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“He makes consistent contact and doesn’t hurt himself by chasing, but he hasn’t shown much power to date,” Mayo said in his write up. “He’s also struggled a bit defensively at third, so his defensive home is still up in the air.”
The way I understand it, the Mets feel Geren has the necessary experience, systematic approach and dedication to game preparation needed to replace Chip Hale.
Also, I talked to people this weekend who are familiar with Geren’s time in the big leagues, and they all said he is very serious about baseball; he believes in a team having a hierarchy; and that players should know their roles and be disciplined in doing their job. And so, while there are players who this will rub the wrong way (like in certain circumstances in Oakland, it seems), it is consistent with Collins and what the Mets are trying to build.
Also like Collins, they say he has a positive personality (which was not historically the case with other people interviewed for the bench coach job). What’s more, Geren is familiar with New York (having played four seasons with the Yankees in the early 90s). Lastly, he’s said to be a very good catching instructor.
I started writing this last winter, and I kept hearing it again and again this summer: The current Mets front office is more likely to give a lucrative contract to a hitter than to a starting pitcher – and I assume Flood’s research is exactly why, especially when you consider that the team plays in a ‘pitcher’s park.’ However, the theory goes, why compete on the open market for an arm when the average pitcher will perform slightly better in Citi Field because of the park’s dimensions? Instead, it is better to develop pitching in the farm system and sign guys with significant upside (compared to their market value), while spending free-agent dollars on hitting and defense (since the rest of the league tends to overvalue offense). The thing is, according to Flood, long-term deals for pitching is simply a bad investment (no matter what the market and no matter what team you are).
