The Mets issued an official statement on Starling Marte’s fractured right middle finger, saying that a recent CT scan “showed improved healing,” and that the center fielder “will continue baseball activities as tolerated.” This counts as good news, considering that Marte had to halt his first try at baseball activities last week, due to continued discomfort in his finger. Marte hasn’t played since his finger was hit by a Mitch Keller pitch on September 6.
It remains to be seen if Marte will be able to make it back before the end of the regular season, let alone by his stated target date of Friday, when New York begins a critical three-game series with the Braves that could decide the NL East. The Mets have continued to play well (a 12-6 record) since Marte was last in the lineup, but obviously having the All-Star center fielder back will boost the Mets’ chances of both capturing the division and potentially winning the World Series. There hasn’t yet been any indication that Marte could miss any postseason action, but he’ll have less time to heal if the Mets have to settle for a wild card, and don’t receive a first-round bye.
More from the National League…
- The Cardinals announced that Miles Mikolas and Jose Quintana will start on Tuesday and Wednesday in the team’s two-game series against the Brewers. A sweep would clinch the NL Central for St. Louis, who have a commanding 6.5-game lead over Milwaukee but naturally want to get the division fully settled before looking ahead to the playoffs. Since the Cardinals are a virtual lock to be the NL’s third seed, they’ll have to play in the wild card round, thus giving manager Oliver Marmol a lot to consider about how to best line up his postseason rotation. Basically, everything is still to be decided, Marmol told Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and other reporters, including the possibility that the Cards might opt with something close to a standard five-man rotation (assuming they advance past the wild card series, of course). The recent of struggles of Jordan Montgomery and Adam Wainwright — who is also battling a “dead arm” — have also added to the discussion, and St. Louis also has two remaining off-days in the regular season schedule.
- In other Cardinals updates, Marmol told MLB.com’s John Denton and other reporters that it may be possible for both Jordan Hicks and Tyler O’Neill to be activated from the injured list before the postseason. Hicks hasn’t pitched since September 14 due to neck spasms and fatigue in his right arm, but he is set to begin a throwing program on Tuesday. O’Neill will also begin a running program on Wednesday, as he trise to make it back from a hamstring strain that sent him to the 10-day IL on September 17.
- Oneil Cruz made two errors in the Pirates’ 8-3 loss to the Cubs today, giving the rookie shortstop 15 errors over 73 games this season at the position. It made for some unfortunate timing for Pirates GM Ben Cherington, who said in his pregame radio interview (hat tip to Kevin Gorman of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review) that “I see no reason why [Cruz] can’t play shortstop at high level at the major-league level. I believe he can do it. Time will tell. And he’ll tell us.” Evaluators have long been skeptical about whether or not the 6’7″ Cruz will eventually need a position change, though for the rebuilding Pirates, there really isn’t any reason for the team to not give Cruz a long look at shortstop before deciding if a change is necessary. Cruz has also played in a handful of games in left field in the minors (and one game in left field in the bigs), which seems like it would be his eventual fallback position if he can’t stick at shortstop.
Waiting for slider with cheese to say the Cards miss the playoffs. How did that prediction that Pujols wouldn’t make it to 700 pan out??
It worked out fine. He’s still at 698 since I don’t count the two shams that Apple directly paid to Heaney and Bickford.
The cardinals making the playoff is great. Can’t wait to see them swept out after two games. It will hurt those people even worse
Research has shown that comments that include my name have a 73% increase in viewership so mute with caution.
Apple directly paid? LOL you’re a clueless conspiracy theorist. Great, just what this country needs. More nut jobs.
The good news is he’s one of the current group of nut jobs, not a new one. He’s just found a new topic.
Thank you for rattling her cage. Once she commented it made it easier to “mute” her.
Would you expect any less from a guy whose name takes inspiration from White Castle?
White castles are located in ghettos and their target audience includes people who buy things with a palm full of coins, or a secured credit card . There isn’t one within 500 miles of me.
Marte is an All Star right fielder.
Cal Ripken Jr. and Ozzie Smith each had 5 seasons with 20 or more Errors in their careers and they are considered two of the greatest Shortstops ever. There is no reason to believe Cruz won’t mature and improve at the position (though the 6’7 Cruz throwing to the 5’10 Chavis at 1B could become problematic on bang-bang plays). Its still way to early to judge
He’s on pace to have more than 30. And Ozzie, like Rey Ordonez, had more errors cause they got to everything and tended to have acrobatic plays that led to errors on balls no one else would’ve gotten to. Ripken was eventually moved to third and he was never considered a great shortstop defensively. He was good for a while but he’s an all time great for what he did at the plate.
