The Importance of Bench Depth

After soaring through their first four games, the New York Mets hit a wall. It wasn't because their luck ran out, but rather, David Wright fractured his pinkie -- preventing him from playing another game. More importantly than subtracting Wright and his .583/.647/.833 line so far, it left the Mets with Ronny Cedeno to pick-up the scraps.

While Cedeno has been known as a terrific fielder (6.8 UZR/150 in 1050.3 innings at SS in 2011), his bat is equally as infamous-but in the opposite way. In fact, Cedeno has just been worth 1.3 fWAR over the course of his entire career due to his lackluster lumber. The Mets inability to replace Wright's presence with at least league-average production most certainly played a role in the two subsequent Mets losses. But that begs the question-how important is bench depth?... click here to read the rest of this article.

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