Y2K Mets First-Half Grades -- Hitters

Read 'em and weep, boys and girls.

Brian Schneider
Performance: .240 EQA
Grade: C-. Even after a reasonably hot start to the season, basically what we expected with the bat; nothing that useful, and always needs to be watched carefully against lefties. The defense, though, hasn't been quite as advertised. He's caught 14 of 39 would-be basestealers, which is acceptable but nothing out of the ordinary. All in all, not helping us win.

Carlos Delgado
Performance: .272 EQA
Grade: C. This grade would have been somewhere in the Zulu range a month ago, but Delgado has rebounded after barely breaking the Mendoza line in April. His power showed up again in reasonable amounts in May and June, with SLGs over the .450 mark, and he was extremely hot coming into the All-Star Break, with rates of .367/.448/.673 thus far in July. Once upon a time, he posted numbers like that for an entire season. Sigh. Certainly has shown enough to make us think he can be something other than a massive anchor heading down the stretch, but if he goes cold again, I'll be the first to fire up the ol' torch.

Luis Castillo
Performance: .265 EQA
Grade: C. Is a .365 OBP from a second baseman acceptable? Why, of course it is. When that second baseman appears to be hobbling around like Bilbo Baggins at the end of "The Return of the King," one might even tip his cap to the effort required. Force of will and all that. But in the end, employing a punchless slapper with no future and the knees of a dying quail isn't a winning strategy, and in Castillo, the Mets have a player who isn't pulling his weight. The grade reflects
the fact that he's done everything he can to help the team, but if I never saw him take the field again, it wouldn't worry me a bit.

Jose Reyes
Performance: .298 EQA
Grade: A-. An All-Star in every way except officially, Reyes bounced back from a crappy April to hit .302/.367/.487 through the break, which is officially outstanding. Don't believe me? Why the hell not? Reyes has the second highest VORP among all MLB shortstops behind only Hanley Ramirez, and he's in the Top 10 for all position players. (Sitting at 40.2, just ahead of Matt Holliday and Dan Uggla.) Other than a few defensive yips and a nice little scrap with Keith Hernandez, he's been totally reliable and, with his contract, remains one of the best values in the game. That this is lost on morons such as CBS Sportsline's Scott Miller is regrettable, but not really any skin off my nose. (And, sorry, A-Rod and his .320 EQA are not "Anti All-Star" material. Haha, he's getting a divorce! He's a cancer! These guys are a riot!)

David Wright
Performance: .305 EQA
Grade: B+. Hasn't taken a day off other than when Jerry Manual physically pinned him to the bench, and has been as steady as can be the rest of the time (e.g. all the time.) His overall numbers are down thus far this year, but that's almost entirely attributable to bad luck; his BABIP has fallen from an unsustainable .362 in 2007 to .304 this year, which is lower than you'd expect considering his walk rate is up and his strikeout rate is down. The fundamentals are still golden, and so's Wright.

Carlos Beltran
Performance: .297 EQA
Grade: B. Jeez. I can't really give him any lower than this, and I don't really want to. Among NL centerfielders, only Pittsburgh's Nate McLouth is really hitting better -- maybe Rick Ankiel by a hair -- and neither puts up anything like the defense Beltran does. BP still has him Top 30 overall in VORP, just behind D-Wright, and I think that's probably correct. The guy's played in as many games as Wright, has stolen 15 bases (and been caught only once, natch) ... it's pretty good. We can hope for more, but you can't ask for tons more from a centerfielder who plays every day. See: Posnanski, Joe.

*The guy today who I sense has the Murcer Syndrome is Carlos Beltran. In Beltran’s career — and he’s only 31 now — he has scored 100 runs and driven in 100 six times. He’s on pace to do it again this year. He’s won two Gold Gloves as a centerfielder. He’s perhaps the greatest percentage base stealer in baseball history — he’s tried to steal a base 300 times and been caught just 35, which is just sick. He has scored more runs than Pete Rose at his age, and he hit 41 homers in that crummy hitting ballpark at Shea in ‘06, and of course he put on one of the greatest postseason performances ever in 2004. And people are disappointed in him. I’m not passing judgment here — hell, I’M DISAPPOINTED in him — because Beltran always gives the impression and sense that he could be better, he should be better, why in the heck isn’t he better? And that’s the thing about the Murcer Syndrome. Along the way, you can miss how good he is.

All the same, B.

Moises Alou
Performance: Shattered glass
Grade: F-. Go fuck yourself.

Endy Chavez
Performance: .231 EQA
Grade: D. When you give Endy too much rope, this is what he'll do to you. Not a bad fifth outfielder, not a completely unusable fourth outfielder, but not a starter, no way no how. Also, I still can't get over the fact that he doesn't steal more bases. Only 4 SB? With his speed? That's unbelievable. He must have the instincts of a pigeon-toed sloth. For God's sake, Fernando Tatis has already swiped three bags in wayyyy less playing time. Speaking of which ...

Fernando Tatis
Performance: .268 EQA
Grade: B. A .323 OBP sucks, no way around that, but anything we get from ol' Fernando is found money as far as I can tell, and he's already won a couple of games for us with timely hits. Defensively, he leaves something to be desired, but I've also seen him make a couple of catches that you wouldn't have thought a dead 3B would be able to make. He doesn't look smooth, and he's the opposite of a long-term solution, but what do you want from a Zephyr? I'll take it.

Ryan Church
Performance: .303 EQA
Grade: A-. Leading the team in slugging thus far, he busts his ass out in right, and I feel bad knocking him off any points for his injury when it was the Mets' training staff that let him come back too soon. The pinch-hitting nonsense wasn't his fault; he should have been on the DL, and shouldn't have had a chance to get up there or in the games. The coaching staff and front office combined to cock up this one, and I don't think it's fair to debit him on their account. That said, I don't have the sense he'll be around to do much for the second half, which means we'll see even more of the next guy.

Damion Easley
Performance: .254 EQA
Grade: C-. Ick. Not an everyday player, so what do you expect? He's hitting about what you'd expect a 38-year-old shortstop to hit, I suppose. Not useless, but nothing about him screams "Nicely done!" Nothing about him screams at all, actually. Just a vanilla showing from a nice guy.

Marlon Anderson
Performance: .174 EQA
Grade: F. Fail.

Angel Pagan
Performance: .269 EQA
Grade: C. Not bad, but it doesn't help if you don't stay healthy. Ninety good ABs here and there don't win championships, my friends.

Ramon Castro
Performance: .288 EQA
Grade: C+. Ditto. Love the guy, but if he's not in the lineup, it doesn't matter.

Pitching later in the afternoon ...