Posted by mikemattone on 10:21am, Thursday December 10th 2009
can Minaya sell teams on Castillo’s future value?
Can the recent trade of now Oriole Kevin Millwood...
The Baltimore Orioles acquired Kevin Millwood, as well as $9 million of his contract, from the Texas Rangers yesterday for Chris Ray, a relief pitcher with previous success as a closer and three years of arbitration control left. Why, do you ask, would Baltimore do this? On paper, Millwood gives them an innings eater who can save the O’s from using up too many young arms in the rough AL East, while providing Chris Tillman, Brian Matusz, and the rest of the young pitchers in Baltimore a mentor who can share with them key information on hitters, game preparation, and other important aspects of the game. But looking closer into the deal, and Omar Minaya should take some notes on how the Rangers got rid of Millwood, and why the Orioles were willing to take a chance on him.Millwood is a proven middle of the rotation arm who has constantly been asked to go up against more frontline type starters throughout his career. He does have injury history, but when healthy, is as reliable as they come, posting an ERA of 3.67 in a hitter friendly ballpark in the American League. He won’t wow you with stuff, or dominate with pinpoint location, but he pitches to outs, both through the air and on the ground, and is a great asset to a playoff contender as a number 3 or 4 starter. So why the Orioles? Well, Baltimore thinks they are a year or two away. Millwood could spend the first half of the season giving the O’s quality starts and mentoring the pitchers of the Baltimore Youth Movement, and then can be shopped to a potential playoff contender come July. Using Millwood for 4 months, then acquiring 2 prospects/role players from a team looking to make noise come October is valuable for the Orioles, since this helps them not only develop their staff mentally but get pieces to compliment their future stars by maximizing Millwood’s value. Taking notes, Omar?
give the Mets an idea on how to sell Castillo?
If Kevin Millwood can go to the O’s for Chris Ray and $9 million in relief to Texas, (great move by the way by Jon Daniels to use the cash to get Rich Harden), what says the Mets cannot sell Castillo and, say, $5 million of his remaining $12 million over two years to a team who can fill a void at second base, then spin Castillo either this July or over the winter to a team who values infield defense and feels Castillo can help them make the postseason? Ideally, the Mets would use the Royals interest in Angel Pagan and send them Pagan, Castillo, a young arm and a young bat for Gil Meche and Alberto Callaspo. But what if Minaya can look at San Diego and say either you’re getting rid of Corriea anyway or you can’t afford Chris Young, and give them Castillo, pay half his contract, and throw in a young arm? Or go to Detroit, and rid them of the one year and $12.5 of Jeremy Bonderman for Castillo? Or even Kansas City, where if you take Farnsworth you might be able to get Meche for Castillo, Pagan, and an arm without giving up a young bat? Sell Castillo as a position filler and a mentor to younger players in the infield who can be spun for some prospect depth or role players in July or before 2011. The only difference from the Rangers and Millwood is since Castillo is a two year guy in regards to his contract, you take on more money in return than Texas did.
So, if you were Omar Minaya, what team would you go to to sell Castillo as a valuable rental piece who can be spun to continue to help a team build for the future, a la Kevin Millwood? Do you think it would be impossible to make this sell on Castillo? Fire away with your thoughts.
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Tags: Angel Pagan, Baltimore Orioles, chris ray, chris young, Gil Meche, jeremy bonderman, kevin corriea, Kevin Millwood, kyle farnsworth, Luis Castillo, mlb trades, mlb winter meetings, New York Mets, Omar Minaya, rumor mill, Texas Rangers, trades
This entry was posted on Thursday, December 10th, 2009 at 10:21 am and is filed under Mets, MikeMattone.
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I think castillo will be our starting 2bman in 2010
Way to jump the gun Dirty. LOL, the post is not even published yet.
Screw it I’ll just publish now…showing off the rust getting this thing ready.
Any team that values infield defense would not want the current gimpy version of Castillo. His days as a good fielder are gone.
yeah, if that was the case, there’d be no reason to trade Castillo.