Neither Ripken or Smith struck out at a record pace and both could hit left handed pitching
Your comparison is moot
He has 15 in 73 games, not 15 in 153 games. Not saying he won’t get better but definitely not a great comparison.
Ripken obviously hurt his team with his foolish chase for glory. Terrific SS, but fell off badly after winning the MVP.
A real shame. He needed a mgr with the guts to sit him down 10 games a season. Johnny Oates was _not_ The Man.
Ripken’s streak was the only reason to watch the Orioles for much of the late 80’s/early 90’s even winning the AL MVP in 1991. Ripken was the only SS in Baseball averaging 20+ HR’s and 80+ RBI’s per season in those days, nothing he did hurt the Orioles in anyway
Not to mention the dark past that Cruz carries around with him each day. His attempts to keep his disturbing actions away from public knowledge eat away at him and reduce his ability to focus on the task at hand. Very sick.
Care to expand on that?
I’m a little taken aback my your posting. Cruz was involved in a crash that killed three people. He was driving after curfew and while tabloids indicted that alcohol was involved, that was never verified by authorities
Your usage of the terms “dark past,” “disturbing actions” and “very sick” can only make one wonder if you have more detailed info, have an axe to grind, or are just engaging in character assassination
The details seem to indicate that Cruz was not at fault
Pardon my big, clumsy fingers. Yes. Agreed. And exactly my reason for wondering about the original posting
Cruz should be given a shot at shortstop. His arm is a canon. If it doesn’t work at short I could see a corner outfield position or even 3rd base in his future. Many players take a little time to figure it out and improve and with as many holes as the Pirates have they should give him a little time and a lot of instruction to help him develop.
6’7” shortstops basically never work out. It’s worked what? Once?
With Cruz’ speed and arm RF may be the best place for him. It may be that Bae could get some work at SS for the Pirates. It looks like they have some pitching coming.
Cruz needs to be an outfielder at his size. More importantly he’s a .215 hitter with a .273 OBP. He has pop but if those numbers stay he won’t be playing any position for any team.
Cruz has loads of talent, but he’s not a shortstop. Maybe outfield or corner infield?
My wife (a Yankees fan) humored me with a few innings of the Mets game a while back. She watched Cruz – not knowing him at all – and critiqued his sloppy play in the field. She was shocked when I told her he was a top prospect with a serious future. She also was surprised the next morning when I shared he hit a two-run bomb later that game (good guys still won though).
If your wife is a Yankees fan then (depending on her age) she was spoiled by having Jeter at SS for 2 decades. Its not easy watching a lot of young players when they first come up because they are not really ready for the big leagues (Cruz only played 61 games AAA), its like watching all of the different Shortstops the Red Sox had between Nomar and Bogaerts; sometimes decent, mostly tough to watch.
From my perspective as a Mets fan, he’s not cut out for it. Watched him flat out miss catches that should have been made. He’s young and raw, no doubt, but let him grow into third, right or left.
Lol Ozzie Smith made 25 errors his rookie year. The dude won 13 gold gloves. But yeah, judge him off of the 3 games you watched him play vs the Mets
Wrote about it elsewhere…..
Cruz has no feel at all for the position, nor a mental understanding of the game to succeed at it.
MLB is not rotisserie league. It’s played on a field.
Based on Cherington’s comments and the way the Pirates have brought along [sic] Cruz, as well as things I see in the young pitchers, I’m beginning to reevaluate my belief that he’s building a power in Pittsburgh.
Samuel-I doubt that the Pirates will ever be considered a “power”.The fundamentalas are not there in too many players.
I do think that they have some talented young players that with the proper training can develop into good major league players.
Small market teams will never be a “ power” in MLB unless they get very very lucky for a short period of time.
Mendoza Line 215;
Watch the Orioles and Guardians.
Orioles are not a small market team.
Guardians are,and have been well run for a number of years.The other seven small market teams have been well run this century for differing periods of time,some longer than others.
And while the Rays(2),Royals(2),and Guardians( née Indians) (3),have won pennants in the last 30 years,only one has won a WS.
That doesn’t mean that the Guardians won’t become a power,but the chances are very small indeed based on the resources that they will spend on the roster.Teams need to have at least two to three superstars and a very deep team to even win one WS.
The last power team was the Yankees at the end of the century,although the Red Sox and maybe Cardinals have won enough to be considered general powers this century.
A power to me means multiple WS wins over a relatively short period of time.
I think that it will be very difficult for the Guardians to do that.
