This Day In Mets Infamy With Rusty The Case For Chris Carter Edition 01-29-10
Posted by rustyjr on 10:13am, Friday January 29th 2010
Last night I watched Kevin Burkhardt’s interview with Omar Minaya and needless to say I came away with it being unimpressed. I found Omar to be in spin mode , parroting the company line on everything from him having total autonomy “, why the starting rotation has not been upgraded and my favorite - why Gary Matthews Jr. will be a capable replacement for the injured Carlos Beltran. There is one thing that I liked that Omar said , which was about giving the younger players a chance - which is something that the Mets have failed to do for the past few season, with the exception of Mike Pelfrey Nick Evans and Daniel Murphy. I would love to see Josh Thole, Ike Davis and Jonathan Niese make the team this season, but I feel that aside from Niese who is still rehabbing from a hamstring injury, they should spend the entire year at AAA Buffalo to gain more experience and seasoning. But this is what frustrates me about Omar and the Mets is the fact that here we have Chris Carter, who has been a proven power threat his entire minor league career, and should be allowed to compete for the platoon spot at first base or as a reserve outfielder, and what do they do? The sign Fernado Tatis ! Don’t get me wrong , I have much love for Fernando - but lets call a spade a spade here. He is on the wrong side of thirty, he was a double play threat for the majority of last season, and he is a better reserve outfielder, back up third-baseman that first baseman. I feel that if given a chance, Carter could prove to be a pleasant surprise in a lineup that sans Beltran is starved for power ( yes we got Jason Bay , but who will protect him in the lineup ?) plus he would be that home run threat coming off the bench that we are looking for. I feel that if Carter shows that he can play in the big leagues he can be flipped next off-season for a pitcher, or whatever hole that needs to be filled since Ike Davis is expected to be penciled in at first in ‘11. But as usual the Mets in my opinion didn’t try to work outside of the box and Carter’s will languish yet another season in the minors . Give the kid a chance !!!
’” Hey Omar - Not only is a he a 10 at 2 A.M, But he can play first base too !!”
And with that said … ON WITH THE INFAMY !!!
I would like to wish utility infielder for the ‘78 - ‘79 campaign - Sergio Ferrer (1951) a very Happy Birthday. Ferrer is one of the few players to be involved in direct trades between the Mets and the New York Yankees. His tenure was short and far from illustrious , batting a combined .225 in two season for the Mets.
Outfielder from the ‘96 team - Kevin Roberson is 42 (1968) . Does anyone remember Kevin ? Because I sure as hell do not !!
New York Mets signed outfielder, free agent ( and Yankee scum!) Shane Spencer on January 29, 2004. Shane will forever be known for brawling (along with his partner in Yankee crime Karim Garcia) with a Port St. Luicie pizza deliver-man after the days workouts had ended.
And don’t forget while you are trying to figure out what strategy the Mets are using this hot stove season - Don’t forget there are only 66 days until the Mets open the 2010 season against the Florida Marlins at Citi Field.
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by the way guys On this date two years ago, the Mets and Twins agreed to a five player deal sending two-time Cy Young Award winner Johan Santana to New York. The Mets and Santana had a 72-hour window to finalize a contract extension, and the two sides eventually agreed to a six-year, $137.5MM contract to make the trade official. Santana has given the Mets over 400 innings of 2.78 ERA ball, while just one of the four players the Twins received in the deal is still with the organization - thanks for the heads up by mlbtr.com for the heads up - johan signed 2 years ago tomorrow
Johan is The Man.
holy cow rusty
you’ve got to update the day in infamy
The Santana deal may be the biggest trade this organization does for quite a while.
I’ll admit it, I have a man crush on Johan.
I want to be BFFs with Santana.
Excuse me while I go put on my Santana jersey.
yeah but the deal wasnt completed until 2 years ago tomorrow - so tomorrow it will be posted lol
tease
YOU KNOW IT !
me too… i like johan very much.. i wish i can spend time with him… on the field… at my house.. at his house.. on the couch.. in the bed… oh wait….
uhhh - are you the cable guy or andy dick?
Sergio Ferrer, oh man, what a name from the deeply buried past!
Yeah, I agree about Carter, and if he tears it up this spring, he probably has to make the team.
Cora, Tatis, Matthews/Pagan, Carter. And when Beltran comes back, whoever is producing least between Matthews and Carter goes.
see kong i can be positive lol
Im with you in that i didnt want to see tatis back but i dont think carter stood a chance. From what ive been told he doesnt have a good glove and he is a lefty…we already have daniel murphy lol. Carter should work on his OF skills in AAA imo
like i said earlier - why trade for him then? salary relief? we coulda got 2 prospects along with the 9 million we shed off his contract
I think the Mets really wanted him for last year. Then when the Yankees pulled their c*** I mean waiver block move on Carter, the Mets were faced with either keep Wagner or trade him anyway.
We can (and have) debate the merits of that, but I imagine that’s the choice they had and they took the get rid of him and not have to risk his arb-dollar fueled return to the club option.
I agree with carter needing to get a look. But, being lefty didn’t help him cause as a platoon option.
But, there is still an opening on the bench for a BU corner OF/1B type, and a lefty power hitter. So, they certainly have room for him.
I personally think Tatis was fine to sign at his price, but as a PH, 3B, MI jack of all trades type. And not as a semi-regular (platoon) 1B.
I also have been trumpeting open competition in ST. If Carter proves to be the best 1B option, then let him have the job over Murphy.
