The Crane Pool Forum

Voting doesn't have to always hurt, and one of those times is NOW!!!! When you vote for the Crane Pool Forum's 2024 Jerry Grote Award for Outstanding Mets Catcher, we are ALL winners!!!!

Normally, you would be invited to vote for up to 10 players, but as only five players received so much as a single pitch from Mets pitchers in an official game, onlly five players are eligible. Ballots with more than five players will be discarded, peed on, dried out in the gutter, burned to a crisp, and laughed at hardily in stories exchanged a future wedding receptions, quinceñeras, and community organizing events.

Here's your blank ballot for you to copy and paste and turn in below:

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)

The following rugged icons qualify for inclusion on your ballot, as each of them has protected a home plate umpire — at one point or another in 2024 — from being critically wounded by a pitch thrown by a Met.

• Francisco Álvarez
• Joe Hudson
• Omar Narváez
• Tomás Nido
• Luis Torrens

Please remember to rank these fine fellows only as catchers. Their offensive and defensive contributions while "(c)" was next to their names on the scoresheet is what we're looking for. Any work as designated hitters, pinch-hitters, pinch-runners, emergency shortstops, botanists, epidemiologists, community organizers, and anti-virus software engineers is worthy of song and story, but we ask that it not feed into your five-player ranking.

1) Francisco Alvarez
2) Luis Torrens
3) Tomás Nido
4) Omar Narváez
5) Joe Hudson

Francisco Alvarez
Luis Torrens
Omar Narváez
Tomás Nido
Joe Hudson

A weak category for this team

According to baseball-reference, the Mets finished 25th among 30 teams in catcher WAR, for whatever that's worth.

1) Francisco Alvarez
2) Luis Torrens
3) Tomás Nido
4) Omar Narváez
5) Joe Hudson

Later

This is great. Maybe we can also create an award for the best third-string catcher when we're done here. If we had an award for the best Mets third baseman of 1971, Bob Aspromonte would've won in a landslide.

Francisco Alvarez
Luis Torrens
Omar Narváez
Tomás Nido
Joe Hudson

batmagadanleadoff wrote: ↑Wed Nov 06, 2024 3:59 pm This is great. Maybe we can also create an award for the best third-string catcher when we're done here. If we had an award for the best Mets third baseman of 1971, Bob Aspromonte would've won in a landslide.

And why isn't this riveting poll being "stickied"?

Benjamin Grimm wrote: ↑Wed Nov 06, 2024 2:01 pm 1) Francisco Alvarez
2) Luis Torrens
3) Tomás Nido
4) Omar Narváez
5) Joe Hudson

I have to go with this, too! I honestly have no recollection of Joe Hudson.

There's not much to remember. But it's good to remember what there is.

I thought Torrens catching 13 out of 28 would-be basestealers (46.4%) might get him a first place vote or two.

1) Francisco Alvarez
2) Luis Torrens
3) Tomás Nido
4) Omar Narváez

Up to 5 right? I can't in good faith rank Hudson if I can't even remember who he is.

No plate appearances as a Met. He caught one half inning, the final three outs of a Mets victory.

That might credit him with a catcher save, if he hadn't come on with a 10-run lead.

But that game and that inning featured two Drew Smith strikeouts, so he gets two putouts — one of which was the last out of the game.