Problem is that pitching always has a premium in July. Castillo I am not sure does.
Yeah, sorry, but Millwood is much, much more valuable than Castillo, on the field and off.
And you are suggesting sending Castillo to teams (SD, Det, KC) who all seem to be shedding, not adding, payroll. OK, maybe not KC, but why on earth would they want Castillo?
KC has two younger, more inexpensive and promising 2B men in Getz and Callaspo.
SD has Everth Cabrera who had a nice year after being a Rule 5er, though he may play SS.
Detroit is obviously shedding salary and getting younger and have a pretty good prospect at 2B in Scott Sizemore whom they’ve said they’re committed to playing.
From everything I’ve been reading, I have to think Omar is actually trying to trade Castillo. So far, it just hasn’t worked out, and/or he considers the ‘asking’ price too high - whether it’s who gets traded along with him or paying X amount of his contract.
i think he is trying trade him but he clearly isn’t desperate to get rid of him
Sorry but completely unrelated topic. What do you guys think of Bedard?
I know he was injured past 2 years, but when healthy he’s a very good pitcher. I hear that he has some attitude issues, but I’m sure Jerry’s gangster personality will work well with him. He was paid $7.75M last year. So something like $5.5M + incentive that he can earn up to $9M. If healthy he’d be a great addition for the team.
he may not be ready by Opening Day.
I would be all in favor of that. I would rather take the risk on Bedard than throw away our budget on Wolf, Piniero or Marquis.
I’ve looking over the list of Rule5
guys drafted today and was surprised
to see Zech Zinicola taken by Th Jays
from The Nats. I am very familiar with him as he’s been our closer,on
and off for a few seasons now. He’s
a former high draft choice by the
Nats who was rushed to AA and sort of
got stuck there,here(With our Harrisburg Senators). The kid throws
hard 94-95MPH with movement but has
no secondary pitch and is very inconsistant. He does have a very live arm though and has always reminded me of Heath Bell when he was
in the minors. I wished we’d have taken him and I’ll be rooting for him to stick with Toronto.
Sigh…the season hasn’t even begun yet and we’ve got injury complications?
Jeff Francoeur’s surgery to repair a torn ligament in his left thumb turned out to be more complex than originally expected, although the outfielder still expects to be ready for spring training. Because Francoeur played with the injury for the final month of the season, the thumb ligament wore down and shriveled, necessitating a transplant from his wrist.
********************
Is this where we all question the great minds of the Mets doctors?
Or just management in general. Why let him play?
That decision was beyond me. We were so far out of it by then, what difference would it have made? All I remember is them saying he wanted to continue playing. Maybe he felt he had something to prove. Well…that kind of backfired on him, didn’t it?
I wonder if we keep leaving these choices up to the player?
Well, Beltran was very adamant on SNY’s first Hot Stove show this off season that it was his decision to try cortisone shots and not go on the DL for his knee. In hindsight, that wasn’t such a good decision…
Millwood was traded with 25% of his salary for a guy with 3 years of arbitration. A one for one deal.
If that’s the blueprint, why the need to add Pagan and a young prospect? Shouldn’t the trade be Castillo + $3M (25% of money due) for one young player?
The problem with Castillo is that he’s a below average defender. At least Millwood is average.
The other problem is who do you replace Castillo with? Lopez had one unsustainable good year and is likely to revert to 07 and 08 performance. Hudson isn’t much of an improvement over Castillo defensively or offensively.
The only player I’d want not that Polanco is gone is Brandon Phillips from the Reds. Problem there is that the Reds don’t seem to be selling yet, maybe in the summer.
I guess if you can trade Castillo and only eat $3-4M remaining on his contract and if you can get a replacement at less than $4M/yr it would work. That’s a lot of ifs, though.
You hit on the problem. The blueprint is made but the house is on shaky foundation. Pitchers are wanted now and in July. Castillo’s are wanted uh…..
