The Mets and Blue Jays have come to terms on a swap of players that has some people worrying about the future of the Mets. After all… the Mets traded a bevy of prospects for Johan Santana. The Mets, you will recall, traded: Carlos Gomez, Phillip Humber, Deolis Guerra and Kevin Mulvey for the Cy Young winning lefty who was going to be the Ace of their staff. Critics of the Dickey trade point out that the prospects haven’t really come to haunt the Mets in recent years but I think these critics are not looking at all the information.
The four prospects that the Mets traded for Johan Santana were not elite. Nobody in baseball considered them elite. The Mets didn’t let go of their top prospects (Mike Pelfrey and Fernando Martinez) they let go of a lead-off hitter who couldn’t get on base, starting pitchers who never factored above the #3 spot in the rotation and a distant prospect who showed promise but was too young to tell. At the time people thought that the Met offer wasn’t even the best offer the Twins got, but that is behind us.
I would also point out that Carlos Gomez hit 19 HRs and stole 37 bases in 2012 and that Humber has shown flashes of being a very useful pitcher at a few points. Neither player will haunt the Mets for all time, but I’d take the pair over Santana’s bloated contract in a heartbeat… today.
Travis D’Arnaud and Noah Syndergaard are not Carlos Gomez and Phillip Humber. D’Arnaud is Toronto’s top prospect (their Zack Wheeler) and Noah Syndergaard was their #3 (or Brandon Nimmo). Prospects are always a gamble but consider that the Mets got a haul that in many ways is superior to the best the Twins were ever offered for Santana.
Travis D’Arnaud
Bats: Right, Throws: Right
HT: 6’2” WT: 195 lbs
Drafted by the Phillies in the 1st round of the 2007 draft (37th overall). D’Arnaud has played 6 seasons in the minors since then, steadily rising up the ranks from the Gulf Coast, to the New York Penn, to the Sally, Florida State, Eastern and Pacific Coast Leagues. He’s shown a better bat throughout his career than many Met prospects I could name but let us do a little comparison:
Player A: .341/.441/.619, 18 HRs, 57 RBIs, 91 Games
Player B: .333/.380/.595, 16 HRs, 52 RBIs, 67 Games
Player B you should recognize from the 811 posts that list D’Arnaud’s numbers from 2012. Player A is none other than David Wright, who split time in 2004 between AA and AAA. I’m not saying that D’Arnaud is the next Wright or that the success is comparable (The PCL is hardly as tough to hit in as the IL) but the point should be made that D’Arnaud is a different kind of prospect. In some ways because he’s already ready to contribute to the major league squad.
Noah Syndergaard
Bats: Left, Throws: Right
HT: 6’5”, WT: 200 lbs
Drafted in the 1st round of the 2010 draft by the Toronto Blue Jays (38th overall). Syndergaard has played three seasons in the minors: starting in the gulf coast league, graduating to the Appalachian League and then to Midwest League after 18 innings in the Northwest League. He’s a solid prospect but let’s do a little comparison.
Player A: 2.60 ERA, 103.2 IP, 1.080 WHIP, 10.6 K/9, 2.7 BB/9
Player B: 3.52 ERA, 115 IP, 1.322 WHIP, 10.1 K/9, 4.1 BB/9
Player A is Noah Syndergaard at 19 in full season A. Player B is Zack Wheeler at 21 in High A. Am I saying that Syndergaard is better than Wheeler? NO! I’m saying that he’s on the same basic track (given his age) to eventually compete as a #1 pitcher. By 2016 you could be looking at a Met rotation of Wheeler, Harvey, Syndergaard.
This all assumes that these PROSPECTS are going to succeed to the same degree in the majors that they have in the minors. The point is that this is not the same deal as we made with the Twins for Johan Santana. This is more than I thought we’d get from the Blue Jays and I think it’s enough that we will be happy come 2014.
