Filed under: New York, Mets, NL East
It's much too early to make any judgments about
Jerry Manuel's tenure as Mets manager but I think it's safe to say this, he's an interesting fella. From his
gangsta threats against
Jose Reyes to his
fertilizer comments, he's proven himself a much less predictable listen than his predecessor. He's not showing any signs of slowing down, either.
While discussing his desire to see more Met runners in motion, Manuel made a strange comment concerning
Carlos Beltran. Beltran has an excellent 82% success rate on stolen base attempts but Manuel would like to
see it go down.
"I would hope Carlos will run into a couple outs just to get that percentage thing out of his mind. That's going to be addressed because that's an important part in what we're going to do going forward."
Manuel's general point about making things happen on the bases has some merit. Given the way the Mets are hitting these days, taking a few chances could be fruitful. I don't see where Beltran picking his spots judiciously is such a bad thing, though.
Stolen bases are helpful when they come with a minimum of outs given away and Beltran seems to do a good job of knowing when his chances at success are highest. Assuming some batters following Beltran start hitting a little better, it would be a bad move for Beltran to give himself up.
(H/T
Baseball Musings)
Permalink Email this Comments