Mets in the Morning: On tap today
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- February
- 18
Good morning from the Mets clubhouse. Very quiet around here media wise. Most of the columnists have moved on to Tampa for the Andy Pettitte Show.
Carlos Delgado is in early, so I will talk to him. Of the position players, he’s the one facing the most questions.
Was last year an off-year or something more?
This entry was posted
on Monday, February 18th, 2008 at 8:22 am by John Delcos.
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I hope Delgado's comments this off season that he was unwilling to make some adjustments or that his elbow was bothering him were the issue. Not that he can't catch up to pitches.
We'll know soon enough.
I vote that Steve C is NOT allowed to comment on this thread! :-)
Indeed, he had a horrible year but still had 24 HRs and 87 RBI and his average was only down 7 from the year before. If he does the same thing this year the rant will be that he sucks, and if Church puts up those exact numbers we'll hear the rants of how great he is!!!!!!!!!
Letsgo/Keith….Thanks for the daily entertainment!
Given the lack of free agent 1B this coming offseason (I believe Texeira will not be available) I think the Mets are stuck with Delgado so I have to hope he'll do well enough for the Mets to pick up his option. In '07 he had a terrible April (which I assign to the recent birth of his child) and a mediocre June, otherwise his '07 was good enough. If he has 4 good months this season, provided the bad ones aren't August and September, that works for me.
JD: I have a question about Schneider…He is being hailed as this "great handler of pitchers" by a few of your fellow scribes. But what does that matter if Rick Peterson is the one who calls all the pitches? At least that was the impression I was under. Did Peterson call the pitches since he has been the PC? Or did LoDuca call them for the last two years?
Gravedigger,
why would Texieria not be available? His agent is Boras. He will be a free agent. You can count on it.
Mets will have competition but they can get him if they want to.
scoopcoop, I phrased it poorly. I don't think he's going to sign an extension precisely because as you point out Boras is his agent. I do think that Atlanta will go hard to resign him even after he goes FA because A. Jones is already gone and C. Jones is getting older and more brittle, and they're going to need offense from somewhere. I also think Baltimore (his hometown) is going to be in play and should have lots of money considering their current roster. Boras generally takes the best offer and I think ulitmately it will come from Baltimore. I also think that the Mets are up close to the luxury tax and will be faced with losing Oliver Perez, Pedro Martinez and Orlando Hernandez. SP will be more of a FA priority than 1B.
For kicks here is the 2009 FA 1B list: (asterisk = option)
Rich Aurilia SF
Ben Broussard TEX
Carlos Delgado * NYM
Nomar Garciaparra LAD
Jason Giambi * NYY
Wes Helms PHI
Kevin Millar BAL
Richie Sexson SEA
Mark Teixeira ATL
Frank Thomas * TOR
Jim Thome CWS
Daryle Ward CHC
"If he does the same thing this year the rant will be that he sucks, and if Church puts up those exact numbers we’ll hear the rants of how great he is!!!!!!!!!"
Haha, ok Sloppy, I have to hand it to you, that made me laugh out loud, literally. But you know it's all about expectations. To get that kind of production from Church, our 7 hitter, would be fantastic. That same production from Delgado, our 5/6 hitter, while still solid, would be a slight disappointment.
And one more thing (since I can't help myself), those numbers would be pretty impressive from Church because 1) as a 7 hitter he would not be getting quite as many ABs and 2) jumping off the preceding point, RBI is a context heavy stat, and since Church would not have the luxury of hitting behind OBP machines like Reyes, Castillo, Wright, and Beltran, one would assume his RBI opportunities would be less than Delgado's.
Also, my two cents on 1b in 2009:
If FMart is ready for LF and Church proves he can handle RF, I would be all for an all out push for Tex, since we would be getting pretty cheap production from LF, RF, 3B, and SS.
However, if not, I would pick up Delgado's option (if he plays well), give him another season to see if Carp of this new kid develops into anything. If not, hit the FA market in 2010.
Ok Keith, I'm glad I made you laugh but I don't see Church being the 7 hitter. When Alou goes down he'll be 6th most of the year. Valentin hit 18 homers in much less than a year batting 8th, remember? Plus I expect Church to have plenty of guys on base because when Alou is not hurt he'll be getting lots of walks or hits in front of him. And I expect Alou to hit hit 6th because I don't think Willie will like Delgado/Church/Scneider in a row, do you, especially in bullpen time.
"Valentin hit 18 homers in much less than a year batting 8th, remember?"
Right, but 18 homers from the 8 hitter is not typical in the NL.
"And I expect Alou to hit hit 6th because I don’t think Willie will like Delgado/Church/Scneider in a row, do you, especially in bullpen time."
This is an excellent point that I haven't had time to consider and drives home how crucial Alou's health is. If he goes down, the Mets are going to be VERY LH heavy and susceptible to LH coming out of the pen. I wonder if Alou going down would lead to more playing time for Castro in the interest of balancing the lineup some.
Re Church: Don't hate the playa…hate the trAda….(even if he did get us Johan)
Here's an angle on the Church discussion I haven't seen explored.
There are two ways you can view the trade. Either Minaya's opinion of Milledge plummeted, so he dealt him before his stock plunged. Or, perhaps Minaya thought very highly of Church and saw an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone, so he parted with Milledge to acquire him.
My point? How come no one is looking at this deal as: "hey, there might be something more to this Church guy since we dealt Milledge for him?"
Keith To answer your question why nobody is looking at the Church guy is because he's 29 and not 25 or so. I think Mionaya never wanted Milledge. The last first round pick of the hated Steve Phillips.