Cliff Lee to Phils(09)- for Carlos Carrasco, Jason Donald, Lou Marson, jason Knapp
Donald,Knapp gone. Carrasco, Marson fringe players
Cliff Lee to Mariners(10)- for JC Ramirez, Phillippe Aumont, Tyson Gilles.
Aumont now a reliever, rest still in minors.
Cliff Lee to Tex(10)- for Mark Lowe,Justin Smoak,Blake Beaven,Josh Leuke, Matt Lawson
Smoak hasn’t put it together. Beaven has been average. Leuke traded. Lawson in the minors still and Lowe was an established player already.
CC Sathathia to MIL(08)- for Matt LaPorta, Michael Brantley, Zack Johnson and Rob Byrson
LaPorta/Brantly are borderline starters, Johnson traded for PTBNL, Bryson still in minors
And Of Course Santana to Mets, which we all know about.
The constant i see in all these Cy Young player trades? Not one impact player. In fact, none are even average players that would start on a good playoff team. I really really hope Alderson can buck that trend.
In reference to the trades, aren’t all of them basically rentals (i.e.: Lee/CC only under short term obligations)?
Toronto only makes this trade if Dickey is going to be theirs for the next three years. Anything else, the Mets don’t even net D’Arnaud. It makes the comparisons to whatever Lee/CC returned pretty meaningless.
The Santana trade is the best comparison on the one hand. On the other the value of the prospects is much in the Met’s favor between the two.
Actually the first Cliff Lee deal was a 1.5 year rental, and they basically have nothing but a few minor parts from that trade. And Like David said, the Mets trade is the best comparison, and that was a complete disaster for the Twins. But even though some part part time rentals, it’s still significant that it hasn’t produced even one quality major league player.
But Alderson did slightly buck the trend by asking for more quality than quantity
Prospects are a gamble but part of sports is daring the unknown.
It’s convenient to list “Cy Young” trades but it also leaves out star pitchers like Zack Grenike and Roy Halladay – who both returned good prospect hauls for the clubs that dealt the pitcher. James Shields should fit in this category, too.
I think you have to look at the CW at the times these veteran for prospect deals were made. No one was saying the Twins made out when they dealt Santana. Compare that to Buster Olney’s tweet about the Dickey deal and it’s two entirely different scenarios.
Agreed. Even if you looked at the Met’s top 10 prospect list from the time of the deal you would note that the Twins just didn’t get the QUALITY that the Mets SEEM to have gotten.
Damn. I knew there were more Cy Young players traded, but i was short on time this morning and only Lee and Sabathia came to my mind.
Greinke to MIL(10)- for Alcides Escobar, Lorenzo Cain, Jeremy Jeffress, Jake Odorizzi.
This is one is tough to anaylze because Betencourt was also traded with Greinke and Odorizzi was packaged for Shields. Escobar has been an average SS at best, but the verdict remains to be seen for all three that remain.
Hallady to Phils(10) for Travis D’arnoud, Kyle Drabek, and Michael Taylor*
An even tougher one to anaylze considering that they are trading one of these guys back for another Cy Young winner! And also, the 3rd piece they had was flipped twice, and I’m not sure whether to give any credit which comes out of that to this trade. Taylor immediately was flipped for Wallace, and a couple months later was flipped for Gose. So basically it turned out to be Halladay for -another chance at a Cy Young pitcher(but cheaper), Gose, and Drabek.
Jake Peavy to White Sox(09)- for Clayton Richard, Aaron Poreda, Adam Russell, Dexter Carter.
Richards is a slightly below average pitcher. Has ERA’s under 4, but pitches in Petco, and so his ERA+ has never been above 100. Sorta like a Mike Pelfrey. Poreda/Dexter never played much for the Padres, and Russell was barely used for two years, then traded to TB in a package for Bartlett. Another major bust.
And it’s too early to anaylze Greinke to LAA and Shields to KC.