Welcome to the club, Samuel. A lot of hype to go with a plethora of pierogi races and fireworks nights
Some minor league followers have said Cruz has been resistant to a position switch
And as for the other guys, if “being competitive” in a couple years means hoping to hit .500, yeah, I agree
And as for young pitchers, perhaps when they learn that dead red fastballs get drilled at this level and that yes, off speed and spin pitches really provide a good mix, then they might be ok
Simply put, there is no learning going on here
Mendoza Line 215;
1. The Orioles are truly a small market team.
2. According to your definition of a MLB “power team” the current Dodgers and Astros do not qualify – in fact, no team does.
To me any team that can be a sustainable contender for 5 years is a power team.
tiredolddude;
The verdict is far from in. Takes a while for a coaching staff to coordinate and young players to make adjustments. But so far what I’ve seen of the players coming up is not what I saw of the young Orioles and Guardians coming up the past few years – they were primarily doing the right things but the results weren’t initially there. (Am also wondering where the veteran team leadership is coming from.)
Have never been sold on Mr. Shelton. He’s a Mark Shapiro guy. Did the circuit from the Indians to the Rays to the Twins now to the Pirates – all working with Shapiro guys (Huntington was a Shapiro guy).
It’s not that they’re not winning, nor that the manager is making moves that don’t win games. It’s that the team seems to be developing bad fundamental habits that aren’t being corrected. Teams in a small market cannot buy a few star players that make $30m-plus a year. Their players have to do “the little things” most games to have a chance to win.
Samuel-Not sure how being aMark Shapiro guy would cast a bad spell on anyone.
NH did at least one thing that led to state of the art,and was a pretty good GM until the last few years of his tenure.
The Guardians( née Indians) have been a good representative of small market teams for a number of years.
It is that they are not winning,that Shelton makes dumb moves,and that they lack fundamentals.
They are all trademarks of a bad team.
#1 is incorrect.They are Rays,As,Twins,Guardians,Royals,Pirates,Brewers,and Reds.
Your’s may be a better definition if shared by most readers.
Perhaps mine should be more like a great team..
But yours does not include the highest complement of winning multiple World Series which in my estimation is the ultimate goal.
The proverbial icing on the cake moment that determined Huntington’s fate was the lopsided trade that brought Chris Archer over from Tampa
That trade did not fit the protocol of trading near free agents for young major league ready players.
It did not seem to fit NH’s pattern so some say it happened because the Pirates had another short window to compete and they were going for a #2 to complete their starting rotation.There could have been pressure from above to do so.
The thing that determined his fate was drafting guys like Cole Tucker number one and then not developing any of the prospects that he did have.That is essential to do for the small market teams.
2014, the draft class when they chose Cole Tucker with their #1 pick wasn’t a strong class anyway, but I agree with your logic, Mendoza
Mendoza Line 215;
If you look at the Shapiro family tree, they’re respected. However, there’s really no one that has gone on to do big things….yet. The current Jays team – for which he has a large budget – is the best thing any one of them has done.
As for Cleveland – it turned things around when 1) Shapiro and Antonetti got Francona and listened to him; and 2) acquired Trevor Bauer and began to look into some of the alternative theories regarding pitching as well as some of the people teaching them…along with the hiring of Mickey Callaway from the Rays as pitching coach. From there the organization became defense and pitching oriented, slowly worked on modifying their development and scouting practices, and became the superior MLB organization we now follow.
Before Shapiro went to Toronto, he was moved from Baseball Ops to the Business side for a year or two. You don’t have to believe me – ask any fan that was following the team during that period.
Samuel- I don’t have to do much of anything.However,I am old enough to generally figure out if someone knows what he is talking about and in this case I do believe you.
Cruz should be a right fielder without a doubt.He is not fundamentally sound and probably never will be.The Pirates are much better served with Newman at shortstop.The problem for them though would be that they have two young outfielders with some promise in Michell and Suwinski.They both need to improve but were rookies this year who had good minor league years.
The other problem is that Cruz thinks that he is a shortstop and does not want to move.They have coddled him though and it will get tougher and tougher to change his mind.
His arm would be the best in right field for the Pirates since Roberto Clemente.
Cruz also needs to pickup the spin on the ball immediately when batting so he does not swing at sliders in the dirt or take fastballs straight down the middle for strike three.He does have tremendous power,the most for a Pirate since Willie Stargell,so it is worth giving him leeway for a while.
How about that Barry Bonds guy the Pirates had, his power was pretty good
Barry never hit more than 34 as a Pirate.
and Bonds walked far more than he struck out
Is 34 home runs in the early 90’s not enough?? It was tied for 5th in the MLB.
Not enough to be a hands down better power hitter than the potential of Cruz, which was what was presented.
