Lo Duca signs with Washington …
-
- December
- 10
Paul Lo Duca agreed to a one-year deal with Washington because there wasn’t any other alternative. GM Omar Minaya said the Mets might have entertained one year and possibly two, but insists Lo Duca came out of the gate wanting three.
That wasn’t going to happen, so the Mets looked elsewhere.
Personally, at 35, I don’t think the Mets were really that hot for Lo Duca for even one year. If they wanted him back, it would have happened.
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on Monday, December 10th, 2007 at 5:32 pm by John Delcos.
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Manny’s Mets Men
Flores
Milledge
LoDuca
NEXT???
Sloppy: Pelfrey for Jon Rauch. Book it. ;-)
It will be a calm mature Nats clubhouse in 2008 with Milledge, Dukes and LoDuca.
Kind of surprising many catchers are signed to shorter contracts than middle relievers.
At least he won’t be with strangers – if only he could have learned to stop arguing with the umpires…......
LoDuca either overvalued himself or overplayed his hand that The Mets would need him for the 3-4 yrs it was reported he wanted.
Case in point is that he could only find a couple of suitors for his services and they only wanted to give him 1 yr.
I not enamored w/guys who have grit and only grit. He couldn’t throw anymore. He was breaking down. And his offense was dropping off too.
I’d bet by mid-season that Flores is the primary guy.
Oh well.
The chips fall where they will.
Even with Paulies off year. I would have offered him 1 yr when no one wanted him; kept Lastings and gone out and got an OF more productive than what we seemed to receive.
You could always go get someone later most likely cheaper in midseason ( perhaps even Torrealba ) and kept all 3 young OF to let them get better and become better chips if that is what you want them for.
Not that I really care. LoDuca’s days are numbered. Stats don’t lie. Catchers take a beating.
We still need pitching and Omar knows this.
sloppy…
They were after Glavine too,
Valentin would fit in on that team as well.
Traschel? They’ll need some garbage starters again next year…
So essentially we have LoDuca and Milledge for Church and Schneider…
Sadly, the Nats have the better of that deal…
The new 2008 NY Mets slogan was just released…”Omar’s Time Has Come.”
This guy can’t make a trade or better his team to save his life. And he apparently can’t draft or evaluate talent.
I see I’m not alone anymore. The slogan needs a slight mod
Omar’s Time has Come…. and Gone”.
Do any of you remember a statement by Omar after he smartly overpaid for Beltran and Pedro? He said something to the affect that he isn’t overpaying anymore. Players should want to come here now. Well unfortunately, if/when players want to come here now they usually have the Bronx as a first choice since the pay is better.
There must be something off putting about Lo Duca if he can’t get more than a one year deal from any team. I’m sure performance wise he’d be an improvement over a lot of team’s catchers so there’s got to be something about him that people just don’t want to deal with.
My initial thought was that if the Mets had signed him to a 1 year deal then we wouldn’t have done the Milledge deal. But in reality I think someone ordered Minaya to trade Milledge so he would have gone in some other lousy deal.
I don’t think LoDuca is really very good. He wasn’t even that good with the Mets. He was very overrated due to a fairly high batting average in 2006. Even then he hit for very little power and his OBP was only slightly higher than his batting average. Batting average is highly dependent on luck. All a player can do is hit the ball hard. If they’re going right at people its just bad luck. I think his 2006 batting average was due to a lot of hits falling in. Last year’s .272 was more in line with his true ability. His defense is pretty poor too. He’s one of the worst at throwing out base stealers. I just think he would have been better then Torrealba or Schneider because they don’t hit at all. But it would have been foolish for any team to offer more than 2yrs. Even 2 is a bit of a stretch for his production at his age.
LoDuca’s spark was helpful to the Mets in 2006. His concern with playing through his injury last year hurt them. Multiple year contracts with catchers in their late thirties are not advisable. Even the evil empire had its doubts about re-signing Posada prior to him having his career year in 2007. It should be interesting to see if they live to regret his new contract. Ask them how they feel about Damon’s, Giambi’s, and, Pavano’s contracts about now.
To John on a different subject. Since the Hot Stove League has been luke warm at best so far this season for the Mets, how about starting a topic on the non-tender day tomorrow (Garage Sale Part Two – Rule 5 Draft was Part One) and see who people think will be available and what the Mets will go after. Do you think “The Miracle Worker”, Peterson, will want another shot at rehabbing Jorge Julio, or, some other current train wreck? It will at least amount to some interesting discussions! Personally, I am waiting for Minaya to start mentioning Julio Franco’s name as a leader and his departure as a major cause of the 2007 collapse!
why do people equate grit w/performance?
LoDuca is gritty but he is worn down and not worth 3-4 yrs at 5-7MM per. Simple as that.
I will miss Paulie. He gave everything that he had for this team and wanted to be a NY Met. That being said it is correct that he is breaking down (or at least had an off year possibly due to injury). His comments and grit also was offputting to management as it would be in any industry.
Still what bothers me about these posts and many others is the lack of the posters to remember that these ballplayers are human beings. I cannot post in such a manner. While I am glad that Tom Glavine is no longer here I am not going to sit here and call him a bum. Just a ballplayer who’s time has come and gone for the NY Mets, my team.
I look at Roger Cedeno, Kaz Matsui, and many others. Let’s face it, it wasn’t that they couldn’t handle NY. It was that they couldn’t handle the constant stream of negativity from NY fans who think that only they deserve a break in life when something goes wrong but that somehow ballplayers don’t.
I look at a place like St. Louis and how the fans back their team there. How they back the players and how bad it has to get for them to boo their team.
Unfortunately many players for the Mets that have gone on to excel on other teams have done so because they are away from the NY fans that had gotten on them in such a way that it was impossible for them to overcome a slump or anything else as a Met.
Disgusting.
clm –
so are you saying a significant portion of the fan base is a bunch of racist drunken cretins acting like 12 year olds? Um…I don’t think I can argue with that.