I think this problem will be even furthered if we sign Molina.For all the talk of how well he”handles pitchers”,
how negative an effect
will it be to guys like Ollie,Maine and Pelf when baserunners
are stealing like crazy,constantly placing themselves in scpring potion and Molina is allowing lots of PBs??
Doesn’t Omar see what a friggin’disaster that would lead to?
Sorry TRS, if you consider that statement undue criticism of our GM.
Just trying to make sense of what exactly the thought process would be if Molina is
indeed signed.
Should have read”scoring position”
I agree completely with your assessment of the lack of need for Molina. In my opinion the increase in offense does not merit the potential for lack of defense.
Wanny still brings up a good point. We have no idea how good he is at working with pitchers and calling a good game. We just know he is fat, old and can’t throw.
Molina threw out 35% in 2008. He couldn’t have been that much fatter in 2009, could he?
I don’t know. He did give up 7 steals in one game and still gave up a ton of SB the year he did that. I guess it could be arm strength but with 110 SB attempts against him last year it is clear that he is not respected any more. Keep in mind that the Mets and Phillies were 1 and 2 in SB last year and only played the Giants 15 times total. I just have night mares of the Phillies stealing 7 bases a game on him.
Yeah, I’m not saying he’s good anymore. I’m just wondering if he’s as bad as he was.
If the option is to fall back on Santos (30%) then I’m willing to take the additional offense from fatso.
Perhaps the best solution is to take whichever of Barajas or Molina will come cheaper.
Hopefully, Omar is beating the trade drum on this one too.
I agree and think he would trade for a catcher before going 3 years on Molina. In my opinion it should be the same if it takes 2 years too.
One question that CS% does not show is respect of base stealers. I am not sure Santos had that either but they certainly were not attempting as many against him as they did against Molina. That is the most telling stat to me for Molina. 110 SB attempts for a pitching staff that did not have that many base runners. Imagine how many he would give up with our Walkers.
Santos had 50 attempts against in 680 innings.
Molina had 110 against 1042.
In 1042 innings, Santos would have had 76 attempts against at that rate.
Keep in mind there was no “book” of intel on Santos.
I really don’t see what the rush is on Molina. I think he should be considered only after other offensive pieces like LF or 1B have been settled. If the fire power is still lacking after getting LF and 1B, then I could see signing Molina to help offensively. But even with the 2nd tier guys like Cameron, Johnson, or Delgado, Mets should have enough fire power in their lineup. In which case, Molina’s offensive contribution should be less of a factor.
Also, on him calling good games, SF pitching staff were pretty good (based on my very limited view). So Molina has something to do with it. But then you can’t really go wrong with Lincy and Cain in your rotation.
Didn’t Maine and Perez have their best seasons in 2007 with LoDuca throwing out just 23% of baserunners?
Thats a good point but none were coming off the confidence shaking
seasons all 3 I mentioned will be following last season.
Jeez,did I explain that correctly? Plus,did LoDuca giv-up 85SBs??
ANd he gave us a great offensive season.
Will Molina?
He gave up 72 and 99 were tried so not far off and he was not a good hitter in 2007 either: .272 .311 .378 .689
So good comparison Wanny. What we don’t know is if Molina even has the ability to improve those pitchers the way that Loduca did.
dammit. you beat me to it!
Again question remains how much could he help the staff. Based on what we know from Grave’s stats you can’t say that he CLEARLY does but they are also not good enough to say he clearly does not.
There’s a lot of holes in that explanation.
First of all, there’s a disconnect between their offensive performances and how they will affect the pitchers. Anyway, LoDuca hit like crap that season: 272 .311 .378. Molina will do at least that much.
LoDuca didn’t give up 85 SBs. He gave up 72. Not much of a difference there (also keep in mind that Lincecum and Unit are notoriously poor at holding runners).
Further, Oliver Perez had an awful 2006 with a 6.55 ERA (over 6 with both the Mets and the Pirates) which ultimately pushed him out the door in Pittsburgh to the Mets. That should be confidence shaking enough, no?
Maine had a nice half season with the Mets in 2006.