My- I compared Cruz’s potential to Willie Stargell’s lifelong stats.
Stargell was a much bigger and stronger man than Barry Bonds at that stage of Bond’s careerIt is obvious from seeing photos of both of them.
I did not say that Bonds was a not a good power hitter with the Pirates.
But he was clearly not in Stargell’s league.
Wampum- Bonds developed his big time power later with the Giants after doing millions of pushups,so many that his head swelled with pride of his strength.
Correction
Bonds developed his power as a Giant due to taking daily doses of steroids
Barry was a hall of fame player long before he took steroids. He left the Pirates at age 27 already accumulating over 50 WAR and averaging 146 OPS+, leading the league 3X including his final season with the Pirates at an amazing 204. Take pot shots if you will for his stupid decision making as a Giant, but make no mistake, Barry Bonds was an all time great for the Pirates and MLB.
Wampum- I don’t think that anyone said he was not.
But,unfortunately,the pot shots as you call them are justified.
Your belief that Bonds was not taking steroids prior to his age 28 season is touching, to say the least.
Bonds, a Gold Glove outfielder with the Bucs couldn’t throw out the slowest player in baseball, Sid Bream during the playoffs that eliminated Pittsburgh
Jack-Bonds did not have any distinct body size and strength changes before he left the Pirates.
It seems to me that that is one of the reasons to take steroids.
Well stated, MendozaLine. I’ll agree that he has tremendous upside at the present time, but so did Gregory Polanco. In fact, he often reminds me of Polanco in terms of the hype and occasional power he shows which seems to awe many fans. His defensive woes, lack of plate discipline and ignorance about pitcher strategies and counts that are in his favor or the pitcher’s are kind of shocking
But so far, he’s symbolic of this crew of kids who’ve been called up. Upside? Sure, but they have a long way to go before we can envision them as contenders
Marte plays RF, not CF.
Cruz also made a running grab on a ball up the middle that he stuck his glove up to make that literally no other short stop would’ve been able to make… because of his height. No mention of that play in this post. As Cherington also said in the pregame show that which I listened to “Errors can be fixed with intentional practice and hard work”. But plays like the one I mention he made can’t be fixed by making other short stops grow. At least tell the whole story in these posts.
Cbee-Yes,but what BC did not say is why this has not occurred while Cruz was a minor leaguer.He should be a lot more polished now once he made the major leagues.There is only so much that coaches can do.It is up to the player to get to that point through repetition.
Shortstops are like closers,you better have a real good (fielding) one if you want to to have a very good team.
if errors could be eliminated it won’t happen under this team’s coaching
there’s a valid reason why the Pirates have one of the worst fielding percentage in baseball
The article would’ve worked better had the writer listed the type of errors committed, like glove v throw, going to the left or right, etc. And then maybe gave some range indications. Certain things get better with age, others don’t.
Joe-A poster pointed out about a month ago that most of his errors were on throws.
Then another one who had watched him a fair amount said that he did not seem to get set to make the throw and hence hurried it to cause the errors.
These writers probably do not have the time to get that far into the weeds so to speak.
I’ve watch him play. He’s lazy. He doesn’t put himself in position to do anything but catch the ball. That doesn’t work in the major leagues, and particularly not at SS. His feet are never set, his shoulders are never in position unless the ball is hit right at him.
His baseball fundamentals and field awareness are even worse than Alec Bohm’s. He want to hits and strut. His future may well be as a DH. With his attitude and play he’s a perfect fit for the White Sox.
A contending team lacking a quality SS needs to trade for Newman. The fact that he’s hitting in the .270’s in the current shift environment is mind boggling. I’d easily take him over half the starting SS’s in MLB.
Samuel- I hope that the Pirates are smart enough to keep Newman.He reminds me a lot of Jordy Mercer.He can play shortstop or second and do a good job.To me he is the perfect #2 hitter.He is fairly sound fundamentally and a good teammate..Give me a sound player over glitz any day of the week.
Samuel – those are all the right reasons at this time he should not be a SS, so many other posts in here just calling out his height and concluding he must move
Bingo
Newman only has 2 years of arbitration left, he’ll be traded by next July
But, but, but…..what about BUZZ? A 6′ 7″ SS creates a lot of buzz. TV people talk about it, radio people talk about it, websites, newspapers, watercooler gossip, etc. The Pirates are trying to sell tickets. Winning games is hard. Creating controversy is easy. No such thing as bad publicity, just bad baseball.
And therein lies the problem.It is the same reason why they signed Hayes too early.It is why these guys are hyped so much before they prove themselves.
