Sunday, April 5, 2009

Gary Sheffield to ride the bench for now

The Mets have a new player in town and his name is Gary Sheffield. The 40 year old will be at Shea Nu today for the Mets when they hold a workout before they fly out to start the season in Cincinnati.

Newsday has some quotes from Jerry Manuel that for now there will be a little schooling for Sheff in playing right field again. The Mets skipper says he will probably not use him in the Red series and he has not committed him to start in the Marlins series. The guy has spent the last 2 years or so just being a DH and has has 30-40 games in right field in the last 3 years. If the Mets plan on using him they should use him before the Mets return home . I would like to see him tackle a normal right field like in Florida before he starts playing in the interesting cavernous confines of the Right Field at Shea Nu/Citi Field.

Plus if he is not getting at bats I can not see him being effective. Of course the Mets might use him as a pinch hitter to start the season. The Mets should also have him face some live pitching.

Sheff so far as been a good solider and has comes to terms on where he stands on the Mets He was quoted as saying "I realize I'm at a point in my career where I realize I'm not the marquee guy to come in here and demand anything - demand a position or anything," He also went on to mention that David Wright was texting him and Doc Gooden was calling him through the day on Friday.

I am not a big fan of this move since Manuel has been a proponent of rewarding guys who perform. Tatis has excelled that way. Yes the Mets could use a righ handed bat but they do not need a defensive liability in right field .Sheff might be a April Story but could be gone by June.

1 comment:

Jobu said...

it's only $400K. A small investment. If it doesn't work, then waive goodbye to Gary. But if it does, he could be that right handed thumper we have needed for a while. If a pitcher makes a mistake and serves up some cheese, Gary will make it into CHEDDAR!!!