ANd from how Omar seemed to gush over Davis (unless it is a smokescreen set up for SD!), then it is just a temporary job anyway!
seeing omar gush over any of our prospects makes me nervous lol
At this point I have to agree about giving the youguns a chance. We didn’t get the pieces I wanted to see this off season and we’re bascially going to war with what we have - at least come opening day. Might as well see what some of these guys can do.
Last night listening to Omar one thing really stood out for me. He is really, really excited about Ike Davis. Not sure if that’s hype on his part or if he really believes it. From everything I’ve been reading on Davis I got the impression the talent is there but not quite sure how it will translate yet. I’m really hoping he does. Saw an interview on Mets.com with Davis. He strikes me as a well grounded and mature young man for his age. Sounds like he’s serious, has a plan and it’s all about improving every year from the last.
At least we have something to look forward to in a couple of years between him and one or two of the young pitchers down there.
i have to believe his father when he says he is mlb ready - even though he is biased - i’d stay away from ed whitsons kid though lol
LOL !
I think at this point, the Mets have no choice but to give theses young players a chance.
I’ve tried explaining my frustration w/ the IFs, not as well as I’d like. Here’s my last try:
We have some truly great players in Jose, David, Beltran, Bay, Santana and K-Rod. There’s only a small handful of teams that have that much talent on one team.
I want to give them the best opportunity to win it all. To do that I’d try to surround them with mostly ML proven role players. Not great players, but guys you know you can depend on. Then I’d throw in a few young guys with upside and older vets who can still chip in once in a while and provide leadership and experience.
The Mets are missing the dependable role players. We have the stars, the young guys with upside and the older vets. But who are the teams dependable role players?
Without the role players we are exposing our young guys and older vets and asking them to do more than we should. Last years rash of injuries is an example of this.
So while I support the teams’ players. I can’t support the decision makers who are not giving the team the best chances to win.
im with you case - i believe only one part of rosenthals ego inducing tirade - that being of the structure of the mets f.o - steve phillips said this many times that there are too many opinions that are being listened to and omar is in actuality a figurehead - but they did get to the 06 nlcs with that organizational structure - so they will keep doing this until there are no fans in the ball park and it looks like ‘79 all over again - thats what happened in ‘04
I completely agree. If Omar really wanted to reduce the IFs, especially coming off injury-filled season, the answer should have been solid dependable guys like Garland, like Molina, like LaRoche… I was actually against signing some of these guys, but given what they got paid (with 1 year contracts), there’s no doubt these guys would have reduces a lot more IFs.
Agreed. And very well said.
i agree btw how is the first lady of trdmb today?
I’m hanging in there - hope you are too.
Just trying to stay warm in this 19 degree weather. I’m ready for spring, ready for opening day, ready for some NY Met baseball!
Perhaps our youth can turn in to those role players the same way Werth, Happ, Blanton and Vicki did.
I’m hoping Frenchy can be like Werth and Pagan like Vicki and Santos like Ruiz and Maine like Blanton.
I agree with what you say here Case. The Mets used to have solid role players, such as Cliff Floyd or Paul LoDuca. But Floyd got old and brittle, and LoDuca got old and started betting a lot of money on horses and dating high school girls. Since those guys I can’t off the top of my head come up with the solid role players the team has actually had.
Now they have ‘ifs’ and I guess they decided to roll one more time with their own ifs. Not exciting, sexy or laden with guarantees but oh what a happy story ‘if’ it works out.
well, at this point, isn’t Frenchy in that role palyer catagory? And I guess Castillo, has to be put there also.
seems to be more of an issue on the pitching side, although it would be helpful to list the current expected roster, and catagorize them all!
Well I think you help me make my point because I consider Floyd and LoDuca more viable consistent producers in those roles than Castillo or Francoeur.
Castillo I will even give “consistent” to but it’s a very papery consistency. Frenchy is either high or low, no in between, and to be a useful role player I prefer more consistency. He still has time to provide that, I think he just turned 26, which is why I don’t get how strongly some people believe he is already what he’s going to be forever. I understand their doubt, but not the firmness of their conviction. I’m not talking to you Darknova, I’m mostly talking to the AA people.
yeah, nothing like a nasty drunk arguing sports….
a joke. Get it?
lol
Cameron (2/15), LaRoche (1/4.5), Garland (1/4.7), and Molina (1/4.5).
That’s $21M in solid role players and $15M for Bay. That would’ve drastically changed the way the team looks and probably made us serious contenders with the Phils.
And if mid-season, we need one move to put us over the top, we make a trade to solidify the rotation for the post season or replace someone that is out for the season.
I don’t think either of Carter or Murphy have extreme L/R splits historically so a platoon shouldn’t be necessary.
Carter has done nothing but hit in his minor league career. If he can hit in the majors like he hit in the minors, we’ll deal with his defensive shortcomings much as we have in the past with guys like Piazza, Teufel, Hojo and Delgado.
my point exactly - thankyou !
Who the hell was Kevin Robeson?????
played about 20 games in ‘98 also played for the cubs in the mid ’90’s - dont remember him though - but i do remember d.j. dozer lol
anyone else see the Baseball Prospectus prediction? I’m amazed by it…
I’m ok with them picking the mets for 4th… but I still feel they can be better, but the Marlins are last and the Nats are third…. VERY interesting
That’s the fun of ML baseball. On paper doesn’t often translate to how the season plays out. Case in point - didn’t SI pick the Mets to win the WS last year? And how did that pan out????
That’s the only way you can explain how fans of such teams as the Pirates keep coming back year after year. I’m sure every fan base has high hopes going into the season.
S.I AND HEYMAN WERE OUT TO JINX US !! BEWARE OF THE CURSE !!!
Hey, we pretty much have the same team coming back, so ….