As mentioned by Goold already, the Cardinals clinch the division if they win the first game against Milwaukee. They would own the season series tie breaker, thus would win the division.
The Cardinals are 9-8 against Milwaukee, so one win secures the tiebreaker and the division in one go.
I agree with Cherington. You need to keep Cruz on the left side of the diamond. His arm is too good to waste at 2B.
15 errors in 74 games suggest otherwise
What it suggests is a lack of understanding of how runs are kept off the board.
Errors are literally meaningless. Cruz’s problems lie elsewhere, but he may resolve them. Doesn’t mean he’s afflicted with terminal clumsiness. Mike Schmidt led the solar system in errors, early on, but turned his gifts into demonstrable skills and won 10 warranted GGs.
According to research, 8 of his throwing errors resulted in unearned runs, 4 cost the Pirates a win.
Jack- You are the first person let alone poster who has said that “ errors are literally meaningless
An unearned run given up will lose the game the same as an earned run.
Perhaps you mean the total for the first year but it remains to be seen whether he can improve his rate of over 30 per year..According to some posters who have watched him way more than me his fundamentals are flawed and that is not something that can be changed quickly.
DS- Hopefully BC did not mention anything about second base because that would be such a monumental stupidity that would show that he is clueless to even mention it.
If he is moved from shortstop I do not understand why the obvious field position would be to right field to take advantage of his arm.
I do not unspderstand why triplicate postings occur.
In addition, any error committed by a defensive player automatically increases the number of pitches that must be thrown to end an inning and with Shelton’s obsession with pitch counts, that could mean pulling a starter earlier in favor of a Wil Crowe or Eric Stout
I do think Cruz could’ve been a good short stop but it takes him too long to throw the ball in many cases. If he doesn’t take that time though, the throws are wild and with the speed that he throws….
My understanding is that he works hard at it but with the middle infield talent corner OF maybe left with his speed. I’d give him a few reps at 1b as well in practice/spring due to his size and nothing else. I don’t think it will go anywhere but you don’t know unless you try it.
often times when Cruz commits an errant throw it’s because his feet aren’t planted firmly on the ground
they dont want to use him at 1B because of his strong arm, but ideally he could be a decent 1B
Anyone ever want to see one of the many reasons NL East fan bases don’t respect Mets fans, all you need to do is see the clip of them cheering at the behavior of the umpire tonight who called three balks (2 of them BS nitpicking trying to make a personal point). We’re all baseball fans. What we saw from that umpire is unacceptable and should never be cheered on, even if it helps your team. I’d be surprised if there isn’t a disciplinary action taken against that umpire. Ridiculous and embarrassing to our game. Let him go ref NBA games or judge boxing matches for Don King. That’s where he belongs.
Any Mets fans that were listening to the SNY broadcast, I’d love to know if Ron Darling had any opinion about it. Is he loyal to pitchers, the game or Mets Hyperbole? Deep down, I know that had to bother Darling.
Blevins, not Darling
What did Blevins say about it? I’m curious because this is more about baseball than any one game…as we see with so many baseball shows talking about it since it happened.
I seriously hope that this isn’t something that will be allowed to become acceptable in our game. This isn’t the NBA or boxing. Let them have the officials affect the results of games in those two sports – not our beloved baseball.
Blevins is a homer, to be sure, but he did a good job simply explaining why the balks were called, and didn’t root for the calls.
If anything he and Gary Cohen would have preferred no balks called, explaining that umps don’t typically call balks when a pitcher generally adheres to balk rules and keeps pitching w the same motion pitch after pitch, game after game, as was the case.
Fwiw, Cohen, Darling, and Hernandez are known for being less prone to rooting for the Mets than other announcers root for their home teams, to the degree that it’s a point of contention among Mets players.
A not unlikely case: Marte doesn’t come back at all, or if he does he can’t hit a lick.
Naquin was a decent pickup. Salary, cash, but no talent for a tolerable 4th OFer on a team that was overdue to have one of its old, fragile OFers vanish as of the postseason. That’s what rich teams should be doing, not dealing four useful or promising players for a 36 yo platoon DH. The Mets can’t move on soon enough from Alderson and Eppler. Keep them in the organization if you must, to deal with paperwork but without granting them any real decision-making authority.
Jaysus. Wasn’t Cohen’s strength allegedly the assembling of executive talent, but meanwhile the Mets will be going into the offseason with a Wilpon stooge, the Wilpon stooge’s son, and a badly failed GM.
Ghastly stuff.
Meanwhile, shills at the NYPost keep embarrassing themselves, praising Cohen for actually contending with a $285 million payroll and half a billion in salary commitments added after having inherited a 40-win core. Gee.