Josh Alper calls Omar Minaya “the Optimism Killer” at NBC New York today because of Minaya’s recent suggestion that Daniel Murphy and Mike Jacobs are in an “open competition” for the first-base job, something I’ve weighed in on here already. Alper writes:
If you’re willing to put a scrub like Jacobs into an open competition with a player that you already know, why wouldn’t you go after a halfway decent player? Or, getting really crazy here, signing a righty bat to platoon with Murphy so that you limit Murphy’s downside and make the Mets a better team? We won’t even bother wondering why there’s no such challenge provided for Luis Castillo at second base.
Alper’s post is a good read and he makes some good points. And I’ve seen similar around the blogosphere today — a general sense of worry that Mike Jacobs, Mike .297 on-base percentage Jacobs, could beat out Daniel Murphy, Daniel means-business Murphy, and end up the Mets’ starting first baseman.
I know Adam Rubin’s excellent blog post today sparked some of the talk, too. And Jacobs is appearing on Mets Hot Stove on Thursday, so that should fire up Twitter once more.
Still, I’m guessing it’s nothing. I’ve never met Jacobs, but I’m betting he’s a nice guy and a good quote, and so writers and show producers without much other material to work with are lining him up for conversations. So we’re hearing his name a lot.
And Rubin’s story is a great one. The bit about Pedro throwing a fit when the Mets tried to send Jacobs down after a pinch-hit home run, with Dae-Sung Koo as the villain? It’s a must read. Of course Rubin wants to recount that story. He’s a writer — he is paid to tell stories.
Maybe I’m in denial, of course. Maybe this is really some sort of nefarious plot by the Mets’ uber-savvy media-relations department to implant Mike Jacobs into our unsuspecting minds, forcing us to fall in love with him in spite of his offensive and defensive shortcomings.
Color me skeptical. Smart money says Murphy’s still the guy and Minaya used the term “open competition” out of some combination of wanting to light a fire under Murphy, not wanting to denigrate Jacobs — who has been a Major League regular for most of his career — and not knowing what else to say.
That’s what I’m hoping, at least.
Of course, if you believe the “Mets are foisting Mike Jacobs upon us” conspiracy, you also recognize that I work at SNY and thus am part of the machine. And in that case, clearly this post is just misdirection meant to distract you from the Mets’ actual genius master plan to load up their lineup with guys with tiny on-base percentages and no range.
Tedquarters 
Why not say he’s in open competition with someone like Carter though, if it was just to light a fire? He at least possibly has some upside, and considered what we traded, the chance at 2 first rounders, for him you’d think they’d want to be hyping him up some. Although I don’t know the context in which Omar was making the quote so I suppose it could have been a response to a question framed in a Murphy/Jacobs way.
Given the general portrayal of Jacobs as a poor player (which I agree with) this is going to be a nuanced response but other than your reasonable suggestion that it was a response to a question framed in a “Jacobs/Murphy” context, one other subtle possibility is that Jacobs is at least a guy one can refer to as a “major league player” (however flawed).
It’s my opinion that if one’s goal is to light a fire under Murphy one can better do so by invoking Jacobs as his competition rather than a 27 year old career minor leaguer.
One thing I do like about SNY is that they sure don’t shy away from calling out the team. They’ve done a good job being objective about the Mets and really calling out the Mets for their shortcomings.