I’m just trying to illustrate the odds of D’arnord or Syneegard becoming even Above Average players is slim, let alone becoming stars.
Its apples and oranges. There’s no way to cmpare in a meaningful way with other trades or how this MLB star v prospects things plays itself out. The reality is that SA made it clear this team in on a 3+ year trajectory now. So be it.A lot can happen in those years, and lets just hope that at least one or two pan out to make the show and do well enough. We need to stop thinking about these prospects as what we vision as pros. In any event, with enough Mets now call Rogers Center home, we can adopt the Jays and hope they pound the crap out of the AL East and everyone else.
The difference between “all-in” (Anthopolous) and “wait-n-see” (Alderson) is pretty staggering.
Blue Jays 2012: 73-89
Mets 2012: 74-88
The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is (always) just around the corner.
There’s other difference though, too.
The Blue Jays were able to trade prospects and take on salary, two things that the Mets couldn’t do. And the key piece of information is that the Yankees are no longer using their financial advantage and the Red Sox are in a mini rebuild, too. The AL East is more open now than it has been in a decade. The Blue Jays saw an opening and took it. I don’t think the NL East is in a similar place.
I just wanted to add this in … Alderson has been a whipping boy for letting Reyes go without getting anything in return. In the last two trades, he accomplished what few people thought he could get. He was, after all, painted into a corner on Beltran and it seemed as if teams were getting their aces/top pitching resolved away from Dickey.
If you want to play poker well, you have to show that you are willing to stand pat with your hand … and lose a couple hands. Alderson lost on Jose, but he outbluffed everyone on RA Dickey and got realistically more than anyone has a right to believe he should have gotten. He picked up the 2013 difference maker, and a high end quality prospect … and that was after several teams basically resolved their needs away from the Mets. The same thing happened with Beltran. There was little hope that Wheeler could be wrestled away for a few weeks of Carlos.
Alderson got great value on the day the trades were made and there’s no debating that. How it turns out is anyone’s guess. But as a GM he’s certainly done his job and from where I sit, he’s been as good as anyone not named Cashen for the Mets.
You’re pretty right that Alderson has brought good value back in the prospect trades he has done. But because of his “I must win every trade” attitude, i think that has prevented us from making some deals (during this trading deadline) that could have been beneficial to the team.
And on the Reyes part, I wrote this a couple days ago. Wanted to mention it again.
Not that i want to spark another debate about Reyes, but some tidbits.
He was injured from July3-18, so that was a major factor in him not being traded.
From after the injury to the trading deadline, he only hit .206
Mets were thinking they could get a first round compensation pick, so any trade would have to bring back some greater than they could have got in the draft.
Reyes had a chance for the batting title
And the Mets were still 2 games above .500, so they had fringe playoff hopes.
Even in hindsight, i don’t think that not trading him was a obvious mistake.
Thanks for the reminder and yes Reyes definitely would of been a question mark at the time of the deadline in regards to his value. So let’s look ahead and see what Sandy has in store for us. I’m still optimistic about the future of the franchise even if the Wilpons are here to stay. But do you think the Mets are at the moment working behind the scenes for a shot at Michael Bourn? They have room in their payroll if they were to back load his contract since Johan Santana and his 25 million comes off the books next year. It would go a long way towards solving the problems with the outfield and lead off spot.
The only thing is that this isnt poker and the stakes are a lot higher. He is paid not to lose hands. Reyes should have been moved for return more than the pittance we got. Anyone could have gotten more, and it is clear they had no plans to reup his contract so the waiting game got nothing. Yes, we let a 100M$ premium player walk for zero. Im not buying it. Beltran has gone on to a great post Mets run. The idea we won that deal is still a year off before we can even asses it. I couldnt care less what “few people” believe. Both the Giants and Jays were/are on full bore WS runs. Teams like that will pay. Also, weve seen astronomical prices for SP this year. The RA trade is a bargain for 1-3 years of likely very high-level service.
