The trade deadline came and went, and the Mets ended up not landing the front-line starter that they were seeking. Of course, Randolph says the current roster is fine, and Minaya apparently is on board, because Schmidt was probably available for the right price.
At first blush, I can't criticize Minaya for not bringing in Schmidt. Not without knowing what San Fran wanted. I'll assume the price was too steep, especially based on the fact that they said they were going to have to bowled over by any offer they accepted. If the Giants asked for Milledge or Pelfrey the price was too high. If they wanted Heilman as the centerpiece of the deal, that was a trade that I would have made. Yesterday.
That was before the big news came down. Duaner Sanchez, our 8th inning stopper, is done for the year. He needs surgery on a separated shoulder, thanks to some cab driver in Miami who took his devotion to the Marlins a little to seriously. Once that news hit Minaya's desk, there was no way he could afford to trade Heilman. That, I'm sure, killed the Schmidt talks once and for all. With Heilman, Milledge and Pelfrey off the board, there were probably no pieces the Giants (or A's) really wanted.
All told, I've got to give Minaya credit. The Cameron for Nady trade, in hindsight, was a big win. It layed the foundation for this trade, which allowed us to pick up Hernandez in an absolute cinch. Another set up man was a must-have after Sanchez got hurt. Hernandez is a hard throwing veteran who, while not as dominant as Sanchez has been this year, still inspires confidence in a tight game. As dissapointed as I am that Sanchez is done for the year, it's an absolute blessing that the car wreck didn't happen 24 hrs later. The Mets would have been totally out of luck.
All told, Hernandez was a guy the Mets had to get right now. Milledge instead of Nady in the 7 or 8 slot is probably a wash in terms of numbers, but allows Lastings to get some experience. Perez is a wild card that I'm not counting on but could turn out to have some value down the road.
Minaya played it safe, which makes sense when you're up 13 games. Unless I hear he could have got Schmidt for Bannister, I've got to give the guy credit for not wasting young talent just to compete for space on the back page.
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5 comments:
Bottom line: talent pool for trading was very thin this year, which put all teams into a tough negotiating position. At most 5 good pitchers (willis, zito, schmidt, clemens, oswalt), but really no good situations like abreu where team was just looking to dump salary and would accept lesser players in return. Mets made the right move sitting tight. In any case it's going to take more than one player if the Mets really want to win the series and compete with Red Sox, White Sox, and Tigers. They need to use the players they have, and change their mentality (particularly batting) a little bit. Only Beltran, Delgado, and Wright should be looking HR, all others should simply be thinking how to get a single or double in most cases so we have runners on base when the 3-4-5 go yard.
Pitcher to watch: RICKY NOLASCO on marlins. He has awesome movement on his pitches, and has some real positive upside. I think he's going to be solid.
SHK:
Agreed. Basically, after swapping Milledge for Nady and R. Hernandez for Sanchez, we're basically treading water, in the same place we started. Given a devastating injury to a key player, I'll take it.
Frankly, I'd rather see Endy patrolling right field on a daily basis than Milledge.
Come playoff time who would you rather have in the 7/8 hole? A free-swinging rookie with suspect work-ethic and questionable defensive ability or a player who has shown possibly the most smarts and ability to situationally hit on the team and has played stellar defense?
Willie has to keep Chavez in the lineup for at least fairly regular at bats to keep him sharp. Once the real tight games start he may be the most important man in the lineup...
Endy is valuable. I'll bet between platooning with Milledge and giving Floyd & Beltran off days he'll be starting 2 out of 3 games.
Endy certainly has been exciting to watch this year, particularly his outfield assists.
I think Milledge's work ethic will be fine, the biggest question is his approach at the plate. He is the perfect case-in-point I mentioned above. I'm sure he has good pop in his bat and will eventually be capable of hitting over 30 HR a year. But for now, as he gets adjusted to major league pitching, he should focus more on hitting singles and drawing walks. This is the best way he can help the team, especially with his speed. We've already seen how reyes' presence on base screws up opposing pitchers, and all but guarantees a big inning. If Milledge can give us the same threat at the bottom of the line-up, think of how devastating we could be. But it will take randolph and batting coach to sit down with him and explain how he can contribute most to Mets success this year. Before he was trying too hard to do too much, probably to prove his worth, but it was not necessary and only hurt the line-up.
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