I’m not saying Castillo can’t be traded, but mattone does some bait and switch. He uses the Rangers example where they only eat 25% of the contract and get a young player in return, but then mattone has us taking on salary from Meche, Bonderman, or Farnsworth and giving up Pagan plus another prospect. It’s not the same thing.
I’m not really up for taking someone’s bad salary. I’d rather just keep Castillo and hope he comes back with some new knees. At least with Murphy, Castillo has some help to his left. If it were Delgado at 1B, then we might need to play a 5 man infield.
I would take Meche or Bonderman for him for sure. I would take Farnsworth if we did not have to chip in cash.
Quote from Omar on budget. Seems like the same every year. Mets will spend up to the luxury tax and leave about 8-10 million wiggle room for a potential in season move.
“In Montreal, I can tell you, we had a hard number. But, one of the good things about working in New York is that you do have some wiggle room… Every year I have been here I’ve been given the opportunity to to get better players, whether it was a trade for Johan Santana, or signing Pedro Martinez, Carlos Beltran, and I expect that to happen again. That being said, you want to be able to get a player and feel what you are paying is fair for the quality of that player. I think, at some point in time, we’ll be able to get our players, it just takes a little longer sometimes.”
Great!…That’s all I’m sayin
LOL, Fongy. Feel free to critique Omar all you want. It’s needed in a lot of places. I just think it’s silly to critique him for every move or even non-move and rumored move.
But from this quote I see good and bad. Good is that he is right we always do spend a lot of money and we always get that big player. Bad does that mean that we were really that misguided on Murphy in LF (as I told you I felt all along) and not that it was a money issue?
It’s just more fun for me to knock EVERYTHING he
does
I do wish though he’d have pursued
Millwood.
Seems like The
O’s got him cheap both with how much salary they have to pay and
the so-so pitcher they gave up.
Yeah I don’t know who that so so pitcher would be for us so I can’t comment.
Perhaps Omar tried and the Rangers liked the O’s prospect more or the Mets were not willing to take on 9 million? I guess their thought is that at this point Millwood IS Marquis, Garland, etc and one of those might end up being 1 year 9 million without the prospect?
“So the entire team will get injured and Omar will sign no one? OK.”
Real, this is going back to the other thread. Correct me if Im wrong, but you wrote if Minaya doesnt get a marquee player such as Holliday or Lackey, the fans shouldnt see their team as a non contender because we have 4 allstars, Santana etc etc..
I replied that we would have the same product out on the field and it will be another dissapointing season, then came your witty remark above.
As they say on ESPN - C’MON MAAAAAAAAN!
No fan could possibly feel confident in this team with small aquisitions this year and being content. I understand the chances of the same scenerio happening are not likely, but you do realize we’re still rolling the dice and HOPING Reyes doesnt turn up gimpy AGAIN, Santana doesnt feel some tightness in his elbow AGAIN (Boy I would love to see that 5 man Rot. without Santana), Beltran’s mole doesnt start aching again etc etc etc..
I remember back in June when the team starting to SLOWLY fall apart, everyone kept saying “They’ll be alright”, but some of us knew they were slowing sinking like a midget in quick sand. Come October, we’re a 70 win team LOOKING UP at Philly AND ATLANTA AND FLORIDA.
I know its been said “We need to make a splash blah blah”, naw, we need to drop freakin depth charges!
Mets fans ARE NOT HAPPY WITH THIS ORGANIZATION NOW. Wait and see how Citi Field will look in 2010 if no major improvements are made. The mystique and awe of the stadium will start die down. People will not be going to go to games. Its not a coincidence ticket sales this time of yr are down compared to other years! I’ll still root for this team til the day I sleep 6 feet under, but I wont spend a dime for these penny pinchers.
Well stated! I agree in total!
It’s negative of course you agree.
If we get a big name we are STILL rolling all of those dice and if they happen it won’t matter who we sign.
My point is Queens no matter what there will be improvements made. I hope it’s a big name but it may not be and if it is not if they sign league average guys to go along with our core we will still be competitive. Maybe not enough to overtake the Phillies but competitive in the WC race IMO.