Sandy has been two faced about running the Mets. We are serious about every game, every season. We are not giving up on ’12 or ’13. None of that is true. Weve given up til ’15 and beyond. He has gone all small-town Oakland moneyball in NYC. Woo hoo. His FA picks have been a bust and he’s returned 3 prospects for MLB stars. Im hardly weak at the knees over that.
With no one left to trade, where does an outfield come from? Bull pen?
I agree with you Chris. Trading established ballplayers for prospects is a too risky business in my books. If I trade an established player for a prospect it would be because the established player is going to be lost to FA. Alderson did this for Beltran and didn’t for Reyes. He didn’t need to do it now for Dickey. 31M for three years of quality pitching is a bargain that the Mets decided not to cash in on. If Alderson really wanted to impress me he would be trading some of our one dimensional players for some more rounded players. He would be taking the money he saved in reworking some contracts and obtaining some short term FA to fill the holes. He would be evaluating his bullpen and not be overpaying for marginal or below marginal talent like Fransisco and Carassco.
+1
But the position that the Mets find themselves in now – they have to take on risk.
To me, that’s why the 2012 Draft was so disappointing. After they swung for the fences with Nimmo, Fulmer and Evans in 2011, they played it safe last year. Nimmo could be a bust. Or he could be their first five-tool player since David Wright. The last thing the Mets need now is to add low-risk, low-reward players. Don’t we have enough of those on the roster already?
I worry that you are holding prospects to an unfair standard. Established players can fail, too. We have to look no further than last year’s return for Angel Pagan for proof of that. The difference here is that if d’Arnaud and Syndergaard hit their ceiling, we’ll be thrilled. If Torres and Ramirez hit their ceilings last year – there’s still a good chance we wouldn’t have wanted either one back in 2013.
Chris … not totally interested in whether or not you think the Mets got a good return on Beltran or RA. Bottom line is that the rest of organized baseball thinks that he did get great value. The Rays got pretty much the same thing (some might say a little less) than what the Mets got for basically the same thing. I have no idea what you think eight weeks of Carlos Beltran is worth, but major league baseball was stunned that the Giants gave up Wheeler.
And there are absolutely no guarentees with players with ML talent, for that matter. What the Giants got out of Beltran – when they were still in the race – was a pitiful slash line. They got next to nothing, and gave up the crown jewel of their minor league system. We’ve given up a 38 year old pitcher with an injury history, who’s likely upside is 7-9 WAR over his contract. It won’t be known for awhile, but there is every likelihood that D’Arnaud alone will give us 9 WAR over his first four years … at $500,000 a year in salary.
Finally, you want Alderson to want to win every game … and so he held onto Reyes for as long as he could, trying to keep a good squad on the field. The tide turned against him, he couldn’t help the injury report and Jose’s subsequent slump. So there he is at the trade deadline, with everyone is sports knowing he has absolutely no leverage. Just what the heck did you want him to do … manufacture demand? So he took his first round pick, let Reyes walk and we’ll have to hope on Fullmer to make it worth our while. I daresay the chump change that was being offered didn’t match a 1st round pick. And because Alderson had the brass balls then, he got Wheeler and this group.
This is Oakland. We are living in a post-Madoff Mets world, and some of the ramifications of that come up during trades … when other teams know Alderson has not a single leg to stand on. Understand some context.
they didnt get fullmer for losing reyes. that was the year before.
and they didnt get a first round pick, they got a comp sandwich pick (Kevin Plawecki – low ceiling nothing special) and florida’s SECOND round pick (Matthew Reynolds low ceiling nothing special).
so alderson made his screw up even worse by only ending up with these 2 guys as the reyes comp. and then to top it off, they dont even sign their OWN 2nd round pick. and the cherry on the screw up cake was taking Gavin Cecchini 1st round with much higher upside guys available
there is no way to spin it, alderson f*cked up the whole reyes thing as BAD as he possible could
Fulmer was a compensation pick for losing Pedro Feliciano.
you only change the placeholders; not the argument. I was mistaken on who we got for Reyes, but the substance of my opinion isn’t changed by which draft picks we got.
