{"id":2450,"date":"2015-12-08T11:47:49","date_gmt":"2015-12-08T17:47:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/?p=2450"},"modified":"2015-12-08T11:47:49","modified_gmt":"2015-12-08T17:47:49","slug":"coach-creep-and-how-to-stop-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/?p=2450","title":{"rendered":"Coach Creep, and How to Stop It"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"18\"<\/a>Great points turning up in\u00a0the comments in the below post from my furry alien friend Alf Tanner regarding potential numerical maneuverings in light of the Mets’ pursuit of Ben Zobrist, and the departure of bench coach Bob Geren, who announced last week he was taking a similar role with the Dodgers.<\/p>\n

In both instances, it raises the issue of the\u00a0increasing incidence in Metland\u00a0of what I’m calling\u00a0Coach Creep \u2014 the occupation of uni numbers that ought to belong to players among non-players.<\/p>\n

\"15\"<\/a>Geren, you may recall, wore No. 7 during his first season on Terry Collins’ staff in 2014 – a decision that we learned inadvertently blocked the preferred jersey of\u00a0young catcher Travis d’Arnaud upon his promotion later that year. d’Arnaud, as we know, was issued 15 instead until arranging a swap with Geren before the 2015 season.<\/p>\n

\"30\"<\/a>Only that, as Alf correctly points out, may only have kicked the can. Michael Conforto was wearing 15 at Class AA Binghamton when he was recalled in July only to find\u00a0the same coach squatting on that\u00a0number so Conforto\u00a0took the awkward 30\u00a0instead. Conforto, as we know, is no Josh Thole and is on Switch Watch as we approach Spring Training.<\/p>\n

\"6\"<\/a>It’s not just Geren, neither. Darrell Ceciliani and Eric Young Jr. were each assigned No. 1 last year — despite being obvious No. 6’s — in part because assistant<\/em> hitting coach Pat Roessler took that number. Come on, Pat. Leave the single digits for the guys on the field. Why is\u00a0Dario Alvarez wearing 68 and Germen Gonzalez taking 71? In part, it’s because Ricky Bones and Tom Goodwin occupy 25 and 26, respectively.<\/p>\n

And now that the Mets are in pursuit of a noted No. 18 in Ben Zobrist, another coach, Tim Teufel, is blocking the way.<\/p>\n

As Alf says, let’s allow the manager to choose his own outfit: Terry Collins for the record selected 10 as a tribute to Jim Leland, doncha know, and get the coaches back where they belong, dutifully occupying the 50s.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Great points turning up in\u00a0the comments in the below post from my furry alien friend Alf Tanner regarding potential numerical maneuverings in light of the Mets’ pursuit of Ben Zobrist, and the departure of bench coach Bob Geren, who announced last week he was taking a similar role with the Dodgers. In both instances, it … Continue reading “Coach Creep, and How to Stop It”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[387],"tags":[581,654,695,684,568,612],"class_list":["post-2450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uni-controversies","tag-bob-geren","tag-dario-alvarez","tag-michael-conforto","tag-pat-roessler","tag-tim-teufel","tag-travis-darnaud"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2450"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2451,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450\/revisions\/2451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbtn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}