Thursday, February 2, 2012

Mets Bench Bat Options

The Mets continue their ongoing search for a bench bat, this morning Metsblog mentioned Kosuke Fukodome, Raul Ibanez, Johnny Damon and Rick Ankiel as possible options. We already looked at Ankiel here and pretty much established he isn't worth it. Frankly I would feel great about either Ibanez or Damon. They are both very old (39 and 38 respectively) but putting up good numbers for their age and great numbers for bench guys.

Damon put up .261/.326/.418 in 2011 and is projected to give similar production in 2012. He has a great reputation as a clubhouse guy and would probably be a good influence on the younger guys on the team and provide some leadership on a team that often lacks it.

Ibanez looks even better, his slash in 2011 was .245/.289/.419, which is low for him but good for his age. However his Bill James projection for 2012 is .260/.325/.431 with 17 homeruns (based on 505 PA). Frankly these are about as good numbers as you can ask for from a bench guy. To be honest even at his age, I might start him over Bay. They had fairly similar numbers last year except Ibanez outpaced Bay in SLG and HR. Their 2012 projections are similar but frankly I have more faith in Raul producing than Jay Bay.

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