In point of fact, because Reyes went to Miami, we wound up with higher picks … isn’t that so? Plawecki/Reynolds turn out to be blank bullets, I don’t see how that matters either. From the point of June you don’t know what will be out there.
At the time all you can do is ask yourself if there was a better alternative. Reyes was INJURED before the trade deadline, and came back horribly. Do you think for a minute that Alderson kept Reyes on the team for no particular reason? You are going to have to come up with some defined offers that he turned down … because I don’t know of any.
The only way you can argue that he screwed up would have been by having Alderson trade Reyes at the start of the year. In that scenario, “Name”/”Chris”/you would have been all over him for punting the season. It wasn’t a choice. He had to go forward as far as he could.
If you want to say that Alderson can’t draft that is a whole other basket of goods. Should he take Joey Gallo? Maybe, seems that way today.
I live by making the best decision I can, based on the information at hand at the moment and not reliving it. If you want beat up on Alderson because Reyes got injured just in front of the draft deadline, then comes back less than perfect … be my guest.
Wrong on that front. I was plenty happy with Reyes’ departure and, knowing what e know now, would have traded him long before the deadline.
The Mets had a plan (well, its always shaky with Alderson at the helm), and that plan did not include Reyes. That being true, he should have been spun off.
My main complaint is that I believe SA uses double speak and misdirection to obfuscate and diffuse blame from his actions. I do not believe he handled the Reyes and Dickey situations, in particular, with much grace. (different from the outcome, though I disagreed with that too as a separate affair). In both cases he had no intention to retain either player and dragged both through the mud, which created a lot of disenfranchisement with the fan base, the very same fan base that pays the bills.
I was listening to a conversation that ex-Mets GM, Jim Duquette and Mike Ferrin had this morning that pertains to this case specifically. Both were disturbed that people were commented that a trade for prospects can only be judged after the prospects pan out one way or another. Both felt that the trade needed to be estimated at the moment it occurs. I completely reject that notion. Wheeler has not thrown a pitch in the ML yet. So far, the value of that trade is unknown. As we have seen so often, the quality pieces that stock the far in exchange for all stars mostly is a flop (who did we let go of for Santana?). Alderson can be labeled as brilliant for this move, and I hope that in fact turns out to be true, but for now, its a script unwritten and that cannot be judged IMO.
I agree I am all for it! We need to do something to get this team going in the right dcoeitirn. I don’t mind seeing a good pitching duel , but if we are not pitching well anyway we might as well try to boost our offense!
As a quick clarification. I do not want him to win every game (well, I do, but thats not where you are heading here) — that is what comes out of HIS mouth. We are not giving up on ’12 we are not giving up on ’13…those are his words, quite to the opposite of reality. He might s well just say it REBUILD. It would provide clarity and a path every fan understands, even if it sucks. And lets be clear, Plewicky is hardly reasonable compensation for Reyes.
one last thing … on your approximating the situation AA was in at the end of 2012, to the situation that SA was in.
One of them was operating from a position of a full pocketbook, a team with some major league talent, and fairly loaded farm system. The other one needed to pair back his payroll, had only limited talent on the ML talent because some key components regressed over a two year period (notably Bay, Duda, Davis) instead of improved, and a farm system that hadn’t come all the way through. AA may well find himself in a similar situation in a year or two, pending the health of Johnson, Bautista and Dickey.
Well that’s the way the cookie crumbles Chris. Bay didn’t come here and hit 35 HR a year. Duda pretty much stunk, Davis regressed and Santana’s contract ate up roster space. We are in a bad place, and I for one have no problem with burning down a 74 win team in the effort to find a new core.
It’s debatable whether Davis regressed or was just playing “hurt”. Look at his 1st and 2nd half stats.
