Countdown to Opening Day: 4

Countdown to Opening Day: 4
March 28th, 2011 by slangon

4 Days.

The starting second sacker for the 1986 Mets, position #4 on your scorecard, was former Mets managerial hopeful, Wally Backman.

Davey Johnson was apparently a big fan of the platoon, and 2nd base was another of those positions that he regularly switched out players. Backman started 92 games at second in 1986. He made the most of his limited playing time, though. He hit .320 in 387 at-bats, mostly out of the 2 hole. He didn’t have a lot of power. He hit 18 doubles, 2 triples and only 1 home run. He drove in 27 runs and scored 67. He also swiped 13 bases.

Tim Teufel was the other main second baseman for the ’86 Mets. I know I’ve been sticking to the Opening Day starters so far, but I already had this card scanned for whatever reason.

Teufel (which means devil in German) started 70 games at 2nd for the Mets that year. He didn’t post the average of Backman, hitting just .247, but he did show a little more pop. He had 20 doubles, 1 triple and 4 homers, drove in 31 and scored 35 times.

For the 2011 squad, it seems like Brad Emaus is the pick, finally. It had been back and forth between Luis Castillo before he was cut, Danny Murphy before he proved he was no better at 2nd than he was in left and other dudes like Justin Turner and Luis Hernandez. It must’ve been pretty stressful on Terry Collins what with all them all stars to choose from.

I don’t really know much about Emaus other than he was a Rule 5 Draft pick and the Mets would’ve had to have given them back to Toronto if he didn’t make the 25 man roster. Castillo is gone finally, Murphy looks to be more a utility/pinch hitter type of guy and I believe both Turner and Hernandez still have minor league options. I don’t mean to denigrate his ability or anything, but I don’t think he earned the Opening Day start so much as he was the “least bad” option. You gotta feel good about being the least bad.

Anyway, I don’t actually own any Brad Emaus cards. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that no one actually owns any of his cards. Instead, here’s a Luis Castillo and Danny Murphy card. Geez. This post is really cobbled together with left over parts and cast off pieces, isn’t it? I guess it’s apropos that it’s about the Mets 2nd base position.

Zing!