PENNY PINCHERS? As they say on ESPN - C’MON MAAAAAAAAN!
Penny pinchers, yes. We are a big market team from NEW YORK. We spent the money on Santana, Beltran,etc. Yes, I agree, but we’re not the Royals for crying out loud. We have a new stadium, our own network etc etc etc… Im very realistic. I dont expect them to sign BOTH Holliday and Lackey, but if we come away the offseason without EITHER of thos two…… I personally will stand outside Citi Field on game nights with a sign that says “METS FANS, HAVE YOU NO PRIDE!”
So what if those players just don’t want to come to NY? What if Holliday goes to the Yankees for 7/140 or Lackey to the Angels for 6/108 should we over bid just to make a splash?
How can a team that spends the 2nd most in baseball be penny pinchers?
FYI- Reports have come out that Holliday would like to play in NY. (Sorry, dont have the reference off hand). Going back to last yr, I was behind the Mets 100% for not going over board for Lowe. He was a good player, thinking he was a great player.
IMO, Holliday and Lackey are great players in what they could provide for this club. I highly doubt the asking price would be so ridiculous that the Mets would have to turn away, but I think with the state this organization has been in the last 3 years, sometimes you gotta spend a little more. HAVE A WINNING MENTALITY FOR CHRISTS SAKE. As much as a hate the Yankees, they are not content with losing!
That is my point on the penny pinching. They always go after the big names and usually get one of them. The sometimes you have to spend a little more shows with the fact that they have spent the most of any NL team and have spent more than they did the year before every year since 2006.
The fact that they spent the most in the NL should not be a shock. They are a New York based team.
BTW, New York is a baseball town.
Yeah, but the Wilpons are going to let Omar block his own sex scenes….
LOL! I know karate!
So lets carry this out a little further. Armageddon happens and Omar does not do what he always does by bringing in a big name. He knows that he has to improve the team because it may be do or die for him. Don’t you think there would be some trades happening? OK 2nd Armageddon happens and the trades don’t happen. Don’t you think that he goes out and gets the best players out of the B group he can, most likely on shorter terms? Reyes, Castillo, Wright, Beltran, Frenchy, LaRoche, Cameron, Molina is not sexy at all. Johan, Marquis, Garland, Maine/Perez is not sexy at all. Krod, Gonzalez, …. is not sexy at all (although slightly).
However, even those average player pickups to me makes us competitive in the NL. If you feel other wise then so be it. Panic away and call the team that spends the most money in the NL every year penny pinchers.
I’d be very happy w/ your non-sexy team, except for Marquis, he’s a mood killer
Agreed. If we can just substitute someone more sexually exciting than Marquis in there I like that starting roster.
I don’t really see the difference between Marquis and Garland.
Me either and would be happy with either in the back-end of the rotation if it’s only 1 year.
I suggested some possible differences last night, since it was a lot of hard work I will be happy to go find it again and I will copy and paste it below in full width.
Has Anna Benson learned to pitch yet?
how about Sheets and one of your innings eaters?
No, sir, I am not Chicken Little. I’ve just had my eyes open the last few yrs. Those are not BAD lineups at all, but not enough to contend with the Phils. We’ll be fighting for scaps with the Braves and Fish IMO.
So Armageddon happens (not likely) and that is the road Omar is forced to take. Even then you don’t think we would compete for the WC?
Thats the point, competing for the WC is not good enough. And thats HOPING that lineup you presented stays in tact throughout the season. (not likely) This team needs to put a a WS caliber team, and have WC as the second option, not a WC team or bust.
what’s a realistic WS caliber lineup?
That WS caliber team taht you are talking about may not stay in tact throughout the season either. Again it does not matter what one player we bring in if Reyes and Beltran get injured again or if Santana is not healthy. Sorry. They would not be in the WC hunt or WS hunt.
