On Sunday I was reading MLB Trade Rumors and saw the news that the Mets resigned three players to minor league deals. They resigned Jesus Feliciano, who I wish would get a chance to play in the majors everyday with another team, but I'm thankful to have him as a backup in case of disaster. One of the players the Mets signed was Chris Shelton. Sound familiar?
He was a bit of a wonder kid at the start of the 2006 season. It was his breakout season with the Tigers, and really his only good season in the majors where he hit .276 with 16 homers. However it was the start of the season that made him so notable. In the first 13 games of the season he homered 9 times, and ended with 10 homers in the month of April. During this month he also hit .326 before completely falling apart. The impact of his hot streak was magnified by it being the start of the season, it made him seem like he was always this good. By the end of April his rookie card was one of the best selling baseball cards as the collecting world was trying to grasp “Who is this guy”.
He hasn't played in the majors since a limited stint in 2009. As for the Mets, he really doesn't factor in too much. We have Ike Davis starting at first base and the back up at first is Dan Murphy. After Murphy on the depth chart there is a long list of 1B-OF players the Mets are trying to get into the game, but have no way to due to the bottleneck at those 4 positions, with no clear standouts yet. In essence, Shelton doesn't mean much to the team but it is a really interesting story just to have him, as he is part of a short captivating time in baseball.