I’ve heard many people say Valley Fever is very debilitating and some people were surprised that Davis was even able to play because it can sap away all your energy.
Hopefully we can see what he will bring to the table being injury free in 2013.
Here’s what Sandy is really talking about after you cut out all the crap.
“Just a couple of quick, preliminary thoughts: First of all, I want to apologize for all of the members of the media for not being available for communication over the last several days
But, as you can imagine, this was a delicate process, and continued to be right up until the deal was approved by Major League Baseball. As a consequence, the less communication, the better.”
-When we want to communicate with the public, our go to guy is Ken Davidoff. Screw the the rest of you.
“Secondly, I want to express my thanks and the thanks of the entire organization to R.A. Dickey. It was an extraordinary privilege for us to be a part of his career over the last three years – in my case, the last two. And, the final chapter has not been written. But it has been an extraordinary career arcing from disappointment to jubilation with the Cy Young Award. We all appreciate what he’s done for us. We will all be following him closely as a Blue Jay and rooting him to further success. R.A. has been great throughout this process. We had a chance to talk about an hour ago. As I said, it’s been a real honor to be associated with him.”
-I’m so glad we got rid of this diva.
“As far as the players we’ve acquired, we are very happy to have the four players we did acquire. This was a complicated deal, but we’re certainly happy with the value. Lastly, I want to say thank you to Josh Thole and Mike Nickeas, both of whom will be departing the Mets organization. They have been great teammates and parts of the organization for a long period of time.”
-I can’t believe i fooled the Jays into hauling our trash while we take their jewels!
“I think if we had gotten to the point where he would have agreed to our number, he would have signed, and in the absence of the discussion about a possible trade, I don’t think we would have felt comfortable about a trade after he agreed”
-We had no intention of signing him so we pretended we did by lowballing him an offer we knew he wouldn’t sign.
“He understood where the market was, we understood where the market was going. At that point, we understood and he understood we had to find out what his value might be in the market.”
-He knew that he was a goner, and when he tried to make me look bad, i whooped his sorry ass.
“I’d prefer not to comment on the way the actual negotiations actually proceeded specifically. We got to the point before the Winter Meetings where we thought there would be significant interest in R.A.. We felt that it was important to at least pursue that to see where it might take us. But otherwise, I really can’t comment on the discussions we had with R.A. and his agent.”
-Fuck off. I don’t even need to be talking with you scums.
“In addition, there’s a lot of time between now and when we report to Spring Training. So we do expect to do some other things. We do expect to acquire some other players. We recognize we have some holes to fill, we may have created a hole in our rotation that we need to address. But we will address those – we certainly are not punting on 2013.”
-The thrift store is too pricey for us. We plan to outfit our team by robbing the homeless.
““Yeah. If you look at R.A.’s salary going to Toronto, we took Buck back. They acquired Josh Thole. There’s a little bit of a wash. perhaps there’s some money we’ve added that would be disposable on our part. We have much of the same flexibility now that we had before the trade. We’ve filled a catching spot – or at least substituted it somewhat in. And we’ve created another spot. But we still have some payroll flexibility, yes.”
-Even though RA is gone, we’re still going to count him on our 2013 payroll. The rest of the remaining payroll will go to my Christmas bonus.
“There were some medical issues that had to be addressed, and obviously the window had to be put in place. I would say the players were probably finalized in the middle of last week.”
-We had to rig Dickey’s medical records so the Jays wouldn’t find out about his history.
“As is often the case, teams will drop in and drop out of these conversations. And so there were several teams that had expressed interest at the Winter Meetings. There were a couple that continued to express interest after the Winter Meetings. There was at least one club that expressed new interest after the Winter Meetings. Those conversations went back and forth, and teams popped up and disappeared. Toronto, though, was steady in their interest. I would say the decision to trade R.A. was not made until we understood what the final deal would be with Toronto. Before that time, we made it clear we had other options. Not to Toronto but to other clubs. One of those options was for R.A. to return to New York. So, we didn’t commit to make the trade until we were absolutely satisfied the return would warrant a trade.”