Thus while we all want the best damn team in the league, if that does not happen for next year because again of Armageddon then we will still be competitive. I keep going back to that Armageddon word, that is almost at this point what it would take for the Mets not to get a big name so lets just settle down and wait before we panic and start the same old tired penny pinching idea.
Reyes, Castillo, Wright, Beltran, Frenchy, LaRoche, Cameron, Molina
Rollins, Vicky, Utley, Howard, Werth, Ibanez, Polanco, Ruiz
Looks comparable.
Really
by whom?
Ray Charles?
as a whole, I like it. The Phils have slight advantages w/ Werth and Ibanez. Howard hits more HRs but I wouldn’t say he’s better than Beltran.
Similar:
Reyes and Rollins
Castillo and Polanco
Wright and Utley
YOu’ll get more SB from Vicky than Cameron, but Beltran makes up for that and I’ll take Molina over Ruiz.
No way are Reyes and Rollins similar IF Reyes is healthy. Rollins has been terrible.
I didn’t want to offend fongy by saying that a Met could be better than a Phillie
the team was doing fine until Beltran went down. After that Wright tried to hit HR at every at bat.
the team isn’t much different than the Opening Day team last year that was supposed to win it all, unless you really think all those injuries will happen again.
We do NEED a decent SPer, preferably Lackey, but otherwise we should be good. Improving LF and 1B and even 2B would be great, but even without that, the team should be competitive not disappointing.
Thursday, July 2nd 1 game back.
Already spent plenty of days with injuries even to that point. Had played poorly in terms of baseball fundamentals and were 1 game out in July.
Agreed.
9-18 in June and still only 1 game back on July 2nd.
May 25 no Reyes no Delgado.
I get the point of referring back to key dates and the standings on those dates, and to some degree I agree with the point, but I think it’s also worth noting a few things.
On July 1, when the Mets were 1 game back, they were also in 3rd place behind Philly and Florida who were tied for 1st. The Braves were in 4th place, but 1 game behind the Mets.
The Yankees were 3 games out in 2nd place.
The White Sox were 2.5 games out in 2nd place.
The Rangers were 1 game out in 2nd place.
Cincinnati was 2 games out in 3rd place.
Houston was 3.5 out in 5th place.
Point being, there were a lot of teams that were not so-called ‘contenders’ who were contending at that same point. Just because the Mets were that close on July 2nd doesn’t really mean that much.
It means that they were competitive up until the injuries. Keep in mind before the injuries we had just came off the best May in team history.
Understood. But what does being competitive until July really get you?
Also, you noted “despite lack of fundamentals.” I submit that this lack of fundamentals would be more evident in the standings after 162 games as opposed to after the 78 games prior to July 2nd.
You are most likely right about the lack of fundamentals.
However, how do we know that the Mets would not have been competitive all year without the injuries? All we know is that they were competitive before them. Think about this they finished up May 28-21 for the year. All they would have to play the rest of the year to win the WC was another 8 games over .500 the next 113 games. I would think that was possible to say the least.
We don’t know either way, but I don’t feel as strongly as you do that the team could have gone 8 over for that period given the poor fundys.
I just feel one can’t simply point at the standings of 7/2/09 and say “see, this team is good!”
As a supporting argument along with many other key points, I can see it.
As a stand alone it doesn’t cut it for me.
I can’t say that it does say we were GOOD, I can say it say we were competitive. I can say that without a doubt in my mind I feel we play at least .500 ball from that point out which you are right would not have gotten it done.
Good points.
Pitching, pitching, pitching. I still prefer Lackey and if that’s all we get, along with a decent corner OF, then I feel we can compete, or at least be right there come mid season and see if we can pick up a glaring need then by trade deadline.
Breaking news from MetsBlog: MC says that Rick Ankiel has “zero interest in pitching in New York City”
LOL, I thought you were joking and well… there it is.
Pretty funny!
Wonder if Matt the Magnificent knows Ankiel doesn’t pitch anymore??
Frankly, I am shocked he spelled Ankiel correctly…
He DID misspell Ankiel!!
