 years. Yes he still has a major arm but at this point he has no range, and what does it matter what you can do with the balls once you get with them if you can’t get to most of them anymore? And I don’t disagree that Murphy shouldn’t be anyone’s starting first basemen but for the league minimum he’s a serviceable stop gap, for 5 million we could probably sign Damon, who put up much better numbers, or could have signed someone just as bad as frenchy for the league minimum and used the money toward upgrading other positions.
Damon in RF?? Haha. Come on now.
You are completely overating his on base percentage. Batting 7th in an NL lineup I would much rather him trying to knock in runs then take a walk and leave it up to Omir Santos and the pitcher.
I haven’t even mentioned the fact that change of scenery might have done Francouer some good who was clearly not right on the Braves the last few years. Francouer slugging % on the Mets was higher then Shin-Soo Choo, Hunter Pence, Cody Ross, Jermaine Dye, Nick Markakis, Ryan Ludwick, Bobby Abreu, Magglio Ordonez, Jack Cust and Kosuke Fukudome. I do realize it was only half a seasons worth of at bats, but I certaintly think its worth $5 million to see if he can produce that for a full year. Keep in mind he is only 26. Maybe he can get better.
This last quote is from CBS on Frenchy…
“Francoeur has had big years before, but he was in the Braves’ doghouse before a July trade to the Mets that revived his run-producing potential. He hit .311 with 10 homers, 41 RBI and 40 runs in 75 games with the Mets — mostly with the torn thumb ligament. Frenchy looks like a classic case of change of scenery, because the spacious CitiField had adverse effects on everyone else with the Mets last year. The word is, a big reason they signed Bay, is right-handed pull hitters play in this park, so Frenchy could be due for a career year. It might also surprise you he is merely 26, ready to start his prime. Francoeur is a breakout candidate numbers-wise.
Like you said it’s a small sample size, in the same sample size Tatis and Murphy both slugged .500 too, are we going to say they’re both break out candidates? Or at least Murphy?
Plus is he actually going to bat 7th? What would the line up be?
Also the idea that obp and driving in runs are too separate skill sets is false. The only thing that can prevent you from scoring runs is outs, if he goes up there with the apparent current mentality he has he’ll probably cost us more runs making outs swinging at pitches in the dirt/above his head than he will create them.
Murphy had the lowest slugging % in the league last year at 1st besides Loney. Sure it was a small sample size on the Mets, but he has proven in the past that he is very capable of hitting 25+ homers.
In an ideal situation in which we had a real 1B Francouer would bat 7th.
Reyes
Castillo (ugh)
Wright
Beltran
Bay
Real 1B
Francouer
Omir (ughhhhhhhhhh)
Pelfrey
In the ideal situation he wouldn’t be in the line up or on the team and we’d have a real right fielder of F-mart would destroy spring training and either make the team out of spring training or be called up early in the season and stick. The situation we’re in now Pagans likely batting 2nd so Castillo is probably near the bottom, and Beltrans out, so Frenchy’s going to be between 5th and 6th,
The fact that you won’t give Francouer a chance to prove himself in 2010 while not seemingly overly concerned with the teams results in 2010 is baffling to me. A guy that batted .311 last year for us, has 88 career homers and has just turned 26 shouldn’t be on our team?
Without Beltran I’d bat Reyes 3rd
Pagan
Castillo
Reyes
Wright
Bay
Jacobs
Francouer
Barajas
Ideally Castillo would be gone and/or replaced, but im being realistic. I’d ship Murphy out if they got an offer for anyone who can pitch and I’d sign Barajas.
I never said I wouldn’t give him a chance on this 2010 team, I said in an ideal situation he wouldn’t be on the team because in an ideal situation this team would be good enough to compete. And I never said he doesn’t deserve a chance on the current team, I said Murphy wasn’t anymore of a hole than Frenchy is at this point, and Jacobs certainly doesn’t deserve the job over Murphy he’s proved he shouldn’t be a major leaguer already. But anyway more than likely by the end of this season Murphy and Frenchy will end up with similar ops.
They might have similar OPS, but you value OBP wayyyyyy more then I do. Were you oppposed to Bengie Molina becuase of the low OBP?
I also disagree with you saying this team is not good enough to compete. The core guys are good enough, and there is still time to upgrade the roster. The need Beltran back ASAP and need to remain healthy. Part of me wants to see them start 0-8 so they fire Manuel, but that is a topic for a different day. haha don’t get me started on Manuel.
And I would hope if they are in it around the trade deadline they would go out and try to get another starter
yes I was definitely oposed to Molina because of obp, and because he’s generally not a very strong catcher and at this point he’s really not a very useful player. It seems more like you don’t value obp enough, like I said in another post the only thing that can stop an offense from scoring is outs, the more outs you make the fewer runs you score and the lower your obp is the fewer outs you make. Frenchy only had all those rbis because guys like Chipper Jones were getting on base in front of him, I imagine if you looked at the number of times he came up with runners on in those years he’d be near the top of the league. He didn’t get rbis because he has some magical rbi skill, he just got lucky he was on a team surrounded by much better offensive players than him.
The OBP thing is all fine to a certain extent, but at some point in order to score runs you have to get a hit. The Mets had a higher OBP as a team last year then the Phillies. How did that work out? The Phillies were #1 in the league in runs and scored 149 more runs then the Mets. I think its fair to not put much stock into OBP of the bottom few guys of an NL lineup. Thats why Castillo has to either bat leadoff or 2nd on the Mets or he he will have no value whatsover. He is not going to be driving in runs with extra base hits and his walks would really do nothing but clear the pitcher most times. Castillo batting 2nd and drawing walks helps setup RBI opportunities for Wright, Beltran, Bay.
The Phillies also play in a band box where offense is inflated where as the mets play in the exact opposite. I imagine that has a lot more to do with the run scoring discrepancy than anything else. Also the difference was one point which is virtually insignificant so that’s not even a good example for comparison. Anyway the dodgers scored fewer runs for the same reason, the stadium, despite having a higher obp so that example doesn’t prove anything. In fact if you look at the lists side by side, run scored and obp, save for the few teams that are outliers because of their stadiums the lists are close to identical.
And Castillo can either bat second or first or have no value because he’s a completely one dimensional player and an extreme example. Actually he’d probably be most useful batting 9th because the idea that all you need in your top spots is obp is overblown, it’s better to have all around hitters who get on base at an above average rate and at least slug at an average rate.
also just for another example of the stadium affect, despite having probably the worst defensive team in the league last year, and philly having one of the best, and having a much much much worse pitching staff we only ended up giving up about 40 more runs than them, which is a lot but not when you actually take how much worse our defense and pitching was then theres.
Remember they play half their games on the road and when the Mets played the Phillies more Homers were hit at Citifield.
The Phillies pitching staff was an absolute joke until they got Cliff Lee, made J.A. Happ a permanent member of the rotation and signed Pedro.
Their bullpen was a disaster the whole season. Hamels had a terrible year. Until they got Lee and Pedro, our rotation was probably better just becuase of Santana.
Mike Jacobs sucks… You need to pay your mother back