-I can’t believe we fooled Toronto into thinking that there were other clubs talking to us. We were able get them to bid vs themselves!
“This means nothing about the Mets’ finances, Tyler. This was a baseball decision.”
-I didn’t want to pay this guy an extra $5 million.
“some point, the lines crossed. We did prefer to sign him at the outset. We felt we could sign him. I still felt confident we could sign him as we got into the WInter Meetings. But it also became clear, against the backdrop of a very hot market for pitching, that his value and a possible trade was also skyrocketing.”
-I almost suckered him into signing for a pair of shoes. But he was being ungrateful, and demanded shirt AND shoes.
“His value in trade to us exceeded our ability to keep him here over a one, or possibly two or three year period.”
-That’s $30 million more going into my daily bonus!
“So, this didn’t have anything to do with finances, or anything else related to R.A. or R.A.’s conduct or anything of that sort.”
-He deserves what he got for trying to mess with me.
“He, as far as I’m concerned, conducted himself exceptionally well throughout this process. There’s always going to be hiccups that occur on one side or another. And yet, that had nothing do with our ultimate decision. It was about our future, and our ability to acquire some players in areas where we had a real need”
-Like i said, don’t freaking with mess with me.
“There were several made that he could have accepted, yes.”
-At some point, i offered him shoes and a t-shirt, but that ungrateful SOB wouldn’t accept anything less than a long-sleeved shirt.
“R.A. was a very popular player. I’m sure he would have been very popular next year here. I’m sure he’ll be very popular in Toronto. And, for good reason.”
-The fans should be paying attention to Me. ME ME ME ME ME!
“On the other hand, our popularity as a team, our popularity among fans, and our attendance will be a function of winning and losing, and winning and losing consistently over time. And so those are the kinds of things we have to take into account. We want the team to be popular because it’s successful. I’m hopeful that in the coming years our overall popularity will be more of a function of our success than individuals.”
-I want to be the star of the team.
“But look, I recognize this is an entertainment business. It was great to have R.A. here. And yet, we felt that in the best interest of the organization, and the long-term popularity of the team that this was the right thing to do.”
-And any player who tries to steal my spotlight will be gone.
“First, with regard to the starting pitching, I would expect we will acquire someone who is not necessarily a swing man, but somebody to whom we will have to commit a starting role. It’s possible we will end up with someone who can swing, but if we are to get anyone with any basic quality, we will probably have to commit.”
-Get ready for another year of Miguel Batista.
“We now have a starting pitching opening and we can attract the type of pitcher we hope can get us ten or 12 wins.”
-I’m talking about 10-12 wins for the Entire Pitching staff.
“Just having Jenrry Mejia or someone else fill in doesn’t mean we will have the sufficient depth to get us through the season”
-Oh. Livian Hernandez will also be back.
“We don’t expect to duplicate R.A. Dickey – that’s not going to happen. But, at the same time, we will be looking for somebody who is looking for a good opportunity, but somebody with some upside.”
-We won’t sign anyone who might turn into a diva.
“I expect we will be – we have been addressing the outfield situation. We’ve been talking to other clubs and talking to free agents. The same is true with the bullpen. Our discussion with catchers have been on hold for the last four or five deals, pending this deal. Of course, we couldn’t really talk to a starting pitcher about a possible role for us until this was resolved as well. But look, as I said, there’s a long time between now and the beginning of February, and there are still some good players on the board.”
-I’m a freaking genius. Any one you who question me will suffer the wrath of Alderson and Davidoff.
Name that was one of the most entertaining pieces I have read. congratulations!
Name, name, name…the next step in the grieving process begins with your post. I have finally laughed for the first time in days. Thanks.
The sad thing, is that its closer to true than fantasy is my guess.
Bravo!