Oh my lord, this is by far his most pathetic idiotic error–it is not a misprint, as he jokes about Ankiel throwing wild pitches!
I cannot believe I used to respect this idiotic, mediocre HACK.
Now!now!,
He’s just tryin’to scam…err…
make a living.
Have you read his ‘Policy on Comments’? All I could think when reading that was just ‘wow’.
I peruse many baseball blogs and that is the only one I’ve come across with this auditioning nonsense.
And to go on and say you could be permanently banned for being boring with no warning nor appeal?
Someone has him convinced his ego deserves to be that big…..
It is precisely for things like this that I no longer visit his site. I hoped to literally never go there again after our defection last May. I have had a few weak moments and clicked on it, but less than 5 times since May and none since September.
His concern with page views over comments made me vow not to contribute to his page views. I understand we all have different thoughts and opinions on him and his work and I respect that this is a free country and that you all have free will, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say I feel a small amount of disappointment every time one of us mentions having visited there, because in doing so we are giving him what he wants and supporting his page view versus comment thesis.
“the team was doing fine until Beltran went down. After that Wright tried to hit HR at every at bat.”
Beltran missed have the season to a serious injury, he didnt sit out a few games because of the flu. The chances of him hitting the DL again this yr ARE VERY LIKELY given the type of injury he had. We saw what happened to Reyes when he thought he could play. On top of that, Reyes dealt with MULTIPLE injuries. Again, VERY LIKELY HE’LL GET HURT AGAIN.
So with that if it is so likely that Beltran and Reyes will go down how much would Lackey or Holliday help anyway? If that is the case PUNT.
Holliday and Wright protecting each other wouldnt mean the other would have to go deep every ab, as you pointed out with Wright last yr.
Yup and still if Reyes and Beltran were both out would not make a damn bit of difference in my mind.
*Case pointed that out.
Was David Wright trying to hit homers every time up beginning
opening day? ’cause he if I remember
correctly he had 1or2 in April,same
with May. That statement by our Mgr the other night on the MLB network
was just another case of Mets Mgmt
Jive!…Nothing new with this crew!
not sure what ur talking about. I was joking that David tried to overcompensate for being the last man standing by trying to hit a HR at every at bat, thus the many strikeouts.
Nope I think Wright was hurt by the idea of going the opposite way too much and not pulling the ball. Taught by none other than Jerry Manuel with his hitting drill that stressed not pulling the ball.
However I would have taken Wright’s May regardless of HR:
.378 .479 .561 1.040
Jerry the Joker’s hitting drill very possibly greatly improved Beltran’s game, while greatly diminishing Wright’s.
Regarding the above discussion about not seeing differences between Garland and Marquis, here is what I posted late last night (OK, very early this morning) on that topic:
I’d take Garland over Marquis because Garland relies a bit less on GB outs than Marquis, and because Garland walks slightly fewer batters per nine than Marquis, because Garland is the more reliable of the two over their careers to take the mound every 5th day, and because Garland’s career second half numbers are only a small bit worse than his career first half numbers, showing that he is more consistent over the course of a full season and doesn’t fall off a cliff in the second half like Marquis.
Both Marquis and Garland benefit from high run support throughout their careers, though Garland has only led his league in it once and Marquis has twice, but both of them have never been below 35th in their respective league in run support since 2004.
Garland’s career has been mostly in the AL where his ERA is 4.47, it is 4.01 in the NL for a 4.42 overall.
Marquis has spent his entire career in the NL which has no DH yet his career ERA is 4.48.
I think those are some valid reasons to choose Garland over Marquis if the financial and year commitments are close.
Also, by the metric tOPS+ September is the 2nd best month for Garland over his career (June his best). September is the worst month of Marquis’ career (May his best).
Given how this era of Mets, when good, has failed to reach the playoffs on the last day of the season twice, I would prefer to rely on Garland to help keep the ship afloat or put it over the top, as oppposed to Marquis.
Thanks for re-posting this, Grave.
