d'Arnaud or Navarro, who would you rather have for this season?

[billjc33]

The real question is would you rather have a tandem of TDA/Navarro and Syndergaard in AAA then Dickey and Thole in the bigs. Pretty easy answer.

[TheHurl]

If you are going to ask a dumb question like this in which you answered it yourself, why not put it in the Around Baseball Thread?

 

meh, I think this was an okay thread. I really think he expected more from the casuals who love Clutch Navarro. He probably should have provided a little less info as a few may have not jumped on it and may have last looked at TdA's numbers as little as 3 weeks ago as there was a huge difference between them then.

 

The word in New York is that Travis is unlikely to stick at catcher and they are considering a move to LF due to his history of concussions. His numbers as a left fielder if they do move him to LF would have to see an adjustment. How good is his offense if LF becomes his position?

 

I think this is slightly lip service as concussions are such a hot button issue. It's also the Kevin Placwecki factor as he was tearing up AA and started to show some of that again in Vegas. They even said this was probably only if the concussions continued and it wouldn't be for a few years. It does speak as to what they think TdA's bat can be though. I've always been huge on TdA and his bat and getting out of Toronto's swing at the first pitch, pull happy mentality seems to have helped him with his batted ball numbers. From 2010 through 2012 there was this push for him to be a power hitter and over 3 levels in the minors he struck out over 20% of the time. This year, even with his early season struggles, he's striking out 15% of the time in the majors (11% since his recall).

 

I'd also like to point out the recognition of the Mets coaching staff/front office into the TdA's problems with passed balls and even blocking balls is actually his reliance on framing. He's trying to frame a little too long and missing pitches as a result. Take a look at the Wall Street Journal article (yes even New York's financial paper prints more advanced articles than our more sport related ones).

 

http://online.wsj.com/articles/n-y-mets-defense-a-flaw-in-travis-darnauds-game-1409790675

 

That skill sometimes leads to mistakes. Mets bench coach Bob Geren, a former major-league catcher, estimated that as many as a third of d'Arnaud's passed balls have come as a result of an overreliance on framing the pitch. Instead of simply catching the ball, d'Arnaud has tried to pull it back toward the strike zone a split-second too quickly, only to have it glance off his glove.

 

"Sometimes it's so close of a pitch that I'll try to do extra to try to really get it, instead of just, 'Oh, it's OK, we'll take this ball so the runners don't advance,'" d'Arnaud said.

 

The Mets understand the significance of pitch framing and the role it plays in helping their pitching staff. They value it so much, in fact, that Geren said "you could make the argument that it's worth the gamble if he misses two or three here or there to get the extra strikes."

[Governator]

Option 3: Yan Gomes