Did you guys not watch this team last year after Valentin went out for the year? Gotay played almost every day and played very well. What else does he have to do?

I guess you are saying then that Gotay's percieved weakness against righties is the same then as Church's perceived weakness against lefties. And it is not a preception to me that Gotay can't play multiple positions. To me, it is a fact.

It is not my attitude, it is the level of player the Mets have in their system that is the problem. The Mets have developed very little talent over the yrs, especailly position player talent. You can name the AS on a few fingers. If you can name 25 Gotays, I would be surprsied. I don't even think they have that many of the so-so bench types over the yrs. Besides, Gotay was not a Met who was developed from w/in.

It is also precieved that Gotay was left out b/c of Tatis when in fact he was left out b/c of Anderson. If Anderson was not on the team then, Gotay would be filling Anderson's role.

Tatis is on the team b/c Alou is hurt and the Mets can't be sure that Pagan can do an adequate job against lefties either (not that they can be sure that Tatis can do it either).

For somebody who complains alot about how the Mets will do poorly against lefties, having Gotay would not help the situation. Nor is having Pagan there probably going to help either.

You complain about the situational hitting, then turn around and say they should keep a guy that can't help them in those situations.

One could argue pretty strongly that Mets can trade away alot of their young talent b/c my biggest issue w/Omar is that he does not have a good track record of evaluating young unproven talent (at the draft level).

The Mets farm right now is something like 28th out of 30. Even before the Twins trade, it was in the bottom third I believe.

Therefore, all the concerns people have w/these young players being traded should not be a concern b/c Mets don't have a good track record now (or just about ever in their 45+yrs) of developing young talent.

Yes, you can point to guys here and there. But, when you get down to it, the AS produced, the MVPs (none), the CYs, the HOF (1), are a very short list. And most of the players of these levels have come from outside the org.

I'm not saying this it is good to trade away young guys. It would be great if there were more DW, JR, or at least some more Heilman's.

But Mets just don't seem to be able to do this. Eventually it will come back to hurt them and they will go back into one of their down turns in their historical up and down cycles. You can't have poor player dev and be a consistent winner (unless you spend 1B/5yrs-Yankees).

You could even argue that getting rid of Keppinger was a dumb move too. Dude is starting for the Reds right now. He is EXACTLY what this team needs. RH bat, plays all IF positions.

My entire point is that Gotay can't be any worse than Marlon, Tatis, etc… but he does have some potential upside.

In fact, Bobby Cox stated the same in a statement about the pickup-good hitting LH; will use him against righties. It is quite possible that he would not have been picked up by Braves if Infante was not hurt. When Infante is available, maybe Gotay is gone, maybe not.

If Anderson was not on the team, Gotay would be. But fact is GMs and managers have their favorites and guys they don't like or are indifferent about. Willie likes Marlon. Marlon=Gotay, Gotay=bye bye.

Note from rubin in NY DN, "Ruben Gotay was claimed off waivers by the Braves, who needed a substitute for infielder Omar Infante (broken hand). The Mets dumped Gotay, likely in favor of Fernando Tatis, because the switch-hitting Gotay was inferior batting righty and had little range at shortstop."

It does not appear he was picked up as a replacement for someone who played poorly but b/c Braves lost a guy to injury.

Your other post is correct. You do always need extra pitching, but we, the New York Mets fans and franchise do not having any of that commodity to pass around.

I will say good, but send hi to Binghamton so you can go watch him.

Certainly hope Omar is looking at him. I expec that he is looking for an upgrade still, whether he will admit it or not, and hopefully that is the one.

The way things shook out, not getting Mench is looking like a worse idea all the time!

The cubs are ACTIVELY trying to trade him. Meaning they dont care about leverage…read the chicago sports papers or even the cubs website, there are multiple quotes from big Lou and Jim Hendry saying they are trying to find a deal so Matt can play somewhere rather than playing at AAA because he doesnt deserve that. They dont really have a lefty in their pen, so I'd say theres something they could be looking for…otherwise, minor league depth I'm sure would be more than adequate for Hendry.