I apologize if I insinuated that I thought Inge could be a regular 1B. His bat is certainly subpar for the position. What’s odd is for a guy who so desperately wants to start, the position where he would definitely land a starting gig, catcher, he wants no part of on a regular basis. From what my friend tells me, he has no issues catching every so often, but he doesn’t want to do it full time.

But as for the bat, I have to disagree. Over the last 3 years, Marlon hit .290 with an .825 OPS vs. righthanders and Easley hit .309 with a .936 OPS vs. lefthanders. Over the same time period, Inge hit .282 with an .828 OPS vs. lefthanders and .242 with a .712 OPS vs. righthanders. So Marlon-Easley have him beat.

But there’s another issue. You wouldn’t trade for Inge unless you intended to eventually make him a full-time player. Because he makes $6 million this year. And you don’t pay bench players $6 million. So if you give him the first base job in 2009, that’s giving up a lot of production for that position for a guy who will be 31 next year. Why can’t we at least audition Carp, Evans and Murphy for first for next year? Call them up in September—and sooner if there is a need. Let them duke it out in spring training. Then give the winner the job and send the other two to AAA. If the winner looks lost and it’s late May, then call up one of the two others from AAA. Or scour the trade market then. But don’t take on Inge who will only block first base for a potentially better hitting first baseman from our farm system.

And let’s not make 1B out to be CF or C. Miguel Cabrera moved over to first this week. Pujols did it. Bench did it. Plenty of players have done it. Piazza couldn’t do it because he’s not a good athlete. If Ryan Howard can “play” 1B, I’m sure Inge could.

Yeah, but you’re going by Easley and Anderson’s career stats. They’re not exactly spring chickens. Plus, I still maintain I would rather have Inge playing in the event one of our bench guys needs to see extended time in the field than Easley or Anderson.

Love and kisses
W, Keith, Bob, JK, and of course Delcos!

PS: There was a lot to read while my boss was sleeping so if I missed any of myselves please tell me so I can add me to the closing…...

You don’t think the Mets make all these calculations to stay under the limit every year?

So I bet we all foreseen the Johan salary amount and length too right? (Talking about before the trade)

Plus who cares? It’s their money.

I just don’t see Inge as a good fit for this club as presently constituted.

And of course some of us value solid ballplayers. Both Church and Schneider are solid and are a good fit for the Mets right now. The issue is Inge fitting in. I don’t see a fit with the Mets. Both in terms of salary structure and need.

As for the poster comment, can’t you take a little joke? I didn’t call you any names or insult your intelligence which happens frequently around here.

I’ll tell you, no one on this site values solid ballplayers. Church has to be Ted Williams. Since Gotay wasn’t Utley he was expendable. I mean, come on, not everyone is an all star, or needs to be an all star, to provide value to a team.

And no, I do not have a poster of Inge on my wall. I just thought I would give a well thought out and thorough explanation of why I would trade Heilman for Inge. Sorry, it won’t happen again. From now on I’ll make sure my posts are short, choppy, and staccato like, filled with tangents that have little to do with my point.

On the other hand Clark is older than Endy, so it would be more efficient to milk the older cow if you know what I mean. (This is also with completely disregard for the Righty lefty fielding and batting situation).

There are not many ways Minaya could improve this team. Realistically, the lineup is totally set. Alou, Delgado, and Castillo are not going anywhere. The only way to improve this team is to improve the bench. This way, when Alou and Delgado need to take a seat, the team will be inserting a better player into the starting lineup.

While you may not think highly of Inge, I think he is an improvement over both Easley and Anderson. And if for some reason we needed to have a bench player get any kind of extended playing time, I would rather see Inge in there than the other two.

Inge would really solidify the team, and here’s why. He can play everywhere, literally. The last few years he has been the Tigers starting 3B (the year they made the series he was their starting 3B) and played a great CF filling in for Granderson to start the year. He played a little short in spring training while the Tigers were showcasing him and Leyland has stated that he plays a very good SS. And after the way Easley played SS, I would welcome the upgrade. He’s also played some LF in his career and with his arm, I am sure he could play RF. Additionally, he came up as a catcher, and played there in the spring as well, so he would allow for greater flexibility with Schneider and (eventually) Castro, since you would essentially have a 3rd catcher on the roster. Lastly, he pitched in college (not that I would ever advocate using him as a pitcher, that would be ridiculous… just want to show what kind of athlete this guy is.) So yeah, I think he could handle 1B. I mean, if Tatis, Easley, and Marlon can all handle it, I think a guy who plays solid to spectacular defense all over the diamond can handle it.

As for playing time, I envision him getting 3-4 starts per week. You could just slide him around the diamond. However, I mostly see him playing a lot of LF and 1B, giving Alou and Delgado days off to help keep them healthy and effective. If I were Willie, I would also use him in CF to give Beltran a day every other week or so… the guy is coming off two knee surgeries. Then, you could have him spell Wright, Reyes, and catcher maybe once a month. Lastly, even though Church is hitting lefties right now, and even though I do think he will essentially be ok against lefties, it wouldn’t hurt to have another RH bat off the bench to give Church a rest against a tough LH.

Then, the bench would set up like this: Pagan would be the 4th OF. Easley and Anderson would be the main RH/LH pinch hitters (and backup 2B). Castro/Cassanova would be the backup catcher and Inge would be your main backup who would come into the game during double switches and get a few starts per week to give the starters a rest and the first guy to be inserted into the starting lineup if a starter went on the DL.

Inge may be a fringe or barely league average starter, but as a super-sub in the NL he would have a lot of value. Especially for a team with some older players and guys coming off surgey who would benefit from more consistent time off.

So that’s my case for Inge. In short, I feel like he would be a significant upgrade to the bench, giving us a truly versatile player who plays great defense at multiple positions and a RH bat.