While appreciate the differences, I think they are essentially splitting hairs. Those who do not like Marquis (and I am among those who would settle for him at the bottom of the rotation, certainly not a supporter) don’t like him because of Low K rates and a poor K/BB ratio. Yet, Garland is only marginally better in those categories but still not good.
The same reasoning applies not to like either of them.
Last, I view Marquis groundball rates as a positive (even with Luis) because while fly balls and line drives may not leave Citifield, they may find vast exapnses of green on which to land. Also, half of their games will be played in other stadiums, including Coors and CBP. I think his increased reliance on GB negates his inability to reach the K somewhat.
Needless to say, neither of these guys are optimal.
I agree both that neither are optimal and that I’m basically splitting hairs on most of the numbers.
I do worry about Castillo, I also published last night and will re-post below a list of Marquis’ 2B defense received throughout his career, not as a comparison to Garland but just as a worry about Marquis with Castillo at 2B.
Perhaps the one thing that I think is a bit (just a bit) more than a hair split is the ERA thing. I feel that considering that Garland has been primarily an AL pitcher while Marquis has been exclusively an NL pitcher, yet they have virtually the same career ERA must mean something, but to be honest I don’t know what it means or how much it means it.
I thought the ERA difference might be explained by home run rates (figuring that Chicago and Colorado wouldn’t help Marquis) but they’re identical at 1.1.
Are we taking bets on who that second offer to a FA was Omar made? Apparently, Molina was one of the two offers the Mets made to FAs.
Please, let it be Lackey.
And hey, so MC was at the winter meetings? Just noticed a quote of his ‘Omar Minaya on Budget post:
‘…one other thing, it is amazing to me how much more comfortable and coherent omar is when talking to, say, ESPN or MLB Home Plate, etc., and not addressing his home-town reporters… i have no idea what that means, but it must mean something…’
I’m betting Moises Alou
OR
Julio Franco, they’re still
Free Agents……….No?
I am guessing he is basing that on comments reported and his inside man. LOL.
As for my guess on who it is 4D? I am guessing Marquis for now.
I am guessing it was to Rod Barajas or Miguel Olivo. Wasn’t it a few years ago that Omar extended simultaneous similar offers to Bengie Molina and Ramon Hernandez with the hope of signing the first one to accept? Neither did promptly and he traded for LoDuca as I recall.
So it seems plausible to me that Omar is employing the same strategy now. Let’s hope neither accept and he trades for Gerald Laird.
We can only hope.
Well dang…
What is the point anyway with the widespread knowledge on the Molina offer but the top secrecy on the second FA offer?
I wonder…..
looks like Omar is getting ready to low ball the crap out of Bay. I personally dont care which one they get as long as we got a LF that can hit for power.
I just hope that once that signing is over they dont settle for less in the rotation…
Wanny,
if you’re still around this thread, here are some highlights (the whole thing was really long and somewhat vitriolic so I’ll spare you most of that) of what I learned about the starting 2B who played behind Marquis starting with 2004.
If the Mets replace Castillo with a positive defender I’m much more amenable to Marquis. Unfortunately even Omar Minaya admitted today that is unlikely.
His 2B since 2004:
2009 Clint Barmes, UZR/150 7.5
2008 Mark DeRosa, minus 15.9 (coincidence that this is his lowest win total year? I think not).
2007 Mark DeRosa, minus 1.3
2006 Aaron Miles, 2.9
2005 Mark Grudzielanek, 9.9
2004 Tony Womack, 4.9
Last year Castillo’s was minus 12.0, so I can only hope the 2010 Mets score as many runs for Marquis as the 2008 Cubs did (when they led the league in run support for him yet he managed only 11 wins, his lowest total since 2004, perhaps because of bad 2B defense), or that Castillo re-discovers his range.
Interesting.
He has definitely benefitted from good defense at 2B in his career.
No doubt (as I said in another thread recently) that if the Mets are going to get non K guys like Lowe, Garland, Pineiro, etc. they’ll need to improve the defense.
That goes for the outfield too… we’ve seen how hard Pelfrey is hit when his sinker is not on.